Kirkalocka

Kirkalocka Station

class=notpageimage|

Location in Western Australia

28.55663°S 117.77996°E / -28.55663; 117.77996 (Kirkalocka Station)

Banksia rosserae plants on Kirkalocka

Kirkalocka is a former sheep station in the Mid West region of Western Australia.

Location

It is located 55 kilometres (35  mi) south-south-west of Mount Magnet, 420 kilometres (260 mi) north east of Perth. The station covers approximately 100 square kilometres (25,000 acres) of leasehold land.

History

A road was cleared from Mount Magnet to Kirkalocka Station in 1911.[1]

At a meeting of the Mt Magnet Pastoralists subcommittee in 1944 at Kirkalocka they were given a demonstration of mulesing and the docking of lambs tails to prevent fly strike.[2] In 1949 Grazier Fred Broad recommend the Manchester method in preference to mulesing, having used it for 3 years on 1200 ewes at Kirkalocka with a 99% success rate and attributing the 1% failure to poor workmanship.[3][4]

Kirkalocka is now predominantly a tourism based operation and offers caravan stop-over facilities and accommodation in shearers' quarters and the old homestead.

In 2000, three previously undescribed species of shrub were collected on the station, and subsequently published as Banksia rosserae, Grevillea squiresiae and Grevillea kirkalocka. The last of these is named after Kirkalocka.

Due to proximity to mining areas, the station area was reviewed for its geological potential in 2000.[5]

Badimaya elder Ollie George grew up on the station.[6]

A dictionary preserving the Badimaya language was unveiled at Kirkalocka station in 2014.[7]

The current lessees are Jared and Blair Ridley; Kirkalocka is operating under the Crown Lease number CL440-1966 and has the Land Act number LA3114/636.

See also

• Kirkalocka Gold Mine

Notes

1. "Payne's Find". The Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette. 15 August 1911. p. 3.
2. "Pastoral Notes". Daily Telegraph And North Murchison And Pilbarra Gazette. Western Australia. 13 May 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 21 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "Manchester Method Praised By Grazier". The Farmer and Settler. Vol. XLIII, no. 51. New South Wales, Australia. 21 January 1949. p. 5. Retrieved 21 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "PREVENTION OF BLOWFLY STRIKE". Quorn Mercury. South Australia. 24 February 1949. p. 3. Retrieved 21 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
5. Mai, Gao; Kojan, C; Western Australia (2000), The geology and mineral potential of the unallocated crown land-Kirkalocka Station area, Dept. of Minerals & Energy, Land Access Branch, retrieved 21 October 2019
6. Film and Television Institute (W.A.) (2014), Indigenous Community Stories : Ollie George / produced by Taryne Laffar, Film and Television Institute (WA) Inc. and Screenwest, retrieved 21 October 2019
7. Taillier, Sarah (11 April 2014). "Aboriginal language dictionary for Badimaya people launched at Mount Magnet". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

References

• Olde, Peter M.; Marriott, Neil R. (2002). "One new Banksia and two new Grevillea species (Proteaceae: Grevilleoideae) from Western Australia". Nuytsia. 15 (1): 85–99.
• Kirkalocka in the Gazetteer of Australia online