History

The land was first taken up by Paddy DeConnley in the thirties and was known as Mt Conner Station. Around 1940 Mt Conner Station, together with vacant crown land, became known as Curtin Spring Station and was leased to Abraham Andrews. The Severin family took over the lease in 1956 and still operate the station today.

In the early days, graziers took up a selection of land approximately 500 square miles. These graziers were encouraged by the Federal Government to open up the land and were assisted by a grant (now called funding) to purchase a windmill, a tank, a trough and some sheep.

At that time the selection was a 'grazing licence' and was renewable every 12 months. The graziers could not obtain a bank loan to further expand or improve their infrastructure, as there was no tenure in a grazing license. The graziers canvassed Canberra to change the leases from grazing leases to pastoral leases. Pastoral leases had a longer tenure and would allow them to obtain a loan. This application was successful. Canberra envisaged that 500 sq miles was not sufficient area to make a family living sustainable and the new pastoral leases were enlarged to approximately 1000 sq miles.

On these new pastoral leases, the Government placed a covenant, which required a number of infrastructure improvements to be abided with.

• Original Lease to be for a  53 year period.
• Three more permanent waters to be located.
• Fence to be erected between neighbours.
• A house to be constructed and of a certain value.
• All above within 10 years.

Abraham Andrews was awarded this lease and after his two sons objected to him naming the property 'Stalin Springs', after Joseph Stalin of Russia, he decided to call this new property 'Curtin Springs' after the late Honourable JOHN CURTIN who was then Prime Minister of Australia.