Curtin Springs

Curtin Springs is a pastoral lease operating cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory.

Occupying an area of 416,400 hectares (1,028,947 acres) the working cattle station and roadhouse facility is located on the Lasseter Highway, 85 kilometres (53 mi) east of Yulara and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. The property shares a boundary with pastoral leases Angas Downs to the north west, Lyndavale to the south east and Mulga Park to the south. It also abuts the Katiti Aboriginal Land Trust to the west.

The land was originally known as Mount Conner Station in the 1930s when it was first taken up by Paddy DeConlay. Abraham Andrews leased Mt Conner Station, together with vacant crown land, which became known as Curtin Spring Station around 1940, after John Curtin. Curtin Springs was built in 1943 and is now owned and operated by the Severin family who took over the pastoral lease in 1956. Peter Severin had previously worked as the head stockman on another cattle station and was given 1,400 head of cattle when he moved to Curtin Springs.

In 1957 the Severins installed fuel tanks to service the bus tours that had commenced from Alice Springs to Uluru and provided food and drink to tourists on board. Later Severin acquired a liquor licence and started a pub which later became part of the restaurant. The Curtin Springs liquor licence has been a subject of controversy. It has been opposed by many local Aboriginal elders and in particular the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council, because it is considered by them to have contributed to alcohol-related violence and other social problems in nearby Aboriginal communities such as Mutitjulu, Imanpa, and Pukatja (Ernabella). In 1988, a number of elders took an action in nuisance against Mr Severin of Curtin Springs in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, but were unsuccessful.

...
Wikipedia