Pastoral Stations, Queensland

Station Records / Collections

State Library holds almost 300 individual collections relating to pastoral stations. They include: stock books, station diaries, rainfall and climate records, photographs and correspondence.

These properties were traditionally operated by family groups but they also employ - stockmen, drovers, boremen, managers, mechanics, machinery operators, station and camp cooks, teachers, overseers and bookkeepers.

Ledgers and correspondence reference men and women associated with the station, working stock and managing the land. They include people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island heritage as well as those who came to Australia from European, Asian, Indian and Pacific Island nations.

Many original holdings still operate today, others have ceased to exist, or have become National Parks.

Explore Station Records

Photographs / Collections

Located within individual Photographic Collections, or collections of Original Material - are images of pastoral stations, the families who worked them, and their employees - visually documenting station life.

Look for them in:

• Pastoral Station Records
• Copy Print Collections
• Family Papers
• Individual Albums, and
• Commissioned Works

- they date from the 1840s to contemporary times.

Explore Pastoral Station Photos

Family Papers / Collections

These papers - which include diaries, reminiscences, manuscripts, letters, maps, and photographs - as well as clippings from agricultural journals and farming magazines - contain the stories of Queensland’s rich pastoral development. 

Some significant collections include:

• Archer Family
• Bell Family, Coochin Coochin Station
• Christison Family & Lammermoor Station
• Edward Vincent Sandilands
• Lethbridge Family & Forest Vale Station
• Rawson Family
• Sir Thomas McIlwraith

Explore Family Collections