Hard people for a hard land: outback station to national park | Wide Open Spaces #1 | ABC Australia

it's just the land of extremes you've got too much here got nothing east of tibabara in the far northwest corner of new south wales lies nariyara station it's a vast property more than 150 000 thirteen hundred square kilometers of what's known as the channel country nariara's northern boundary flanks the queensland border its eastern fence line extends into no man's land it's not far off the size of the act so it's a very sizable patch of country in the northwest new south wales for more than a century narriara was owned by the o'connor family in june 2020 it was sold to the new south wales government the largest acquisition of private land for a national park in the state's history the transition from private to public ownership is well down the track nariara homestead sits at the end of a rough and dusty road lord of this modest manner is bill o'connor yes thanks mate he's lived in this harsh and remote environment for 84 years of rain out there on the windscreen already yeah just a little bit just a little bit so it moves all the way through this landscape for biologists and national parks ranger jamie norris the purchase of this giant tract of semi-desert is an enormous thrill by any measure it's one of the most important acquisitions the new south wales national parks and wildlife service has ever ever taken its ecological values are immense you know we've got you know over 50 species of plants that we've recorded here we've got over 150 species of animal that we've recorded here there are 39 different ecological communities that exist on this property and over 20 threatened species so it's a really incredible place but the focus isn't only on preserving the natural environment it's quite incredible the history there's well over 100 years of pastoral enterprise imprinted in this landscape and it's so important that we retain a lot of that history and and be able to show people in 100 years time you know what the history was of this part of the country the rusting relics around nariara homestead tell a tale how technology evolved over time the new owners will preserve them and the stories that go with them it's a real challenge it really is it's um the first thing we've got to do is understand it so uh you know we're we're going out of our way to collect as much oral history information as we possibly can because it's so important to have that that's those stories that just inform what we do although the country area at the moment is is good though he had little formal schooling bill o'connor has a thirst for knowledge he's an absolute treasure trove of stories and information his recall of the years is helped by the cycle of flood and drought the likes of 49 56 74 and 2010 they're they're the good years that you remember the rest of them just sort of blur off as they go the the droughts weren't too bad you're able to handle them bill o'connor has happily shared his vast and intimate knowledge of narayara with the new owners who are just as eager to record it well i've seen the bottom of every tank twice was a father of all droughts that's for sure oh yeah and this country's you know it's they call it boom and bust but it's almost bust and burn for sure it's the land of extremes as patrick durack said you know of course just about ten years yeah in the best years the family mustered three thousand cattle in a season in the harshest hundreds unable to be mustered sometimes perished in extreme heat if you try and mushroom when it's when it's a beer well over 50 degrees they just charge you can't do nothing with them and then when they get back to water they just drink too much and and over they go especially if they've been out on perhaps 20 points of rain and drinking almost mud no trees can't get under crane grass and you might be sad you won't miss the year no now one with none of that when you've got to pull the rifle out and start shooting them because you can't get them up nariara has gradually been cleared of cattle but there still are some elusive animals here maybe these are the last of the narrative cattle uh yes there wouldn't be many left around here now it'll be coming close to finish and then terrific order good season yeah well so they should be with all the feed that's around here at the moment but yes they are looking good it's a bit different what i've been looking at for last few years over about time as you say yeah on the day landline filmed these beasts the temperature hit 43 degrees this is a land of such extraordinary extremes every once in a while when there are big rains in queensland this whole area is transformed into one vast inland sea in fact in the flood of 1974 there was so much water that it covered this more post less rain for two years well then it uh took another 12 months for the for the water to to drain over drain will soak up evaporate whatever it is wherever it goes but yeah it disappears from more or less a sea that record flood of 1974 swept away kilometers of fences 30 mile of fencing went underwater another 30 mile was washed away with 60 mile of fencing and i still haven't got some of those paddocks back afterwards the o'connor family found several thousand sheep marooned on an island realising it would be many months before the water subsided and no hope of getting them to the station's shearing shed they come up with an ingenious solution they made a portable shearing shed shore the sheep and freighted the wool bales on a homemade raft and they built the shoe and shed they got the old west darling tent and built the shed out of it and the quarters out of it and so on the kitchen was sort of outdoors but they had a uh a tent to sleep in that was all on the ground but and 98 bales of wool yeah you put on a barge and brought back yeah um nine eight eight bales at a time narriara ran sheep until 1985 when the enterprise switched solely to cattle better suited to the harsh environments and speaking of hardship it's hard to top this tale in 1960 bill o'connor then 24 suffered a horrific accident when his leg was entangled in fencing wire while operating a motorized post hole digger and the wire went around my foot and straight around the auger and twisted it off or broke it at the ankle tore it off at the knee it was just hanging by a bit of flesh down the down inside here look dear because the blood's just squirting here well i don't suppose i could put up with that for much longer either so i pulled the belt out of my shorts and put it around it and pulled it up tight but now it's good got a lot of wire put over the top i pulled it underneath and pulled it tight got up twisted up the top and yeah the blood just beat it out and stopped bill o'connor's desperate act of a wire tourniquet probably saved his life help came but it was many hours and a tortoise journey over rough roads before he reached broken hill hospital where his mangled leg was amputated despite that bill never considered leaving nariara so no no but i never thought of giving it up he learned to walk again with a prosthetic limb how to drive any vehicle including trucks and he regained his pilot's licence bill o'connor has always been aware of the fragility of the country and always kept it lightly stocked to avoid overgrazing and that has ensured the survival of species that are elsewhere listed as endangered you try not to overstock heat anything out and of course that that protects the wildlife along with your stock so yeah there has been a bit of a conservative attitude towards it all so it really does seem to have a multiple stem stage and then it goes to a single stem stage the rangers are discovering species here not known to exist this far south such as this emu apple common in outback queensland one's a new one i think well certainly a new one for us so definitely some interesting leaves quite a um quite a unique leaf really for this type of this country for conservationists narayara's dual is undoubtedly its vast ephemeral wetland that whole area there right on the far side was underwater yeah you know it's a remarkable change in a very short period of time yeah that's what it is burma bust yep what you're looking at towards there is the is the carrier pundi swamp so it's one of the most important inland ephemeral wetlands in in central australia it's a a really incredible system that stretches down from the bulu river in queensland fills up an amazing landscape full of water that becomes a real haven for the water birds of southeast asia you know you see water birds here migrate from japan and china and all through australia becomes a really important breeding ground a really amazing place at present archaeologists assisted by the traditional owners are conducting surveys of narayara's numerous cultural and ecological sites jamie norris plans to employ indigenous guides and traditional owners as park rangers it's a landscape that as you can imagine would have come alive you know two years out of every 12 or something like that where you had a big flat event that come down through the balloon and this area would have been like a ladder would have been like nirvana you know it's just an amazing place where people could have come from from all over the landscape to be able to partake in the in the bounty of the land the man yapper um the wonkamara and the karangappa are all three groups that are all very closely aligned with this country national park will link up with other national parks in the region including the sturt national park about 20 kilometers away it's named after the explorer charles sturt neriara also has illustrious links to our colonial past the all-faded explorers burke and wills trekked northward through here in 1860 only to perish in the arid inland there's a real connection back into that exploration heritage as well you know i've got a a real passion for this landscape it's it's home for me i'm very proud to be working in the role that i do where i'm from i've got a real connection to this country i love it yeah that's remarkable for bill o'connor selling nariara hasn't been easy but he can see that farther time has caught up with him i was at the finish i can't do anything much now so i had to get out though he's almost 85 he's not putting himself out to pasture he's downsizing well sort off he's bought an 80 000 hectare sheep station in northern south australia and he plans in time to move there new south wales parks and wildlife is busily upgrading roads and establishing new campgrounds while continuing to survey the cultural and ecological sites that are now part of the nariara karapundi national park the new park will be open to the public by the end of this winter bill o'connor can stay as long as he wants in his soon-to-be-listed heritage house and he's in no hurry to move on content that narrayara is in safe hands no it's going in the public domain i don't think dad would have objected to that like he was uh he was all for conserving things you know all the wildlife and everything we're very lucky to be custodians to this amazing land it's just the land of extremes you've got too much here you've got nothing [Music] you

Channel: ABC Australia

Views: 87,304

Rating: 4.9158487 out of 5

Keywords: ABC, Australia, ABC Australia, Landline, Landline ABC, ABC Landline, Pip Courtney, Wide Open Spaces, Outback, Cattle Station, Station, Ranch, Cattle Ranch, Cattle, Tim Lee, Jaymie Norris, Park Ranger, National Parks and Wildlife Service, bush, outback, pastoral, pioneer, land, Indigenous, Aboriginal, history, cattle, wool, drought, exploration, nature, environment, national park, conservation, old, resilience, endurance, dynasty, Bill O'Connor, Pastoralist

Id: A4OwQvgH4s4

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021