[4] The station was established in 1877, in the area of Rungarungawa tribal lands along with several other well known properties in the Channel Country as pastoralists expanded westward from the grasslands at the headwaters of the Diamantina.
[6] Tobi and company bought the property without any stock and without inspection, so well regarded was the country, thought to be particularly suited to sheep with its "abundance of saline herbage and lime".
[13] A boundary rider named Andrew Johnstone, employed at neighbouring Coorabulka Station, went missing in 1920.
His body was found a couple of months later by a stockman along the Merrdiderri Channel, but his bones had been scattered by dingos.
Although Marion Downs was faring well in 1926,[16] this changed as the drought continued, and by 1928 the property had been left in the hands of care-takers and had been mostly destocked.
[18] The property was purchased by the North Australian Pastoral Company in 1934, following some tough times after World War I, a market downturn and the prolonged drought.