Curtin Springs

Curtin Springs is a 416,400 hectares (1,028,947 acres) working cattle station and roadhouse facility located on the Lasseter Highway, 85 kilometres (53 mi) east of Yulara and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia.

The land was originally known as Mt Conner Station in the 1930s when it was first taken up by Paddy DeConnley. Abraham Andrews leased Mt Conner Station, together with vacant crown land, which became known as Curtin Spring Station around 1940. Curtin Springs was built in 1943 and is now owned and operated by the Severin family who took over the pastoral lease in 1956.

Water for the station and livestock is supplied by pumping it from underground with diesel or solar pumps and windmills. Cattle watering points are located in yards so that they may be passively mustered by water trapping. Murray Grey cattle are increasingly being used to improve the herd’s temperament and quality.

The Severin family now offer accommodation and other services to tourists. There is also a campground with free camping without electricity and sites with electricity. There are bathrooms with showers. The station has a collection of birds and emus that are walking around the premises. Local tours include the Amadeus Salt Lake Chain and Mount Conner.

Bushfires, started from lightning strikes ignited bushfires at the station in September 2012, the Lasseter Highway had to be closed in the area due to the resulting smoke hazard.. More fires started from dry storms in October and were left to burn in areas that were inaccessible and high winds made containment too difficult. The station lost over 250,000 acres (101,171 ha) of bush, nearly a quarter of it's pasture land, as a result of the fires.