STATION

Butmaroo Station is a working sheep and cattle farm situated on 3000 acres

Butmaroo is the Aboriginal meaning for deep creek, which refers to the creek that runs through the property. Prior to European settlement, the area was occupied by the Ngarigo people. The Ngarigo's traditional lands covered vast areas of southeast New South Wales, extending as far south as the present border with Victoria. 

In 1824, explorer Allan Cunningham passed through Bungendore. A year later, the first European settlers arrived.

Captain Richard Brooks established a stock station in the district in 1824 and named one of his outstations "Bungadow". When the village began around 1835 it was called Bungendore and this village was proclaimed in 1837. By 1851 the population of the district was 63 and the town started to grow with the building of a flour mill, hotels and courthouse. The railway finally arrived in 1885 and by  then the population was 700 people.

Butmaroo Station was advertised for sale by the then owner John Flynn in 1886.  In 1903 a school was built at Butmaroo and by 1923 was amalgamated with the school at Gidleigh, with Butmaroo school closing. The property changed hands several times until James Derbyshire Harrison bought the property in 1910.

By 1909 rabbit trapping had become an extremely valuable industry in the area around Bungendore. The town itself had a rabbit-freezing plant that employed 14 workers and over 250 trappers. In the year ending 31 July 1909, over 1.5 million rabbits were frozen at Bungendore.

The Harrison family owned until Butmaroo the 1950s again changing custodians several times before

Butmaroo Station was subsequently acquired by its present owners in 2011 . Restoration and renovating of the buildings and its natural landscape began , with even more to come in the years ahead.

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