CATTLE STATIONS.
Cattle Stations are in demand. Here is my story = Buying, crying, and the agonizing loss
as two dreams are killed and Boorara Station sold.
BUYING AND SELLING BOORARA STATION.
ABOVE PICTURE: The road to Boorara after some light rain. My Landcruiser was equal to the task.
THE BOOK ON BOORARA WILL BE A TRILOGY:
NON-FICTION.
3 BOOKS ABOUT ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S ICONIC CATTLE STATIONS.
“BOORARA STATION.”
I will begin by assuring you that I will provide a lot of information about one of Australia’s classic cattle stations. Although there are a lot of images and photographs, this is not your typical “coffee-table” book.
Oh no, this is a buying and selling “cattle stations” book, in-depth, factual, and hard hitting.
I am not going to pull any punches. After all, it is my style to be frank, and I actually think that most readers prefer something with a bit of “edge” to it. When it comes to history or life story, the truth is usually preferred.
I consider that simple “selective selection” can amount to the most perfect example of distortion, albeit insidious in nature. It is always about the result. It is the same with cattle stations.
Here I stand on Mt Torrance named after James Wyse Torrance, one of the three men who founded the station back in 1861 CIRCA.
The next view is looking East from the Hood Range.
This was named after the original squatters Hood (JAMES AND ALEXANDER HOOD).
What you may see, in small part, in this narrow-width panorama, is the Eastern country. There are several very large paddocks down there and the bulk of this land was to be my 30,000 acre goat paddock.
CATTLE STATIONS. Here, there is water everywhere, even in a drought.
There was water in the creeks, in the channels, in the dams (called tanks on cattle stations in Queensland) in the springs, in the wells, in the soaks, deep down in the artesian bores, in the relatively shallow sub-artesian bores, and water running in over 100km of pipelines to troughs. This was a well-watered property, indeed.
Taking into account my own prejudices and idiosyncrasies I will present a balance without favouring anyone or anything.
When it comes to my own life and the history of my Boorara period, I will be honest, frank, and to the point.
For you see, Boorara was simultaneously joy and sorrow.
NOW READ ON!
CATTLE STATIONS -BOORARA.
In 3 volumes
In Volume One, we focus on two things:
1. What is Boorara?
2. The History of Boorara.
THE MAP BELOW IS AN EARLY MAP SHOWING BOORARA.
But, earlier, Boorara was much more.
In Volume Two, we focus on one thing only:
1. CATTLE STATIONS VOLUME TWO – PREPARING TO BUY BOORARA.
This details my very long journey in preparing for the thing that is to come, and that is – “Buying Boorara.”
That journey involved a six year period to gain the Bachelor of Applied Science Agriculture.
Did I know I was going ape on cattle stations?
CHARLES STUR UNIVERSITY: You see me, just moved off the stage, and you will see me holding a piece of expensive paper.
CATTLE STATIONS BOORARA.
VOLUME THREE: BUYING, OWNING, AND SELLING BOORARA.
1. You will join me as we move from early negotiation to the purchase and ultimate ownership of an iconic station.
2. You will see the joy and pain experienced during the operation of Boorara.
N. B. Especially in regard to infidelity.
3. You will discover, as I did, something terrible that compelled a decision, and of course, my decision to sell……….plus you will some level of understanding in respect to the awful pain of the whole rotten process.
CATTLE STATIONS – MORE ABOUT THE VOLUMES.
Volume One is some 1000 pages with at least 300 images. But it is not finished yet.
It is, even if I say so myself, an amazing study.
To begin, as will be seen, all of the individuals who preceded me in the ownership of Boorara were amazing people. And that goes for all of the people who were associated with the people who were the preceding owners. Here, I am talking about those people who were sheltering in the background, or those able and willing assistants who helped the main player to make it all happen.
I cannot tell you everything here, of course, but let me give you some simple clues.
- What were the names of the early pioneers, the ones who settled on Boorara Creek in the same year (1861) that Burke and Wills died at the Dig Tree on Coopers Creek?
- What do you know about a family who one day suddenly discovered that they owned a number of paintings, Old Masters, with each one of them being worth ten times what Boorara was worth?
- What was the name of the owner who owned more station property than anyone else in the world?
- Name the man who owned more sheep than anyone in the world?
- And what about the unknown man who was considered to be one of the wealthiest men in Australia. This is the man said to be the largest land owner in both NSW and Queensland? Likely, you have never heard his name.
- There is, of course, the family from Scotland who built a vast empire?
- Who were the aged uncles who stepped up to help their nephew?
- What was the name of the man who put an absolute fortune into developing Boorara?
- Who was that very decent man (head of the cattle station family) -verily one of life’s true gentlemen.
- and more…………………
VOLUME TWO – CATTLE STATIONS BOORARA.
Volume Two focuses on my preparation to buy Boorara.
You will see a 30 year journey beginning with conception – an idea.
That idea was mere thought, a simple, bucket-list, wishful-thinking kind of thing that should not have matured. It was the sort of thought that should have expired or evaporated like sweet rain on the clay pans.
It was a pipe-dream. Was it not?
It was fanciful, that thought. Huh, the mere thought of buying Boorara?
But whatever, it was a thought. It was a thought that led up to the actual purchase of Cattle Stations Extraordinaire.
Volume Two details my process of preparation, and here I hasten to explain that this preparation was not specifically aligned to the goal of a purchase of Boorara. The reason for such lack of direction was that I could not at that moment, nor for many years have begun to imagine that the dream would ever becoming a reality.
But fate has its own desires and outcomes. Over 30 years, through the ownership of three other cattle properties, a lot of relevant experience, and some self-motivated heavy reading, plus an Applied Science Degree (Agriculture) I did get myself into the position whereby I could contemplate such a purchase.
Depending on your point of view, I was either lucky, or in the alternative unlucky, because no-one else was keen to stump up to buy even the best of cattle stations. Alan had trouble selling. As did I when my turn came.
I sometimes laugh at that. What a difference perfect conditions make for some prospective purchasers: they won’t buy cattle stations but instead, rather optimistically wait until the drought has disappeared and cattle prices are sky high!
Hah! You can’t even buy one of those cattle stations now.
All gone. All sold!
Now cattle stations for sale are like hen’s teeth.
Now my own view is that if you want some cattle station you are better off to be the poor fool who actually buys one, rather than the sad soul who harkens to the idea, but goes without chewing the hard substance of one’s victory.
Either way, the itch needs to be scratched or otherwise you become irrelevant. The man with the passion who never bought a piece of the country is a sick and sorry creature indeed!
This volume will equally suit the dreamers who would love to buy a property like Boorara, as it will suit the cattle stations aficionados, those hard-nosed businessmen with a love of both cattle and money.
As for the dreamers, I did find a lot of them during my travails while going through the motions of selling Boorara.
What an amazing collection!
And yet, to be fair, I suppose that many of them were just like me. They had an itch that needed to be scratched. The difference is that they just couldn’t, or didn’t, take the opportunity to purchase their dream cattle stations.
Well then, for those of you who are yet dreamers, I say dream more, and enjoy your dream, but also find the courage to rise to action.
Fight even harder to win your dream.
Do not give up and do not look back.
For the hard-nosed buyer, I am sure that I met some of you who couldn’t make the decision to buy Boorara when it was there. You did not buy it when it was available.
You will do well to consider that, for strange reasons, the opportunity to buy Boorara existed just a few years into my ownership, but it was previously a longer period between drinks.
Boorara was 75 years in the hands of the Magrath family.
As for me, I did buy!
Yes, mate, I did buy, and while I also got around to selling, that was not my plan. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that I did buy and that my “buying” idea was good. Cattle Stations like Boorara are now worth twice the price that I paid. Weaners are now selling for double the money – Yep, those mad cows are twice the price that I was getting when I was offloading stock just a few short years ago.
Feral goats are worth a King’s ransom.
What a “ball-tearer” of an investment!
I do admit that my purchase was not based purely on financial considerations, but they did come into my thinking.
Boorara was a great investment that went wrong for me because I had to sell it at the wrong time in the wrong way.
But understand that I do not despair.
In fact, au contraire, I rejoice in that:
1. I loved thinking about buying Boorara; I thought for 30 years.
2. I loved buying Boorara. It brought me a feeling of coming home.
3. I loved being at Boorara; before and during ownership.
In the end, I am content in the knowledge that it was a hell of a ride and a heck of a good decision to buy it.
Life is about living – and there is no doubt that I lived it.
VOLUME 3 BUYING, OWNING, SELLING.
That lead me to Volume Three, which is all about Ownership.
This includes the Buying.
This also includes the ownership and operation of Boorara Cattle Station
AND finally the selling of Boorara.
MORE ABOUT VOLUME THREE
I had “Ambitious Plans.”
- I wanted to restore Boorara to its past glory. It was, and is, a magic place.
- I wanted to run a profitable cattle operation. My operation on the Darling River proved to me that I could do it.
- I wanted to trap and self-muster feral animals, mainly goats. Feral goats were a real winner.
P.S. Not only did I have a plan to do all that, but in a few short years I actually completed 75% of the plan, including a major renovation and extension of the pise homestead (almost 100% completed) and a self-mustering and trapping system (with 30 trap yards well on the way) at about 70%.
I wanted to harvest goats – I had a goat paddock plan. This was no itsy-bitsy “do it on the cheap” idea. My paddock was to be 30,000 acres.
Things worked quite well apart from some very significant stock losses. More on that in the book.
And then something horrible happened. Bad after bad.
Find out by reading the book.
P.P.S. By the way, this section has:
- An outline of my Self-Mustering and Trapping Plan.
- My Boorara Purchase Plan.
- My Boorara Development Plan.
- The Boorara Homestead Renovation and Extension Plan.
- All the details associated with the renovation and extensions of the main homestead CIRCA 1880.
- My Cattle Operation plan.
- My Sales and Marketing plan.
- After some years, I decided to market the property myself.
- I did end up selling it myself.
- I had two keen buyers as the end drew near.
And much more.
There are details of musters with helicopters, gyros, and bikes. There are stories about little picnics, big BBQs, bike riding, feral cattle, mad cows, musters with scale, and even the belt-busting, ranchero-style “put’em down and get’em aboard” kind of thing that happened back in the days of the Wild West.
Link to the Book Page
http://www.leightonclark.com.au/book
All the best,
Leighton Clark
P.S. This is currently a work in progress. Volume One – the History of Boorara will be released soon.