Innamincka Station
Innamincka Station, often called simply Innamincka, is a pastoral lease in the Australian state of South Australia. It operates as a cattle station. It is located about north-east of the small township of the same name. west of the Queensland border, and south-east of Birdsville. the station – the second largest in South Australia after Anna Creek station – occupied an area of and was owned by the pastoral company, S. Kidman & Co. The name of the station derives from two Aboriginal words meaning "your shelter" and "your home". History. Innamincka Station was established in 1872 by Robert  Bostock as the first station and permanent settlement along Cooper Creek. The station expanded until it covered more than . In 1881, when the station and stock were sold to William Campbell for £60,000, it supported a herd of 8,000 cattle. A man who became an Australian cattle baron, Sidney Kidman, bought Innamincka in 1908 from the trustees of the estate of William Campbell, when the station covered more than . He immediately sold 250 bullocks in the Adelaide yards, which were much admired for their "breeding and quality". Suffering financially after bad drought, Kidman sold the property in 1918; he  later repurchased it. In 1954, it covered an area of . In 1981, it covered an area of . In the late 1950s and the 1960s, the Australian energy company, Santos Limited, conducted a drilling program for oil and natural gas in the Cooper Basin, including at localities near Innamincka; the first commercial gas was discovered in 1963. Eventually 145 gas fields and 76 oil fields came into production, feeding into production facilities at Moomba, to the south-west. Floods and drought are characteristics of Australian outback localities. Those that affected Innamincka included the following: The station had an excellent season in  1981; the country was reported as having "masses of yellow and white wildflowers".