Bedford Downs Station

{{Short description|Pastoral lease in Western Australia}}

{{Use Australian English|date=November 2013}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}

{{Location map|Western Australia|label=Bedford Downs

|position=left

|lat_deg=17.261|lat_dir=S

|lon_deg=127.463|lon_dir=E

|caption=Location in Western Australia}}

{{coord|17.261|S|127.463|E|type:landmark_region:AU|name=Bedford Downs|display=title}}

Bedford Downs, or Bedford Downs Station, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia.

It is situated about {{convert|84|km|mi|0}} west of Warmun and {{convert|109|km|mi|0}} north of Halls Creek in the Kimberley region.

Both the station and nearby Mount Bedford were named in 1903 after Admiral Frederick Bedford, who was the Governor of Western Australia.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58345554 |title=Western Australian Names|newspaper=Sunday Times |location=Perth |date=5 February 1928|accessdate=1 December 2013|page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Established some time prior to 1906 by the Buchanan and Gordon Brothers, the property experienced many difficulties including the spearing of cattle and isolation of the area.

In two years nearly a dozen men had also been murdered by the traditional owners.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28832248 |title=The Kimberley Cattle Industry |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=22 November 1907 |accessdate=1 December 2013 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The family business, Quilty and Sons, acquired the property in 1917{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=186395371X|title=Whitefella Jump Up: The Shortest Way to Nationhood|year=2002|accessdate=30 November 2013|page=13|author=Germaine Greer|ISBN=186395371X|publisher=Black Inc.}} from Messrs, Mather, Ross, Manning and Ralston{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124229541 |title=Sales of WA and Territory Stations |newspaper=The Sydney Stock and Station Journal |location=New South Wales |date=5 February 1918 |accessdate=1 December 2013 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} for £34,000. The {{convert|900|sqmi|km2|0|adj=on}} property was stocked with 8,500 head of cattle and 80 horses. Patrick Quilty was left to manage Bedford Downs while his brother Tom Quilty managed Euroka Springs Station in the Northern Territory.{{cite web|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/quilty-thomas-john-11471|title=Quilty, Thomas John (1887–1979)|author=Cathie Clement|year=2002|accessdate=1 December 2013|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=Australian National University}}

A boundary rider named Harry Annear was murdered by Aboriginal people on the property near the Durack River in 1921.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4620165|title=Murder by Natives|newspaper=The Argus|location=Melbourne, Victoria|date=16 November 1921|accessdate=1 December 2013|page=12|via=National Library of Australia}}

The Aboriginal artist, Paddy Bedford, was born at the property around 1922. His surname is taken from the station and the station's owner Paddy Quilty was the source of his given name.Tony Stephens, '"Millionaire" believer in "two-way"', (Obituary), The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 2007, p. 18.

In 1924 a massacre of Gija and Worla men occurred on the station after the men were tried for spearing a milking cow. They were fed food laced with strychnine by white station hands and then shot or clubbed to death. The bodies were subsequently burned by the local police.Nevill Drury, Anna Voigt, Fire and shadow: spirituality in contemporary Australian art,Craftsman House, 1996 p.84 The series of paintings by Indigenous Australian artist Rover Thomas called Bedford Downs Killings depicts these events.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118157470 |title=Retrospective works display rare intensity. |newspaper=The Canberra Times |date=12 March 1994 |accessdate=1 December 2013 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Following the death of Patrick Quilty in 1938,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37242581 |title=Obituary Mr. Patrick Quilty|newspaper=The Longreach Leader|location=Queensland|date=10 September 1938 |accessdate=1 December 2013 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}} the family retained possession of Bedford Downs and also acquired neighbouring Springvale Station from W. J. McAdam in 1948.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75551879 |title=Halls Creek news |newspaper=The Northern Times |location=Carnarvon, Western Australia|date=2 April 1948 |accessdate=1 December 2013|page=4|via=National Library of Australia}}

Sterling Buntine acquired the property in the early 2000s then sold it in 2011 to the Paraway Pastoral Company which is owned by the Macquarie Bank.{{cite web|url=http://www.beefcentral.com/news/macquarie-buys-buntine-assets/|title=Macquarie buys Buntine Assets|author=Jon Condon|date=24 May 2011|accessdate=7 June 2014|publisher=Beef Central}}