| BACK HOME TOLARNO STATION Tolarno Station is situated 160km south east of Broken Hill on the eastern side of the Darling River, downstream from Menindee. It was in 1862 that William and Ross Reid secured an abandoned river frontage property down from Menindee. They called it Tolarno. Their Tolarno acreages were small at first but they took up other smaller selections such as Booliva, Gunpongulla, Huca, Mourte, Malinguh, Porcupine, Pruella, Tyndiah, Toorincaca, Uneethee as well as Outer South and East Warngah runs, lumping them together as one property. This gave them a run with a 45-mile river frontage with land extending sixty miles east to the Boolaboolka Lakes. They also extended their property by acquiring another 31 square miles of land. In early 1868 Ross Reid married Lucy Reynell, whose family were the founders of the Reynella winery. To prepare for the coming marriage, Ross had a new homestead built on Tolarno, as well as outer offices, stores, stables, a blacksmith shop, saddlers shop, cart shed, chaff stores, bachelors quarters and extended fruit and vegetable garden. It gave the appearance of a small township. A school was developed for the children of those families employed on the station along with children from some of the neighbouring stations. (The school closed in 1917, and in July the provisional school was at Netley Station taking over the "Harp of Erin Hotel". In the late 1920's the school building at Tolarno was transported across the river to Netley Station, costing £29 and by June 1931 this building had been moved several times, due to white ants problems. Eventually the school was set up as a room next to the Netley Homestead before being closed down). In 1887 a new woolshed was built on Tolarno, and unlike the original bark roof and bush timbered structure which it replaced, the new shed boasted an iron roof and comprised 52 shearing stands (the original wool shed is still operating today with only eight shearing stands being used. At the far end of the shed are two walls still standing with timber cut from trees on the property in the early days) and in close proximity to the new wool shed, a wool room, scouring plant and large shearing quarters were built. Reid also had two hotels built on the station for the convenience of the workers, naming them the Victoria Hotel and the Tolarno Hotel. The latter was soon renamed Cliff's Inn because of the confusion between the station and the hotel being the same. (The Victoria was a red gum slabs and corrugated iron roof. Opened by 1877, it operated until 1904 when T.D. Kenny was the last owner. The Cliff's' Hotel was south of Tolarno station and opened in 1870. In 1904 William A. Fields held the lease to the Cliff Hotel). During the 1870's Ross and William Reid operated their own fleet of steamers to deliver their wool clips direct to Port Victor for transhipment direct to English Woollen Mills. In 1873 Ross and William purchased the 98 tonne barge Venus, to be prepared for the 1874 wool season. The following year, Ross bought the steamer Jupiter in partnership with Hugh King. The steamer had begun life on the river as a barge in 1866. Other boats were the Gem and in 1875 Ross had the 66 tonne steamer Menindee built in Port Adelaide in partnership with S. R. Hesseline. This boat was 106 feet long and fitted with a 30 horsepower engine and capable of 8.3 knots but with a draught of six feet. It was not entirely suited to the frequently low state of the Darling River. In 1878 the steamer Bourke was added to the fleet which was the largest privately owned fleet of steamers on the inland waterways. During the late 1860's and up to the late 1870's, Tolarno Station carried anywhere between 200,000 and 300,000 sheep. Today Tolarno Station carries about 8,000 to 10,000 sheep. CONTINUE NEXT PAGE |