Fossil Downs Station
Fossil Downs Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) North East of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The first Europeans to visit the area were part of Alexander Forrest's party who passed through in 1879 followed by Charles Hall in 1885. Hall later struck gold at Halls Creek. The station was established the following year when cattle arrived from the eastern states to stock the lease. The lease had been issued in 1883 to Dan MacDonald for the MacDonald family who were living in Cliffords Creek, New South Wales at the time. He applied for an area of 100 square miles (259 km2) at the junction of the Margaret and Fitzroy Rivers.
The MacDonalds, together with the McKenzie family from the Junction near Tuena, who were close friends and related through marriage to the MacDonalds, formed a partnership to stock and equip the station in Western Australia. The McKenzies paid the £25 for the first year's rent and the families departed their New South Wales properties in March 1883. Donald MacDonald died early on the journey after being thrown from a horse, leaving two of his sons, Charles and William, to drive the stock 5,600 kilometres (3,480 mi) to the new property. They left with 700 head of cattle and 60 horses, encountering drought conditions as they trekked through Queensland. Arriving at the property in June 1886 with 327 cattle and 13 horses the brothers reunited with Dan and set up camp. This is thought to be the longest overland cattle drove in Australia's history.
The gold rush at Halls Creek provided a nearby market for beef so the MacDonald brothers continued to run the property while the McKenzies financed the operating costs. In c1900, the McKenzies sold their stake to the MacDonalds. Charles MacDonald died in 1903 and William in 1910, leaving the property to Dan MacDonald. The station prospered and MacDonald expanded by taking over the leases of surrounding properties and also began to strengthen his stock by infusing Red Poll cattle into the Shorthorn herd.
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