Todmorden Station is located approximately 100 kilometres north of Oodnadatta and Henbury Station and 120 kilometres south of Alice Springs.
Writing about Todmorden Skipper Partridge,the patrol padre of Central Australia for much of the first half of the twentieth century, called it:
‘One of the happiest and most hospitable places it has been my lot to stay in. On conditions at that Station homestead he says: ‘Sixty miles from town one would expect anything but what he finds, for the station is self sustaining from scent sprays in the drawing room to meat in the meat house. The place was a centre of activity. It was taken for granted that I would remain for Christmas, and there were nineteen of us seated around at Christmas dinner…there was Kemp, manager of Macumba Station, Arthur Giles and his sister Lorna from Oodna, the three Breaden girls, and some girl companions from school, and Miss Renwick. It was, I believe, the liveliest Christmas I ever spent – and there in the heart of the Never-Never…There was a super-abundance of life that spent itself eating and drinking, sleeping and skylarking, bathing and getting dirty, motoring and picnicking in the sandy creeks by moonlight, listening to good singing and excellent playing.
‘Christmas Eve 11.30pm saw us all on the front lawn formed up in a circle. And there from the heart of the Bush there swelled forth upon the stillness of the night the strains of immortal National Anthem telling us that out there on the frontier of the nation the hearts were loyal and unforgetful' (Partridge in Giles, 73)
• R. Bruce Plowman also wrote about Todmorden:
‘There are a number of homes throughout the Inland whose names deserve to be recorded in letters of gold because of the fine and encouraging things they stand for. Among these was Todmorden.’ He calls it a ‘place of comfort and luxury’. ‘The big rambling homestead, built for comfort, consisted of three groups of detached rooms in the form of the two arms and body of a cross. These groups were brought into one compact whole by a series of verandas, which not only joined them together but surrounded each group as well. At the head of the cross, but quite detached, was a fine big bathroom. For a hot climate it was an excellent arrangement, allowing air to circulate round all the rooms, and providing an abundance of airy and shady places at all hours of the day. ‘An abundant water-service provided for the kitchen, the bathroom, the garden, and the huge Coolgardie safe capable of holding a whole bullock, and guaranteeing that there would never be a shortage of fresh meat. ‘The sitting room was spacious, furnished with a great variety of old-fashioned and comfortable chairs and sofas. In one corner stood a piano, and dainty curtains adorned the windows. In the owner’s office (167) was a quarter-sized billiard table, round which every Saturday night all who were at the homestead gathered for a friendly game. The members of the family, the governess, the cook, the chauffeur (the first of his kind in Central Australia), the stockmen, and any visitors – and there were nearly always visitors – divided into teams for the weekly event […] For that one night every week all hands met on terms of equality as the owner’s guests, and neither child nor visitor was permitted to make distinctions’ (plowman 168)
References:
Arch Grant, Camel, Train and Aeroplane: The Story of Skipper Partridge, Rigby, Adelaide, 1981
R. B. Plowman, Camel Pads, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1933
