A Man with Vision
John Dunnicliff Late of Beetaloo Station Elliott Northern Territory.
A Man with Vision
John Dunnicliff passed away early on Easter Sunday morning.
John will be sadly missed by a lot of people who new John he was a man with vision.
Late of Beetaloo Station Elliott Northern Territory.
Loved husband of Trish, loving Father and Father in law to Jane and Scott, Kate and Anthony, Emma and Adrian and adored Grandfather to Jimmy, Lockie, Jack, Tessie, Sam, Maddie, Charlotte, Elise, Josh, Sam, Ruby and Joe.
Family and friends are invited to attend John's Funeral Service to be held at the Holy Name Parish, 35 Billyard Ave, Wahroonga, . Tuesday the 5th of April 2016 at 11am.
Our thoughts are with the Dunnicliff family.
For the past decade, the Dunnicliff and Armstrong families have implemented a daring development plan at ‘Beetaloo Station’, Northern Territory. In transforming their 1,054,700ha piece of the Barkley Tablelands into a well-watered and sustainably-grazed enterprise, the family has lifted carrying capacity from 20,000 to 100,000 head, while providing a blueprint for northern development.
The improvements are impressive: they are on track to finish 600 watering points by next year (at a cost of $60,000 each), linked by a network of bores, pipes and fences.
While John Dunnicliff – who runs Beetaloo with wife Trish, daughter Jane and son-in-law Scott Armstrong – admits there are times he thinks they were crazy to tackle such a project, he doesn’t hesitate when asked if the investment was worthwhile.
“We are in the business of growing grass and selling it as beef, but we can’t do that without water. Our business starts and stops with water,” John said.
When the Dunnicliffs acquired Beetaloo (encompassing the perpetual pastoral leases of Beetaloo, OT Downs and Mungabroom) in 2002, less than 10% of the land was effectively watered.
“With the exception of heavily-grazed areas surrounding water points, most of the station was in a natural state with large areas that had never been grazed,” John said.
