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Mt Hart's History
Mt Hart was first explored by white men
in 1879, with Alexander Forrest's party into the Kimberley. Nineteen years
later, on the 20th August, 1898, Frank Hann discovered "a wonderful
track...where a dray track can be made over the range" (now Hann
Pass), allowing for the passage of men and stock "over the range".
Covering almost a million acres of rugged terrain in the
King Leopold Ranges, Mt Hart was taken up as a pastoral
lease in 1914 by Bill Chalmers and Felix Edgar, whom Hann had met in Derby
soon after the completion of his trip in September 1898. These two intrepid
men were the first pastoralists to take up a station "over the range".
After twenty years of hard work, with little reward, the station was abandoned
in 1934. "Stumpy Fraser", who took up the lease in 1935, was
immediately met by a severe drought, and was forced to relocate the homestead.
Eleven years later, a more severe drought inspired Stumpy
to relocate the homestead again, to the present locality. But alas, even
with permanent water, the inaccessibility of this rugged country forced
Stumpy to abandon the station in 1957.
The current homestead and the magnificent gardens were
established by Charles Telford in 1960. The station's most prosperous
years were during the late 1960s and 1970s, when owned by Thiess Brothers
from Queensland, who eventually increased cattle numbers to 11,000. Thiess
Brothers were also responsible for building the access road to the homestead,
following the completion of the Gibb River Road in 1967.
Under the stewardship of various subsequent owners, Mt
Hart was run as a working cattle station until 1987, when it
was declassified as a viable pastoral lease, to become the proposed King
Leopold Range Conservation Park, finally gazetted in August 2000. Richard
Court, then Premier of Western Australia, stated that the King Leopold
Range Conservation Park, and Mitchell Plateau "..contain diverse
and complet groupings of native flora and fauna..and are thought to be
the only mainland parts of the state from which there have been no species
extinctions since the coming of Europeans".
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Photo credit: Transport (WA Govt)
(Click on the photo to enlarge) |
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Photo credit: Transport (WA Govt)
(Click on the photo to enlarge) |
Images and information placed above are from
http://www.flightclub.com.au/wa-airstrips/mounthart/
http://www.mthart.com.au/
We thank them for the data!
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We don't guarantee the information is fresh and accurate. The data may be wrong or outdated.
For more up-to-date information please refer to other sources.
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