Nilpena

Location in South Australia

31°00′43″S 138°13′41″E / 31.012°S 138.228°E / -31.012; 138.228 (Nilpena)

Nilpena Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station (formerly a sheep station) in the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

Ediacaran fossils were discovered on the station in 1985, and in 2016, two-thirds of the property was sold to the Government of South Australia, to become part of the Nilpena Ediacara National Park when proclaimed in 2021. As of May 2023^[update] the owners of the station are the Fargher family.

History

Thomas Elder and Robert Barr Smith acquired Nilpena in 1859.^[1]

William James Browne owned the property in 1879 when he had the drover Giles take 12,000 sheep from Nilpena and overland them all the way to his new properties Newcastle Waters and Delamere Stations. Only 8000 sheep survived the journey, but it was still regarded as one of the most remarkable droving feats in Australian history.^[2] Browne appointed Roderick John Matheson to manage the property, along with Arkaba Station.^[3] Matheson and John Lewis later bought Nilpena, with Matheson later buying out Lewis.

In 1925, the Old Nilpena Station was placed on the market for auction. At this time it occupied 31,404 acres (127.09 km²)^[4] and was stocked with over 3000 merino sheep. It failed to reach the reserve price of £11,750.^[5]

Matheson still owned the property in 1926, along with neighbouring Warrioota Station, which together occupied an area of 350 square miles (906 km²). He was running about 15,000 sheep across the two properties.^[6] Colin Matheson and his wife had taken over by 1931.^[7] For some time in the 1930s through to the early 1950s, both sheep and cattle were run on the property.^{[8][9][10][11]} In 1944 the property was carrying 7000 sheep.^[12]

In January 1948, Colin Matheson of "Wilpena Station, via Quorn", was critically injured in a car accident in Adelaide.^[13] In 1950, the station was run by the Nilpena Pastoral Company, whose managing director was a Mr Toll. In that year, the station received 18 months' worth of rain over three days, some 11.6 inches (295 mm). The 216,000-acre (874 km²) property had over 10,000 acres (40 km²) completely under water. Toll estimated at the time that the property would have sufficient feed guaranteed for the next two years.^[14] In 1950, the property was described as located approximately 44 kilometres (27 mi) west of Blinman and 99 kilometres (62 mi) north of Hawker in the Flinders Ranges and bounded by Lake Torrens.^[14]

Some time prior to the 1980s, Nilpena was fully converted into a cattle station, and the Fargher family acquired the property. Ross Fargher discovered a pristine Ediacaran fossil site^[15] in 1985^[16] that later became the focus of ground-breaking research, and an application being made for World Heritage listing to help protect the site.^[15][17] In 2009, the station occupied an area of 800 square kilometres (309 sq mi).^[18] In 2016, the Government of South Australia purchased two-thirds of Nilpena Station from the Fargher family, in order to enlarge Ediacara Conservation Park and to include land on which some of the valuable fossils were found.^[16]

Nilpena Ediacara National Park

In 2021 a large area was proclaimed as Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which opened in April 2023. Ross and Jane Fargher, who have been working for seven years with Jason Irving, head of the national parks program, are acting as caretakers of the fossil beds until a ranger is appointed.^[16]

In media

In 2009, the fossils and the property featured on the David Attenborough TV series First Life.^[18]