Station (Australian agriculture)

A cattle station in northern New South Wales
Border Collie, left, and a collie cross working sheep in Queensland
Noonkanbah woolshed, now a local community centre in Western Australia
Cattle and horses in stockyards at Victoria River Downs Station circa 1985

In Australia, a station is a large landholding used for producing livestock, predominantly cattle or sheep, that needs an extensive range of grazing land. The owner of a station is called a pastoralist or a grazier, corresponding to the North American term "rancher".

Originally station referred to the homestead – the owner's house and associated outbuildings of a pastoral property, but it now generally refers to the whole holding. Stations in Australia are on Crown land pastoral leases, and may also be known more specifically as sheep stations or cattle stations, as most are stock-specific, dependent upon the region and rainfall.[1][2]

If they are very large, they may also have a subsidiary homestead, known as an outstation.

  1. ^ Taylor, Peter (1988), Station life in Australia : pioneers and pastoralists, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-0-04-332135-5
  2. ^ "Chisholm, Alec H.". The Australian Encyclopaedia. Vol. 8. Sydney: Halstead Press. 1963. p. 275.