Mount Poole Station Explained

-29.662°N 141.796°WMount Poole Station is a pastoral lease operating as a sheep station in New South Wales.

The property is situated approximately 33km (21miles) south west of Tibooburra and 181km (112miles) north west of White Cliffs.

History

The first Europeans to venture into the area was the expedition led by Captain Charles Sturt, who arrived at the height of summer during a drought in 1845. For many months the party camped by a waterhole in a rocky basalt glen which is now known as Depot Glen, and many of the men were ill with scurvy. James Poole, Sturt's second in command, died shortly after the group broke camp and his body was buried under a Beefwood tree not far from the camp at the glen.[1] The tree was marked with Poole's initials and Sturt had his men erect a stone cairn on a nearby rise.[2]

Duncan Elphinstone McBryde became the lessee of Mount Poole in 1872. Gold was discovered near the property in 1880 and in 1883 McBryde moved to Melbourne.[3]

In 1908 the property was owned by the cattle baron Sidney Kidman, at this time it occupied an area of approximately 700km2.[4]

The station was closed in 1929 with only a few men left as care-takers following an intense drought. The few sheep remaining were being shorn in the paddocks as they were to weak to make it to the shearing shed.[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: James Poole Memorial. 2010. 17 September 2013. Monument Australia.
  2. Web site: Bulldust and boomerangs. 13 September 2008. 17 September 2013. Brisbane Times.
  3. Web site: McBryde, Duncan Elphinstone (1853–1920). 2010. 17 September 2013. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University.
  4. News: Australia's cattle king. . . Bourke, New South Wales . 9 September 1908 . 16 September 2013 . 4 . National Library of Australia.
  5. News: Outback conditions . . Broken Hill, New South Wales . 3 July 1929 . 17 September 2013 . 2 . National Library of Australia.