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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Canobie Station

cattle station in Queensland, Australia

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ14935363 ↗
Source-derived summary

Canobie Station, often just referred to as Canobie, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station. It is located about 143 kilometres (89 mi) north of Cloncurry and 198 kilometres (123 mi) south west of Croydon in Queensland.

The property occupies an area of 4,291 square kilometres (1,657 sq mi) of Queensland's Gulf Country and is able to carry a herd of approximately 35,000 gulf-composite cattle. It is currently owned by the Australian Agricultural Company. The area is made up of black soil plains like much of the Gulf Country; the Georgina basement rocks are overlaid with sediments of the Carpentaria basin. The Cloncurry River and many of its smaller tributaries are situated within the boundaries of the property and make excellent watering points for the stock.

The station takes its name from a corruption of the traditional owners' name of the locale: Conobie.

The station was first established in 1864 when Edward Palmer, originally from Wollongong, stocked the property with cattle and sheep. The first wool was taken off Canobie in 1865 to Burketown. Palmer's partner, Mr Shrewing, died of gulf fever in the first year and the station was drought-stricken for the first few years then flooded in 1869–1870.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Canobie Station” is cattle station in Queensland, Australia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Canobie, Station and cattle, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 1865, 1869, 1870—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Canobie, Station and cattle is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “cattle station in Queensland, Australia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14935363. Authority coordinates are -19.476, 140.932. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1864, 1865, 1869 and 1870.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Canobie Station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Canobie Station primary sources, Canobie Station archive and Canobie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Canobie Station”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Canobie Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.