Samantha WESTBROOKE & Martin WESTBROOKE
Whilst the history and significance of the large pastoral holdings from Australia’s early history (such as Kinchega and Yanga in NSW) is generally well understood, assessment and identification of important examples from the later phase, following the break-up of these large holdings into small family blocks, is often neglected. This paper will provide an overview of the changes in legislation over the past 150 years which led in many cases to small homestead leases, to highlight the important role that the latter have played in our pastoral heritage. This review will use the example of Nanya and other small homestead leases established in the 1920s.
In 2004 the University of Ballarat purchased Nanya Station for the establishment of a centre for biodiversity conservation and research. Nanya Station was previously a small pastoral homestead lease established in the 1920s from the subdivision of the Scotia of far western New South Wales (once part of the vast Lake Victoria lease) into six homestead leases.
Over the past 25 years many pastoral properties (large and small) in the Australian rangelands have come under conservation management by state conservation agencies and increasingly into privately owned and managed reserves. Attitudes towards retention of pastoral landscape and infrastructure elements under these conservation management arrangements are mixed and balancing the needs of environmental conservation with retention of elements of pastoral heritage poses a new set of problems. In this paper the challenges of addressing these conflicts in a remote former pastoral site are explored with particular reference to Nanya Station. Issues to be considered include removal of pastoral and cultural elements such as ground tanks, fences and other infrastructure to achieve environmental conservation objectives and retention of historic infrastructure and technology elements which will also meet current community standards and health and safety concerns associated with visitation.