Nilpinna Station
Nilpinna Station is situated 70 km north of William Creek on the Oodnadatta Track and has an area of 5658 square kilometres.
Nilpinna takes its name from the Nilpinna Spring, west of the Warrina Rail Siding. The Nilpinna Station is made up of two earlier runs called Nilpinna and Cootanoorina. The original Nilpinna lease of 350 square kilometres was taken up by The Peake Station in 1875 but within a couple of years it became a station in its own right. Henry McConville attempted to develop a horse station on Nilpinna, in partnership with George Wills, Robert Tarlton and Charles Rischbieth. However, in the early 1890s McConville and his enterprise were forced off the run due to drought.
George Tinlime and Alexander Murray took up the Cootanoorina run in 1875 but they too walked off in the early 1890s. A second attempt was made when John F Ryder took up Cootanoorina in 1901. Nilpinna was also reworked by Richard G Allen from 1897.
In 1932 G & EA Brooks Ltd purchased Nilpinna and Cootanoorina. The original Old Nilpinna homestead was vacated in 1938, when the manager Dick Briscoe and his family left, driven away by the sand-flies and mosquitoes. Edwards Creek became the site of the homestead from 1940
Ross Scobie and Bob Kempe purchased Nilpinna and Cootanoorina in 1946. In 1949 Bob Kempe had taken up the Mount Barry Station, much of which was on the old Cootanoorina run. Ross Scobie took up Nilpinna, initially at the existing homestead near Edwards Creek Bore. A new bore, sunk around 1954 proved to have water of a very good quality. It was determined that this would become the site for a new homestead. Hugh Frahn completed construction of the homestead in 1956, and it has been in use since that time.
Nilpinna was purchased in 1965 by Harry Bloomfield to save cattle from drought stricken Love’s Creek Station in the Northern Territory.
In 1967 the Williams family purchased Nilpinna.
