PROPERTIES in the so-called Corner Country around Tibooburra don't come on the market all that often, but when they do - and because there aren't many of them - they tend to be substantial.
The latest case in point is Mt Stuart Station, a 52,750 hectare (130,345ac) aggregation of four Western Lands Leases now being marketed by Elders for owners Michael and Julie-Ann Fox.
Situated just 10 kilometres south of Tibooburra, Mt Stuart Station has a history going back to The Granites goldrush of the 1880s, when the original property was taken up by William Thompson.
Named Mt Stuart Station after the explorer John McDouall Stuart, who passed through the area as a member of the Charles Sturt expedition of 1845, it would remain in Thompson family hands for more than a century.
Relics of the goldrush which gave rise to the nearby town first known as The Granites, and later, Tibooburra, can be found on the property, and adjoining country now forms part of the sprawling Sturt National Park.
On Mt Stuart Station, however, pastoralism is the name of the game, and principally woolgrowing, with woolclips of 200 bales and more being regularly trucked to market before stock numbers were reined in after 2006.
In those earlier years of peak production the property typically carried 7000 Merino ewes and 150 head of cattle but at other times it has carried fewer sheep and up to 450 head of cattle.
It is now conservatively stocked with 3500 breeding ewes, and the lighter stocking has stood the property in good stead during dry times.
Comprising mostly open plains of red sandy loam soils, the country runs up to low sandstone hills and timber on the south-east corner, and clay overlain by quartz to the north-west.
Fodder coverage includes Mitchell grass, flat-top saltbush, copper burr, bladder bush and native burr medic.
Rainfall averaged over 40 years is 260mm and the property is watered by ground tanks, seasonal creeks and bores.
The property is divided into 10 main paddocks and has 16km of near-new fencing.
Also near-new is the six-stand (four equipped) raised-board woolshed, erected in 2002 and flanked by steel bugle-design sheepyards capable of working 3000 sheep.
Other working improvements include the main steel cattle yards with crush and loading ramp, outlying sheep and cattle yards, machinery shed and workshop.
A five-bedroom air-conditioned homestead, built in 1983, features a kitchen/dining area with slow- combustion heater, formal lounge, spacious family room and attached self-contained guest accommodation.
Further accommodation options include a two-bedroom cottage and an eight-room shearers' quarters.
The property includes a 19ha surveyed quarry with estimated capacity of 500,000 tonnes which may be sold as a separate parcel.
Expressions of interest for Mt Stuart Station close with the selling agents on June 19, unless a sale is declared sooner.
Contact Marty Deacon, 0429 953 365.