A PIECE of the De Pledge family history has been sold.
The family has been involved with Mandora station, Eighty Mile Beach, south of Broome, since the 1900s.
Originally a mixed sheep and cattle station-turned cattle station, it has been bought by the West Australian station manager and co-owner, Haydn Sale and his family, who currently live on Yougawalla station, near Fitzroy Crossing.
The 94,000-hectare cattle station was purchased over the Christmas period, for an undisclosed price, with around 4500 head of mostly Droughtmaster cattle.
It is understood the station will be a new venture for the Sale family that will run it separately to its other Kimberley stations Bulka, Yougawalla, and Margaret River, which it co-owns with partners, including advertising mogul Harold Mitchell.
Farm Weekly understands former station owners Peter and Polly (nee De Pledge) Edmunds, are expecting to spend their time at Hooley Station near Wittenoom, which the De Pledge family own in the Pilbara and South of Broome.
Joe De Pledge (Polly's father) said they went to Mandora in 1945 and the family had Yanrey station first, in the 1800s.
Mr De Pledge said Thomas "Tom" De Pledge worked in the pastoral industry for many years before he went to Onslow to manage Yanrey station, which was then in the estate of the late John Stuart.
In 1898, Tom formally purchased Yanrey from the Stuart estate and it is still run by the De Pledge family today.
"After WWI here where two leases that later became one lease, to make up what is now Mandora," Mr De Pledge said.
"I was only four when we first came to Mandora and at that time it was half sheep and half cattle.
"It was my decision to get out of sheep in the end - in 1975 - because the wool cut was light, and it was hard to get more than 30 per cent lambing.
"There wasn't any money in it when the wool price dropped.
"It was an economic decision, but I love my cattle."
Mr De Pledge said he was one of the first pastoralists to introduce Droughtmasters to WA in 1977.
"I chose them because the Broome meatworks was going, so we sent them there," he said.
"But we also sold a lot of stores, and the South West preferred red cattle to the Brahmans.
"The Brahmans weren't known for their good temperaments at the time.
"So we went for Droughtmasters."
The De Pledge family will continue to run its Yanrey, Koordarrie and Hooley cattle stations.
Jacinta Bolsenbroek
Senior journalist at Farm Weekly.
Senior journalist at Farm Weekly.
