Oscar Range Station Homestead

Values

· The place is associated with the beginnings of settlement in the Kimberley district in 1881, as it was one of the first homestead to be constructed shortly after land was allocated to settlers.
· The place contributes to the sense of place of the Kimberley community.
· The place is associated with the Aboriginal tracker Jandamarra. · The place is associated with the conflict between Europeans and Aboriginals in the late 1800s.
· The place is representative of a collection of stone homesteads built in the Kimberley region at the turn of the century after land was allocated for pastoral use.

Physical Description

Ÿ Oscar Range Station contains the ruins of a stone homestead. Ÿ It was determined that the ruined homestead was not visable from public land. Ÿ The Oscar Range station was the site of experiments with cotton and tropical fruit growing in 1909-1910. There may be remnants of these plants remaining.

History

The First encounters between the local aboriginal population and Europeans explorers in the area surrounding Fitzroy Crossing probably occurred in 1879. At this time Alexander Forrest’s expedition had crossed the Kimberley. The expedition were living off horse meat, game and fish, and at least one horse had been lost with symptoms indicative of what would later be termed Kimberley Horse Disease. Forrest was nonetheless enthusiastic about the Fitzroy River valley and its pastoral potential. The government allocated Kimberley pastoral leases during and after 1881. The early lease applications, including those lodged by Donald MacDonald & Co. for Fossil Downs Station, were based solely on the scant information recorded by Forrest. The MacDonald brothers built a rudimentary homestead east-north-east of the Fitzroy Crossing in 1886. The other early West Kimberley stations were much nearer Derby. Some were on the Fitzroy, and James Munro and his associates had a stone homestead (now Lillmaloora Police Station ruin) on the Lennard. In 1886 thousands of prospectors travelled up the Fitzroy River track to the Halls Creek gold rush. Makeshift stores opened at the crossings on the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers but, when the short-lived rush ended, the storekeepers followed the disillusioned prospectors back to the port. The MacDonalds were then in the position that would become normal for the inland stations—they faced days of travel over rough tracks to buy any commodities they needed. In 1890 the Emanuel brothers engaged Joseph Blythe to establish Noonkanbah sheep station on land downstream from the Fitzroy Crossing. The government built a telegraph station at Blue Bush Swamp near Fossil Downs. Edwin Rose put sheep on Quanbun and John Collins put cattle and horses on Beef Acres (later known as Oscar Range Station) thus filling up the land west and north-west of the crossing. The Blythes ran stock on Brooking Creek Station, between Fossil Downs and Oscar Range Stations. Police stations opened at Fitzroy Crossing and elsewhere during this period. By 1897 the Emanuels had established Margaret Downs (Gogo) Station on the south-east side of the Fitzroy Crossing, and Hutton and Rose were ready to establish Leopold Downs Station to the north. Jubilee Downs Station also came into existence, replacing Plumb’s Plain Station, which the MacDonalds had managed for absentee owners. With wages around and big thirsts building up in the Kimberley heat, there was now money to be made from the provision of amenities. Charles Blythe opened the Crossing Inn, which later included a store, in 1897. There were various forms of resistance to settlement by Europeans enacted by Aboriginal community. For instance Gill (1974:15) notes that police stationed in the north-west during the 1890s 'frequently discharged their firearms against Aborigines in attempts to arrest and 'disperse' them and to prevent them from destroying European settlers property', and O'Brien (1960:46) states that 'spearings by nomad natives [sic] continued; in 1889 blacks [sic] attacked another station in the Roebourne district and murdered Dr Vines'. However, one of the most striking expressions of resistance can be seen by relating the following account of Jandamarra. Aboriginal people in the Kimberley today still recount vivid narratives concerning Jandamarra, also known as 'Pigeon', a member of the Bunuba language group, who challenged the authority of the colonisers by carrying out raids on sheep and cattle stock in the late 1800s. In 1894, at what was known as the Windjana Gorge Rebellion, Jandamarra was captured, along with several others, chained by the neck and taken to nearby Derby. Eventually he was released on the grounds that work assisting the police, caring for horses and tracking, was undertaken. Jandamarra's work with the police proved to be 'successful' in that the police became reliant on his skills and knowledge of the country, enabling them to track down Aboriginal people who were killing and removing stock. However, Jandamarra's time assisting the police was shortlived. For a variety of reasons, including news that police in parts of the Kimberley were carrying out unmitigated killings on Aboriginal people throughout the region, Jandamarra escaped, and retained a retreat at Windjana Gorge. Eventually, leading an attack on the Oscar Range Homestead, Jandamarra was pursued by the police and killed by Mingo Mick a 'black tracker' from Roebourne.

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Integrity- Low

Condition

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