Banka Banka Station
Banka Banka Station is a location in the Northern Territory of Australia, 100 kilometres north of Tennant Creek along the Stuart Highway. The historic cattle station was the first operational pastoral lease in this region, and a supply camp during World War II, providing meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables. It was occupied and run by the Ward family and is still the site of a mudbrick homestead.
The station is on the lands of the Warumungu and Warlmanpa peoples who are its traditional owners.
Origin of place name
The name Banka Banka is the anglicisation of the Warumungu language word Parnkurr-parnkurr which Ernestine Hill stated meant 'many bees'. The name was first adoptedd by Tom Nugent when he took over the station.Historical significance
Tom Nugent
, a stockman and Bushranger who had previously been the leader of 'The Ragged Thirteen' was the first lease holder of Bank Banka Station in around 1895 and kept it until his death in 1911. Before Nugent this area was part of another cattle station known as Radford Springs.Ward family
Philip and Mary Alice Ward bought Banka Banka Station in 1941. Mary supervised the development of an extensive garden at the station. The homestead was a regular stopping place for travellers.In 1945, Philip Ward was among the first to truck cattle by road.After her husband's death in 1959, Mary ran the station and, due to her efforts, a government school for Indigenous Australians openened at Banka Banka in 1961. She became known as "The Missus of Banka Banka". In 1970, suffering ill health, she sold the station and moved to Adelaide, where she died two years later.