Nappa Merrie

Nappa Merrie Station most commonly known as Nappa Merrie is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in central west Queensland, Australia.

The property is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) north east of Innamincka and 260 kilometres (162 mi) south east of Birdsville in the Channel Country of Queensland. It has double frontage to Coopers Creek and is bounded to the west by the South Australian border.

The station currently occupies an area of 7,275 square kilometres (2,809 sq mi) and is able to carry 11,000 head of cattle. It is currently owned by S. Kidman & Co. and is managed by Peter Degoumois.

The traditional owners of the area are the Wongkumara peoples, the name comes from the words ngappa meaning water and merri meaning sandhill.

The property doesn't have a huge number of channels through the area but is part of a natural floodplain and contains low lying swamps that provide excellent feed after floodouts that last until the dry season. The homestead has been built above and adjacent to the Nappa Merrie waterhole.

The station was one of the first established along Cooper Creek, taken up in 1871 by John Conrick. Conrick and five companions, all under the age of 21, overlanded a herd of about 1,000 cattle to the property from Warrnambool to stock the station. The Conrick family later took up the Chasleton lease and remained on the station for the next 83 years. From 1892 to 1934 the property was running mostly sheep with only a few cattle. Remnants of fences and an old wool scour can still be found on the property. At one point a flock of 46,000 head of sheep were grazing on the property resulting in the land collapsing and the station being vacated for a time. In the late 1940s the Tancred brothers invested in the company with Harry Tancred later appointed as the chairman of directors. Shortly afterward the Lake Pure lease was acquired. Cattle grazing, which had been confined to the channels and wetlands, was expanded after bores were sunk in the plains away from the channel country allowing stock to roam further.

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