Qualla: Augustus Downs Station

Augustus Downs Station: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Leichhardt River wanders north through Augustus Downs on its way to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and where the river goes, the cattle follow. This is Gulf Country - flat, hot, watered by tributaries that braid across the property and turn the surrounding plains green after the wet. A hundred kilometres south of Burketown and a long drive from anywhere, Augustus Downs has been a working cattle station for more than 140 years, and the names tangled up in its history read like a roll-call of the men who shaped the Australian outback.

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Augustus Downs Station: The Squatter's Gamble

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Around 1881, Oscar John de Satgé took up Augustus Downs along with nearby Carandotta Station. Swiss-born and of French descent, de Satgé was a squatter and politician who had made and lost fortunes on the Queensland frontier and sat in the colony's Legislative Assembly. He funded...

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Augustus Downs Station: The Cattle King's Company

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Augustus Downs later fell into the orbit of the most famous pastoralist of all. Sidney Kidman - the legendary "Cattle King" who at his peak controlled a chain of stations stretching across a huge swathe of inland Australia - served as a director of the Augustus Downs Pastoral Com...

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Augustus Downs Station: Still a Working Station

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Boundaries out here were once notional things. In 1901, Augustus Downs shared a border with neighbouring Lorraine Station that was not even fenced - cattle from both runs simply grazed across each other's pastures, sorted out later at mustering time. Ownership changed hands acros...

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Augustus Downs Station: A Country Made of Water and Dust

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Everything at Augustus Downs comes back to the river. The Leichhardt - named for the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who crossed this region in 1845 - gathers the wet-season rains and carries them north through the property toward the Gulf, and its many tributaries spread that water ...

Read more: Augustus Downs Station on Qualla