Ivanhoe Station

Ivanhoe or Ivanhoe Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located just north of Kununurra in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Kununurra was built on land resumed from Ivanhoe Station during 1961, as the town for the Ord River Irrigation Area which started as the Ord River Project or Ord Scheme, with survey work starting in 1959.

The station occupies an area of 2,954 square kilometres (1,141 sq mi) and follows the bank of the Ord River as it flows from Lake Argyle to Cambridge Gulf over a distance of 35 kilometres (22 mi). The alluvial flats and black soil plains support rich stands of couch and buffel which make good grazing feed.

Ivanhoe and its neighbour Carlton Hills are able to support 50,000 head of cattle including 18,000 Brahman breeders The station is able to turn off 9,000 steers per annum for live export to Asia and the Middle East.

Presently owned by the Consolidated Pastoral Company the station was initially established by Patrick Durack and his brother Michael who founded the station in 1893.

Kimberley Durack first experimented with growing cash crops in the fertile soil of the floodplains which later lead to the establishment of the Ord River Scheme. An experimental farm was established on the Ord in 1941 and then closed in 1945 when joint Commonwealth-State Research Station was completed at Ivanhoe. The station experimented with crops such as rice, linseed and cane sugar for the next 12 years.

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