The station contains many landforms including gibber plains, sand-plains, floodplains, channels and ephemeral rivers.
[1] The Warburton River flows through the property southward through Clifton Hills and Cowarie Station then discharging into Lake Eyre.
The property was first taken up by Whittingham in 1878, the same year that Chapman established Cordillo Downs Station.
[2] Whittington still owned the property in 1893 but was experiencing financial difficulties with the Bank of Adelaide, of which he was a director.
[7] The land occupying the extent of the Alton Downs pastoral lease was gazetted as a locality in April 2013 under the name "Alton Downs Station" with the word "Station" being added to avoid duplication of the name of a locality in Queensland.