The old
homestead was first built in 1886 but by 1959 was abandoned in favour of the new
Owen Springs homestead site. A
heritage conservation project was undertaken here in 2011/2012 and the site is definitely worth a look with good
information signboards to explain the history.
The
Owen Springs Reserve was formerly the
Owen Springs cattle station - one of the first station homesteads built in Central Australia. The area protected within the Reserve is rich with Northern Territory history. Follow the main access track through the Reserve and you are in the footsteps of the first European
explorers to penetrate this region and open it up for white settlement. Mounting an expedition in 1860,
John Stuart and his companions William Kekwick and Benjamin Head were making their way northwards along the Hugh River when they discovered a large
waterhole that Stuart named
Owen Springs. Connecting a route via reliable water sources was vital to the ambition of establishing a north-south route and one of the immediate results of Stuart's explorations was construction of the
Overland Telegraph Line. But even before this was completed, the cattlemen were moving in. When the first arrival, William Gilbert, founded the
Owen Springs station he set in motion
the settlement process.