History - Part 2

The Andrews family battled very hard. The elements and distance and the transition from sheep to cattle took its toll. The stock agents finally foreclosed and that was the end of Andrew's pastoral exploits. Peter Severin and his brother Rollo took over the pastoral lease along with the debts.

Peter, his wife Dawn and young son Ashley arrived in September 1956. The infrastructure at that time consisted of two bough sheds, a galvanised shed, a galvanised kitchen; a galvanized iron building called the bathroom and a galvanised toilet, all approximately 1km from the current homestead.

They arrived in a Vanguard and a Bedford truck ½ full of supplies and all their worldly goods. Peter stopped the car and got out. Family history says that after explaining to his young wife that this was where they were going to live, she replied, "Boy.. I have got news for you and it's all bad..". Dawn couldn't drive, but Peter made sure he took the keys out of the car.. Just in case she decided to learn!!

In their first year, they saw 6 people - two stock & station agents, two friends who needed to find out if they were still alive and two tourists. (A bit different to now.)

The current bough shed was build and became their home for 3 years. They then built a tin house and then the Stone House that was built in 1967-8. The Stone house is built from 150 ton of stone, which was all quarried from the property.

Their first load of 1500 head of cattle had just arrived, after 6 weeks from Tieyon Station (just 300km away), when the heavens opened up and an inch of rain fell. A blessing for the new pastoralists.

Unfortunately, it then didn't rain for 9 years. Peter purchased a 'SOUTHERN CROSS No 2' percussion boring plant and commenced to look for more water points. This programme resulted in many bores producing salt water or no water at all.