User:Karriel/Murchison House station

About

Murchison House Station is quite unique because it has 'freehold land' which is located within the pastoral lease. This is not common for leasehold land in WA which is managed by the Pastoral Lands Board.

History

Founded in 1858 Murchison House Station is one of the oldest pastoral leases or "stations" in Western Australia. It has an interesting history and there are still discoveries being made which add to the fascinating history of this little piece of Western Australia. The homestead and some of the outbuildings are heritage listed with the WA governmentThe Prince married Helen.

Murchison House Station was originally taken up by Charles Von Bibra, who bred Arab horses on the lease. In order to travel to Tasmania in 1869, Von Bibra let the property to Charles Gill. Andrew James Ogilvie later bought the property.

After his death in 1906, Murchison House Station was offered for auction on 31 January 1907. The property consisted of 99387ha of leasehold land, 36ha of freehold land and the buildings consisted of a 14 room homestead, mens quarters, blacksmith shop, stables, hay shed, chaffhouse and storeroom. Murchison House Station was purchased by Thomas Amos Drage and his brother, William John Drage. The property was managed by James Haselby from 1907 to 1924, then by Ken Maley, Fred Blood senior until 1950 and Fred Blood junior until 1965.

The property was later owned by a company of Prince Jah, the hereditary Nizam of Hyderabad. The prince married Helen Simmons (also known as Aysha) in 1980. The prince never returned to Australia

In 1996, the property was purchased by S. and A. Roscich. The current owners operate guided tours of the property and have converted the shearer's quarters into accommodation for tourists.

The graveyard at the Murchison House property contains five marked graves. One marks the resting place of a servant called Nathaniel Horsefeld who died in October 1859. The grave stone was erected by his master and fellow servants. Another commemorates a Perth born Aboriginal man named Mike who died in 1862. Mike was a servant of Von Bibra. The grave of Mr Ogilvie, a former owner of the Murchison House property who died in 1906, is located alongside those of the pilot (R. N. Fawcett) and mechanic (Edward Broad) involved in the inaugural airmail flight from Geraldton to Derby. The plane crashed on 5 December 1921 while attempting to land on the property. Chronology Entries 1839 The Murchison River was named by Lt George Grey in honour of Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical Society. 05/12/1921 The inaugural flight of Major Norman Brearley's West Australian Airways service between Geraldton and Derby ended in a crash near Murchison House killing the pilot and engineer.

In 2017 a Browning Machine Gun was discovered on the station near "Bully Pool"

Location

Murchison House Station is located a short 15 minute drive east of Kalbarri in Western Australia along the Ajana road. The station is approximately 350,000 acres and is bordered by the Indian ocean on the West, the Murchison river and Kalbarri National Park to the south and East and another station to the north. With some 28 kilometres of coastline, the station has a wide range of different landscapes from sand dunes to cliffs, rocky outcrops and river floodplain.

The station was founded in 1858, and has had an interesting history, including once being owned by an Indian Prince – Prince Mukrramm Jah, the 8th Nizam of Hyderabad. The current owners have gone the way of ecotourism, offering tours, camping an 4WD access. At other times it still operates cattle and goat farming. new article content ...