Pastoralists
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The pastoral industry made a cautious start in the Top End. The first pastoral lease was not taken up until 1876 and no stocking took place until 1879, when cattle arrived at Glencoe, near Gove Hill. Glencoe was owned by a Victorian pastoralist, C.B. Fisher, who leased an extensive area that included the Alligator Rivers region. Fisher and his partner, M. Lyon, first attempted to run cattle in the Beatrice Hill, Marrakai and Humpty Doo areas, subsequently extending east into what is now Kakadu. The Kakadu area was progressively abandoned from 1889, because Victoria River and the Barkly Tablelands proved to be better pastoral regions.
Paddy Cahill at Oenpelli and Fred Smith at Kapalga also attempted pastoralism in the Alligator Rivers region. Cahill was particularly successful. His Oenpelli station, established in 1906, was prospering by 1913 and was officially described as a model for what might be achieved in the Northern Territory.
In southern Kakadu much of Goodparla and Gimbat was claimed in the mid-1870s by two pastoralists, Roderick Travers and A. W. Sergison. The leases where subsequently passed on to a series of owners, all of whom were unable for one reason or another to make a go of it. Pastoralism in these areas first began to produce a meagre return in 1907, for George Cooke at Goodparla, and in 1937, for Joseph Callanan at Gimbat.
When Cooke died in 1937 Goodparla was sold and subsequently had a number of owners. In 1965 it was sold to two Americans, who brought stockmen from the United States to work with Aboriginal labour. A period of more intensive development followed and both cattle and buffalo were grazed. New Goodparla homestead and an outstation were established at Minglo and Shovel billabong. Despite the American owners' optimism, the demise of Goodparla as a cattle station was complete by 1975, hastened by a slump in the beef market. Only a few Aboriginal men were ever employed as stockmen there. In 1987 the station was acquired by the Commonwealth and incorporated in Kakadu National Park. The outgoing owners were given until December 1988 to clear the area of buffalo and cattle.
Joseph Callanan established Gimbat in about 1937. He employed Aboriginal men as station hands, and some Aboriginal women were employed to look after 'coachers' (quiet cattle that on a muster were put with wild cattle to steady them down). Callanan is described by some as a tough man who wanted hard work for little reward. As was the practice on many pastoral stations in northern Australia, Aboriginal people were paid in food rations. In 1964 Gimbat was bought by Sir William Gunn, but by the late 1960s Gunn's ventures were in financial difficulty and Gimbat was virtually abandoned. In 1980 Helmut Schimmel bought Gimbat with the intention of exploiting the large number of buffaloes that were now on the station. The Commonwealth bought the station in 1987 and incorporated it in Kakadu National Park.