Narloo Station

The former Narloo Station was located in the Murchison Region of Western Australia and was about 550km by road north of Perth. It falls just within the Shire of Yalgoo and part of the boundary of Narloo is part of the Shire boundary. The total area was only 14,998 hectares (37,061 acres) which is almost as big as Liechtenstein (16,000 hectares)

John Brand (about 1861 - 1934), son of Isobel/Isabella Duncan and George Brand was an expert with horses before moving from the Coolgardie goldfields to the Murchison district. He had a team of cartage horses and a business in the town of Yuin Reef. He established the small Narloo Station to provide the horses for his team. The land had not been included in nearby leases, although neighbouring stations may have previously made use of it. John Brand was bankrupt at the time so the Narloo lease was in the name of his wife, Sarah (Ann/Jane) Brand (nee Gould). This may have been the S Brand that took up a separate lease (829/96) in the Woojalong Hills which later become a part of Woodgalong Station and which in turn was absorbed into Jingemarra.

John and Sarah Brand had four sons and three daughters:

• Edward (Ted) George was born 1883 in Geraldton. He married May Eliza Pomeroy nee Cooper in Perth in 1906. As May was a bigamist this marriage was probably annulled, and they remarried in 1916. He died in 1953 in the Gnowangerup Hospital.
• Edith (born 1884, Geraldton, died 1939, Subiaco), married Reginald (Reg) William Fremlin (born about 1874, died Mullewa, 1954) in 1913 in Yuin Reef. Reg at the time was the manager of Yuin Station.
• Maude was born 1886 in Geraldton, she married Julius Adolph Loeper in Geraldton in 1905 and died 1974 in Toodyay.
• John Alfred (Alf) (born 1889, Geraldton, died 1956, Perth)
• Forrest (Forrie) was born in 1895 in Mullewa. Forrest was wounded in action in France during WWI. He married Jessie (Jess) Elizabeth McLean in 1920 in St Andrew's Church in Perth. In 1942 while working as a foreman in the Big Bell mill refinery he enrolled in the Volunteer Defence Corps. He died in 1968 in Mount Magnet and is buried in the local cemetery.
• Albert (Bertie) David (born 1892 Chapman, died 1966, East Victoria Park). Bertie married Winifred (Winnie) Catherine McDonald McLean (sister of Jess) at Yuin in 1921.
• Winifred Alice was born in 1901 in the Yalgoo district, married John Collard Bushell in 1919 in Perth, and she died 1925 in Watheroo.

Bertie and Forrie Brand ran the station for many years.

Bertie and Jess are said to have had fifteen children including Alan/Allan (born 1922), Ian David (born 1923), Neil and Douglas (Doug) (born c1925). Marion was the second youngest. Two of the children (Keith died in 1928 in Mullewa Hospital aged 10 weeks) did not survive to adulthood. Doug's education was by correspondence.

Doug (the third eldest) married Valerie (Val) Mae McGuire in 1960. Val was from Ballina on the north coast of New South Wales where Val's parents were dairy farmers. Val came to Western Australia twice to visit her sister and on one occasion worked for a short time at Scotch College. Val Brand moved to Narloo in 1960.

Doug owned the station for about four years before he died in 1985 in Mullewa. For the next twenty years Val ran the property on her own. At first, she did the mill run on a bicycle and later on a quad bike. In mid-2000 Val sold the station to the Department of Conservation and Land Management. For the entire existence of the pastoral station members of the Brand family owned it.

Initially, the station ran horses, but on the closure of the Royal Standard Mine in 1936 changed to running sheep for wool.

Notes.

In the early nineteen hundreds E.G. Brand (probably Edward George Brand, son of John & Sarah) acquired one of the leases which was to become part of Tardie Station. He later acquired other Tardie leases with J.H. Gerrard.

The brothers Sir David Brand (1912-1979) and Reginald (Reg) Lloyd (1917 - 1986) were sons of Albert John Brand and Hilda Mitchell. It is said that their father was the son of George Brand and Isabella Duncan and therefore they were cousins of John Brand. Reg was a surveyor and surveyed the Sandstone Road. Sir David was a Premier of Western Australia from 2 April 1959 to 3 March 1971.

Acknowledgments.

Valerie (Val) Brand (c1926 - 2014) for providing much of the information on which this document is based.
Michael and Jano Foulkes-Taylor for additional information.

References.

Black, D and Bolton, G (1990) Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia Volume Two 1930-1990. Western Australian Parliamentary History Project
Brand, Val. (2006) Personal communication.
Curry, P J, Payne, A L, Leighton, K A, Hennig, P, and Blood, D A. (1994), An inventory and condition survey of the Murchison River catchment, Western Australia. Department of Agriculture, Perth. Technical Bulletin 84.
Government of Western Australia, Department of Justice, Online Index Search Tool. https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-justice/online-index-search-tool
National Archives of Australia B884, BRAND FORREST Item ID 5875920
National Archives of Australia B2455, BRAND F Item ID 3113045
Nixon, Marion and Lefroy, R.F.B. (nd) Road to the Murchison: An Illustrated Story of the District and its People. Shire of Murchison
Palmer, Alex (1985) Yalgoo LAP Industries .