Anlaby Station

Anlaby or Anlaby Station is a pastoral lease located about 12 kilometres (7 mi) south east of Marrabel and 14 kilometres (9 mi) north of Kapunda in the state of South Australia.

The locality was first explored by Europeans in March 1838 by the party of Hill, Wood, Willis, and Oakden, who were scouting an overlanding route from the Murray. The station is the oldest merino stud in Australia and was settled in 1839 by Capt. John Finnis, who called it "Mount Dispersion" (the Aboriginal name was Pudna), and stocked it with 12,000 sheep. The property was acquired in 1841 by Frederick Dutton, at which time it was at the frontier of European settlement.

In the early days Anlaby extended from near Kapunda to Tothill's Creek occupying an area of 160,000 acres (64,750 ha) with a length of 25 miles (40 km) and a width of 10 miles (16 km). The neighbouring pastoralist to the west and north was W.S. Peter, while to the south was Bagot's Koonunga. To the east was the Murray scrub.

Aboriginal depredations on sheep resulted in a two-man mounted police station being established at Julia Creek 1842-46 to protect the Anlaby and Koonunga flocks. The property ran as many as 70,000 sheep and shearing lasted nine months employing 70 people.

In 1843 a log hut was constructed for the manager Alexander Buchanan. The name of the run was also changed by Dutton to Anlaby, the name of the Yorkshire village that his sister's husband hailed from. By 1851 the property had been reduced to 70,000 acres (28,328 ha) with the loss of another 24,000 acres (9,712 ha) so closer settlement could be made. Another 30,000 acres (12,141 ha) from Anlaby was subdivided for wheat farming up until 1917. Returned servicemen were allocated another 8,000 acres (3,237 ha) between 1918 and 1922.

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