The Pastoral Industry. Size is Everything

The north-west corner of Australia, near the WA /NT border was the home of Victoria River Downs. While huge-mungous when first established, it wasn’t long before the original partners had to hand Victoria River Downs back to their bankers; parts of the station were sold, but it still exists today.

Largest Ranch in USA (King Ranch, Texas)	825,000 acres
Largest Station in Australia today (Anna Creek Station)	6,000,000 acres
Largest ever in Australia (Victoria River Downs)	10,255,000acres

Different sources provide different figures setting out the size of Australian properties but I think the confusion, in part, is due to the difficulties involved in converting square miles to square kilometres, but most sources have the same figures when they talk in terms of acres. Apparently, the King Ranch in Texas is about the size of Rhode Island.

 Recently, after 10 years of drought, Anna Creek was only running 3,000 head of cattle, or one beast per 2,000 acres. The number of beasts per acre held on any property will depend on the amount and type of feed available – the recommended rate for central Kansas in the U.S.A. is 1 for every 3 acres.

It had been believed, for a long time, that a great portion of Australia was wasteland and therefore unsellable, but when pastoralists started to take up the land in spite of its poor condition, the government was able to derive some income by charging for pastoral leases.