Curtin Springs

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Curtin Springs
Fuel pumps and pub at Curtin Springs Station
Location within Northern Territory
Former names	Mount Conner Station
General information
Type	Cattle station
Location	Petermann, Northern Territory, Australia[1]
Address	Lasseter Highway
Coordinates	25°18′S 131°45′E / 25.300°S 131.750°E / -25.300; 131.750
Owner	Severin family
Website
http://www.curtinsprings.com

Curtin Springs, formerly Mount Conner Station, is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory of Australia.

Occupying an area of 416,400 hectares (1,028,947 acres), the working cattle station and roadhouse facility is located on the Lasseter Highway, 85 kilometres (53 mi) east of Yulara and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

The property shares a boundary with pastoral leases Angas Downs to the north west, Lyndavale to the south east and Mulga Park to the south. It also abuts the Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust to the west.^[2]

Curtin Springs has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh, with very hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation is low and erratic year-round, and primarily occurs during the summer.

The station was first known as Mount Conner Station (after Mount Conner) in the 1930s, when it was first taken up by Paddy DeConlay as a sheep station.^[4]

Abraham Andrews leased Mt Conner Station in 1940, and named it Curtin Springs Station after John Curtin.^[4][5]

In 1956 the Peter and Dawn Severin took over the pastoral lease, arriving with a toddler son and 1500 head of cattle. The station was then around 500 sq mi (1,300 km²).^[4]

Peter Severin had previously worked as the head stockman on another cattle station and was gifted 1,400 head of cattle when he took over Curtin Springs for the value of the debts.^[6]

Severin, his wife and young son had a lonely existence with only six visitors in the first year. Going was tough, with the family residing under a bough shed for the first three years.^[4]

By 1957, Len Tuit had begun operating return trips from Alice Springs to Uluru (then Ayers Rock), and was using Curtin Springs as a wayside to store fuel and water required for the return trip. This was the beginning of tourism in central Australia. Soon the Severins installed fuel tanks to service the bus tours that had commenced from Alice Springs to Uluru and provided food and drink to tourists on board.^[4]

Later Severin acquired a liquor licence and started a pub which later became part of the restaurant.^[6] The Curtin Springs liquor licence was opposed by many local Aboriginal elders and in particular the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council, because it is considered by them to have contributed to alcohol-related violence and other social problems in nearby Aboriginal communities such as Mutitjulu, Imanpa, and Pukatja (Ernabella).^{[citation needed]} In 1988, a number of elders took an action in nuisance against Severin in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, but were unsuccessful.^[7] The liquor license held by Curtin Springs is now^[when?] subject to special restrictions prohibiting the supply of alcohol to any Aboriginals from the surrounding communities and anyone suspected of travelling to local communities.

By 2009, Murray Grey cattle were increasingly being used to improve the herd's temperament and quality.^[8]

2011–2022 bushfires

In 2011 the area was plagued by the largest bushfires that had been seen there since the 1970s, some 200,000 acres (80,937 ha) of Marqua Station was burnt out.^[9] More bushfires, started from lightning strikes ignited bushfires at the station in September 2012, the Lasseter Highway had to be closed in the area due to the resulting smoke hazard.^[10] More fires started from dry storms in October 2012 and were left to burn in areas that were inaccessible and where high winds made containment too difficult.^[11] The station lost over 250,000 acres (101,171 ha) of bush, nearly one quarter of its pasture land, as a result of the fires.^[12]

Native title

In April 2023, a Federal Court ruling determined in favour of the native title application lodged by Anangu seven years earlier for around 10,000 km² (3,900 sq mi) of pastoral lease land that includes Erldunda, Lyndavale, and Curtin Springs stations. This was the first recognition of commercial rights in Central Australia. The ruling, which was handed down at a gathering in the remote community of Imanpa, granted traditional owners the right to hunt and perform ceremonies on the land, and also to be consulted over its use.^[13]

The Severin family run conservative cattle numbers so they can best manage disasters such as fires and drought. Water for the station and livestock is supplied by pumping it from underground with diesel or solar pumps and windmills. Cattle watering points are located in yards so that they may be passively mustered through the use of water trapping.

Over the years they diversified the business and started offering accommodation and other services to tourists, including tours and an art gallery. In March 2018, an artist-in-residence program was begun.^[4]

The station has a collection of birds in multiple aviaries around the homestead. All birds have been rescued after an injury or have been bred from captive animals so they are unable to be released into the wild.

Local tours include parts of the Amadeus Salt Lake Chain and Mount Conner, which is located on the private property of Curtin Springs Station.

• List of ranches and stations
• List of the largest stations in Australia

• Official website