Australia So Much to See

Arckaringa Station is part of the Williams Cattle Company empire. It is courtesy of the Williams family that the wonderful Painted Desert is freely available for all to visit.

Williams Cattle Company consists of seven pastoral properties in the far north of South Australia, along with grazing and cropping land around Carrieton in the Flinders Ranges.

Reg, Ron and Bill Williams purchased the first pastoral property, Nilpinna, in 1967. Jimmy Nunn was appointed as manager, a position he held for seventeen years.

Over the years the company expanded, purchasing Mount Barry (1981), Mount Sarah (1985), Arckaringa (1989), Hamilton (1995), and in 2016 Anna Creek and The Peake were added to the portfolio. The total area of the pastoral properties is 45,000 square kilometres. The southern property, Coonibar, has an area of some 11,400 hectares. Williams Cattle Company, on its pastoral properties, has a maximum carrying capacity rating from the Pastoral Board of 36,500 head of branded cattle. Poll Hereford beef cattle are the preferred breed along with Angus and Angus cross cattle.

Mount Barry, Arckaringa, Nilpinna, Mount Sarah and Hamilton Stations are NAASA organically accredited and are EU accredited, while Anna Creek and The Peake are in transition to achieve organic and EU accreditation. EU accredited is meeting a standard for Australian beef to be supplied to the European Union Cattle Accreditation Scheme market, it must first be free of any HGP’s. HGP’s are hormone growth promotants. Many countries are requiring this standard for imported beef.

Williams Family pastoral holdings owned by Tony and Jackie Williams.

• Anna Creek Station, Coober Pedy South Australia. 2.4 million hectares. Australia’s biggest working cattle property. Purchased in 2016.

• Arckaringa Station, Coober Pedy South Australia. 274,500 hectares. Purchased in 1989.

• Coonibar Station, farming land at Carrieton, South Australia

• Hamilton Station, Coober Pedy South Australia

• Mount Barry Station, Coober Pedy South Australia

• Mount Sarah Station, Coober Pedy South Australia

• Nilpinna Station, Coober Pedy South Australia

• The Peake Station, Coober Pedy South Australia. Outstation to Anna Creek, purchased in 2016.

Heading north from Coober Pedy through the bare stony flat land there was little variation until Mount Barry Station. A few hills appeared, and vegetation increased, with scrub along the creeklines.

Reaching Arckaringa Station, we saw groups of Hereford Cattle. With no hand feeding on the stations, cattle concentrate around remaining pools along the creeklines for water and food. All looked in good condition.

Arckaringa Station alone covers 2,745 square kilometres, rated to run 2,100 cattle.

Based at Arckaringa Station campground, we took advantage of the morning sun and drove to view the many and varied breakaway hills. The Arckaringa Hills, the area now known as the Painted Desert. was declared a State Heritage Area in December 1985.

Ten kilometres from the station homestead, along the Oodnadatta to Cadney Park, a track goes into the Breakaways of the Painted Desert to view and walk through the colourful formations and climb some peaks and viewpoints.

The walk is mostly easy, with the harder parts being a few steep sections with loose stones.

The peak photographed at left is known as Mount Arckaringa.

As we climbed the views showed the many colours of the folds on these eroded hills.

Below a climber takes advantage of a spur to take photos, while their aging dog waits behind with the lady.

Being old, the dog did need a little help on some of the loose stone sections.

The similar geological formation of the Painted Hills is on Anna Creek Station, but this is only open to the public by air. Wrights Air flies to the Painted Hills.

Continue reading to see more of the Painted Desert.

Continue reading >