Mount Gipps Station
Mount Gipps Station most commonly known as Mount Gipps is a pastoral lease that operates as a sheep station in north west New South Wales.
It is situated about north of Broken Hill and north east of Mannahill in the outback of New South Wales.
Currently occupying an area of the property is still operating as a sheep station but also as a farmstay for tourists. The area is arid and most water is pumped from bores, though Stephens Creek runs through the property and has semi-permanent water-holes. The property is composed of gibber plains, large areas of saltbush and mulga and sandy creek beds surrounded by coolibah trees. The old station homestead is now the site of the Broken Hill Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The station was established around 1863 by the Barrier Ranges Company which included George Urquhart who owned neighbouring Kinchega Station. The property takes its name from Mount Gibbs that was named by Charles Sturt during his expedition of 1844. Mount Gipps was the first established station in the Barrier Range area and one of the first west of the Darling River.
The run was taken up in 1866 by McCredie and Cunningham who occupied an area of including an outstation at Stephens Creek; the pair later sold it to James McCulloch and Robert Sellar. James McCulloch's cousin, George McCulloch, later became manager and was given a 2/16 share in the Mount Gipps Pastoral and Mineral Company; amongst his employees was a young Sidney Kidman who was employed at Mount Gipps as a roustabout and bullock driver.
By 1877 the property encompassed about and supported a flock of 71,000 sheep.
In 1883 a boundary rider from Mount Gipps named Charles Rasp who, along with six fellow workers, formed the Syndicate of Seven pegged out the mining claim for the one of the world's richest lodes of silver, lead and zinc at Broken Hill in the Barrier Range forming the company Broken Hill Proprietary Limited.
