Gary, a fifth generation Darling River grazier and his wife Liz, along with their son Will, have enjoyed life at Trilby Station for more than 44 years.
Once a part of the legendary million acre Dunlop Station, first in the world to complete a sheep shearing by mechanical means in 1888, Trilby Station is now 320,000 acres, running Merino sheep and an extensive goat enterprise.
The Murray family trace their settlement on the Darling River near Louth back seven generations to 1860’s when Andrew Murray from County Galway, Ireland, purchased 60 acres of land for 60 pounds sterling, naming his holding Newfoundland.
Andrew Murray established the Shamrock Inn and store about 30km downstream of Trilby in that same year, living there (unmarried) until his death in 1870, aged 34 years. He is buried on the bank of the river and the registered family cemetery is nearby.
Andrew’s brother Thomas took over the Inn but decided before 1900 that he’d rather be a pastoralist than an inn-keeper and the successive generations have been relatively successful in this pursuit, acumulating quite considerable acres between them, breeding high quality Merino sheep despite many setbacks, mainly horrendous droughts.
The Murray family purchased Dunlop Station in the mid 1930’s, once part of Samuel McCaughey’s huge sprawl of properties in NSW and QLD, and the site of the world’s first mechanical shearing in 1888. Being a million acres in those days, the station records show that in good years they shore up to 277,000 sheep a year!
The Chandler family now own the original Dunlop Station homestead block, which is open to the public with morning tea at 11am every day except Mondays (and closed over summer) followed by a guided tour of their shearing shed, first in the world to complete mechanical shearing in 1888, stone homestead and store – and staying ‘next door’ with Liz and Gary at Trilby Station makes perfect sense as it’s a quick 10 minute drive away.
Trilby Station is situated near the village of Louth, 125km south west of Bourke, NSW Australia, on the Darling River Run. They are well signposted on the western/northern side of the river. The 25km stretch from Louth to Trilby Station on Toorale Rd is now sealed, making it ideal in times of rain, However continuing down the Darling River Run to Tilpa, Wilcannia, Menindee etc is still unsealed though usually in good order.
Location tip