Brunette Downs Station

[1] The station occupies an area of 12,212 km2 (4,715 sq mi) on the Barkly Tableland, and is currently owned by the Australian Agricultural Company.

The property, ranging over the traditional lands of the Wambaya people, was sold by Messrs Kilgour and Woodhouse to Walter Douglas in 1881 for the sum of £4,000.

He moved one mob of 120 mixed cattle down along the Playford River in 1884, just in time for some good rains to fill the lakes and waterholes.

[8] He remained at Brunette for several years as manager, then left in the late 1880s to establish Corella Downs station.

[16] Dr Rudolf Asmis, Nazi Germany's Consul General to Australia, visited Brunette Downs for three days in 1935 while travelling to Darwin.

Flying from Darwin, the Prince spent the morning with Paul Hasluck and Mr. E. Barnes (the station manager) in 107 °F (42 °C) watching stockmen work.

[21] The property was bought from the James White family by a Texan-Australian venture, the King Ranch Pastoral Company, in 1958 for over A$1 million.

[23] Weiss introduced 1,200 Santa Gertrudis stud bulls into the herd to improve the stock, and the station had a total of 75 bores to help combat future droughts.

The overseer and Assistant Manager to Charlie Weiss during much of that period was Nick Campbell-Jones, who commenced as a jackaroo on Brunette Downs at the start of 1963 and left in 1975.

Many of his experiences at Brunette Downs during that period, as well working on other stations in the Northern Territory and Queensland, are recounted in his autobiography Don't Die Wondering published in 2012.

Some of the staff included on the station payroll were a full-time saddle maker, clinic nurse, pilot and grader driver.

He had previously run other King Ranch properties, Mount House and Glenroy, and would later go on to be a part owner of Newcastle Waters station and chairman of the Consolidated Pastoral Company.

The station was acquired by the Australian Agricultural Company in 1979, and Warriner left in 1980 to take over Henbury and Newcastle Waters as a part owner.