It is situated about 118 kilometres (73 mi) south east of Tibooburra and 72 kilometres (45 mi) north west of White Cliffs in the channel country of New South Wales.
The property was purchased in 1872 by William James Reid where he steadily improved the run after starting with no fencing until he had a flock of approximately 200,000 sheep.
[2] The district was gripped by drought in 1891 and about 87,000 sheep died as a result of lack of feed.
In the middle of 1896 Shaw reported to the Wilcannia land board that the carrying capacity had been reduced by a quarter owing to the presence of rabbits and the rise of wild dog numbers in the area.
[6] By 1924 the area was being plagued by dingos, Yancannia had been carrying flocks of up to 170,000 sheep but since the pest arrived numbers had dropped substantially to approximately 94,000.