On Saturday, 23rd October, Society members and friends filled two coaches for an excursion to Bindi Station. On their way up the Great Alpine Road (formerly the Omeo Highway) they enjoyed a guided tour of historic names, sites and places of interest - this included concrete mile posts, memorials, a George & Annis Bills horse/dog trough and much more.

After a short break at Bruthen, the tour travelled to Ensay to view the Ensay South Hotel with its 1890s cast iron work; an Angus McMillan cairn; the old Ensay School (first built 1912), Memorial Hall (built 1922), and Union Church (built 1937); the Little River Inn (originally a shanty, it’s been licensed from 1847; the current building dates back to c. 1922); the old Scout Hall; and the Ensay Station Woolshed and Homestead that was set up by Archibald Macleod in 1843. 

The Ensay Station Woolshed - in its hey-day it was probably one of the largest and busiest woolsheds in the district

The run was originally made up of 38,400 acres but was sold and split up for Soldier Settlement after WW1. After morning tea at Swift’s Creek, the tour was on its way to Bindi Station in the Bindi Valley for lunch.

Welcome to Bindi Station!

At Bindi Station the tour was greeted by present owner, John Armit, and station-hand, Daryl Gallagher. Everyone enjoyed their packed lunches on the banks of the Tambo River, near the confluence of the Tambo and Bindi Creek, while John gave a brief overview of Bindi’s history. Its first occupant was Patrick Coady Buckley, a ticket-of-leave man who came down to Gippsland from Monaro in the mid-to-late 1830s. In its day, the property ran from Ensay to Benambra and they would shear between 70,000 and 90,000 sheep a year (John currently shears 12,000-14,000 sheep per annum). There was a thirty-blade stand, and up to one hundred people worked in the woolshed alone.

John Armit, owner of Bindi, in an 1850's stone building

The first buildings on the property would have been built 1835-1840, however the oldest building still standing (now the old stables) dates back to 1850 and has walls of granite and hand-made bricks. Other stone buildings on the property were built around 1855-’60 and all were packed full of pieces of historical interest - huge fire places, an original PCB brand, a window with the imprint of the bricks (from being made laying flat). The main homestead was built from mountain ash around 1880, and the laundry had original hardwood troughs. The timber in the old wool shed dates back about one hundred years.

Lunch at Bindi

This was all set amongst a beautiful garden of rose bushes and a wide variety of trees, some quite unusual. John’s father planted many of the trees and it’s a hobby that John has adopted. John has given many of the unique trees a plaque to identify their species and age, and he prunes six to eight roses every day to keep on top.

Bindi Station 1850s stone building