Under the management of Eddie and Gerry Nunn, Macumba Station, in SA’s arid north, is run like a large extended family.
Story + Photos Andrew Hull
"You get some pretty good sunsets up here,” says plant operator Gordon Warren on the front porch of the cookhouse on Macumba Station, as a screech of corellas swoops over the homestead complex in the lowering purple hue to settle in the leafy coolibahs that line the nearby creek.
“Good sunrises, too,” he says after a minute, giving voice to what all are thinking as the station ringers and the sole jillaroo gather on the verandah, rolling and savouring smokes before dinner. “Yes, that’s part of it,” Gordon adds after another long pause, with the closing rap of the gauze door and the growing mealtime chatter breaking over the still, quiet, cool of the pastel evening.
Macumba Station lies roughly 40km north-east of Oodnadatta in SA’s arid north, with its south-east corner adjacent to the north-western edge of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. Originally one of Sidney Kidman’s mosaic of stations amassed to mitigate drought, maximise sparse rainfall and create a production line of fattening cattle all the way through to Adelaide markets, the 11,000sq km property is now owned by the Costello Cattle Company. Kidman assembled and operated a system of interconnected properties to create his legendary pastoral empire, on which cattle were moved around subject to conditions, but generally followed a north-to-south transition, fattening along the way, and arriving at market in good condition. While the aggregation has been broken up over the years, an echo of the enterprise resonates in the way that many of the properties, the companies and the people operate today.
“Macumba is a breeding and fattening block. It does the lot,” explains Edward ‘Eddie’ Nunn, the long-time manager of Macumba. “Blocks like this here in the Oodnadatta area, you’d be surprised how you’re fattening cattle here after a bit of rain. So, we target breeding, fattening, and sell our steers before they’re 3 years old if we can. Steers should be around that 600kg mark by then if the season’s with them.”
This story also appeared in the 2025 edition of Stations magazine.
This story excerpt is from issue #162
Outback Magazine: Aug/Sep 2025
