It was the subject of an infamous land-rights dispute in August 1980 when state premier Sir Charles Court enforced an oil exploration project under police protection.
During World War II the Royal Australian Air Force established a base, named Noonkanbah, at the civil airfield at the station on 1 March 1943.
Large petrol and bomb dumps were established and the airfield was used by the Netherlands East Indies Air Force as a staging base.
The following year, Beatson ordered the planting of 5 acres (2 ha) of lucerne in an experiment to improve the stock carrying capacity of the property.
Virtually all feed was lost and even many native trees started dying as a result of intense heat and lack of water.
This was the first drought suffered by pastoralists in 70 years, with many hurriedly sinking bores and buying feed to keep their stock alive.
[20] An amphibian fossil species that existed in the area during the Triassic, Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis, was identified from material obtained at a bore on the station, and noted in the specific epithet of its name.
[23] The station was the scene for an intense political dispute when the government of the day allowed exploration company AMAX to drill for oil in sacred sites.
Western Australia's Premier, Charles Court, was adamant that the exploration should go ahead regardless – and a convoy of 45 non-union drilling rigs and trucks left Perth protected by hundreds of police on 7 August 1980.
Violent confrontations between police and Noonkanbah protesters ensued, culminating in the drilling rigs forcing their way through community picket lines onto sacred land.
[27][28][29] In October 2022, the Yungnora Association was fined $250,000 after pleading guilty to multiple charges of animal cruelty, in connection with the deaths of over 100 cattle on Noonkanbah Station in 2018.