Boolardy facts for kids

Boolardy Station is a huge former sheep and cattle farm in Western Australia. It's located in the Mid West (Murchison) area. This remote property is about 194 kilometers (121 miles) north-east of Pindar. It is also about 200 kilometers (124 miles) west-south-west of Meekatharra.

Boolardy Station is part of the Shire of Murchison. It covers a massive area of about 3,467 square kilometers (1,339 square miles). That's bigger than some small countries! In 2009, a science group called CSIRO bought the property. They wanted to build a special Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory there. The station continued to operate as a cattle farm until around 2014.

What is Boolardy Station Like?

Boolardy Station is a very large piece of land. About 266 square kilometers (103 square miles) of it are nature reserves or public land. In 2011, a study found that most of the soil was in good shape. Only a small part of the land had signs of erosion.

The plant life, especially the long-lasting plants, was in fair condition. About 39% of the plant cover was not in very good shape. Boolardy Station was a very important farm in the Murchison area. The main house, called Boolardy Homestead, was even used as offices for the local government for many years. The western side of the station shares a border with another large farm called Wooleen Station. The old stone buildings at Boolardy Station are considered important historical sites. The National Trust of Australia (W.A.) officially recognized them in 1985.

A Look Back: Boolardy's History

Early Explorers and Settlers

In 1854, explorers Robert Austin and Kenneth Brown explored this region. They noticed the rich, grassy plains of Boolardy. They also found an important water hole called Ngatta. But people didn't fully realize how useful the area was until 1873. That's when John Perks and Edward Wittenoom explored the area further. They were looking for good land to graze sheep. The Ngatta water hole is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the main homestead.

Perks and Wittenoom then got the first lease for the land. In 1876, they brought the first cattle and sheep to a nearby spot called Nookawarra. But there wasn't enough food for their horses there. So, they moved to the Boolardy site. Over time, the lease was connected to important families like the Wittenooms and Lefroys. These included Edward and Frank Wittenoom, and Langlois Lefroy.

Farming and Wool Production

By 1912, Boolardy Station was a busy place. They expected to shear 25,000 sheep that year. They had a large shearing shed with 16 stands for the shearers. The station was known for producing high-quality wool. This wool often sold for very good prices. For example, at a wool sale in Perth in 1927, some of Boolardy's wool sold for 28½ pence per pound. This was the highest price at that sale!

Challenges and Changes

Boolardy Station has faced challenges over the years. In 1945, the station was flooded. About 8 inches (200 mm) of rain fell in just 24 hours. More than 100 miles (160 km) of fences were washed away by the water. In 2010, severe floods hit the Murchison River and Gascoyne River areas. Parts of Boolardy were underwater. The State Emergency Service even sent a helicopter to check on the people stuck at the station.

Between 2012 and early 2013, Boolardy had very little rain. This led to dust storms and not much green food for the animals. The owners at the time, Mark and Carolyn Halleen, left the area between 2013 and 2015.

Boolardy and Space: The Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

In 2009, the CSIRO bought Boolardy Station. They paid 5.42 million Australian dollars for it. Their main reason for buying it was to create the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). Even after the purchase, the previous owners continued to run the property as a cattle station for a while.

The MRO site is home to two very large radio telescope projects. These are the Murchison Widefield Array and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. These telescopes are important steps towards building an even bigger project. This project is called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA will have telescopes in two main locations. One is at Boolardy, and the other is in the Karoo area of the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. These telescopes help scientists study space by listening to radio waves from distant objects.