Old Andado - NT

Old Andado Homestead is the former home of Mac & Molly Clark who are the most notable pioneers of the Andado cattle station that operated here from the early 1900's.

In the early years, various pastoral leases were owned by people on the land that later became known as Andado Station in the 1920s. The station also changed hands several times

The original home that is now heritage listed, was built in 1922. The first station workers previously lived in temporary shelters and mud brick huts but nothing remains of those. Cooking was done outside on a fire pit until 1924 when the kitchen was added to the house.

The Clarks were not the first people to live there, in fact Mac Clark didn't start working at Andado until 1949 and Molly joined him in 1951. However, they soon became joint owners and later full owners.

A new homestead was built 20 kilometres away in the 1950s and the old place left to ruin. Molly and Mac had 3 sons and they restored the old homestead in the early 1970s and established a tourism business there to show the hardships of life in the pioneering days.

A series of tragedies in the late 1970s, including the death of Mac in a plane crash and a complete de-stock of the property made the station worthless after their cattle were found to have tuberculosis. However, Molly wanted to reclaim the old homestead and the tourism business so she eventually secured a lease over a small portion of the property and was able to re-establish it as a working cattle station albeit small.

Molly continued to run "Old Andado" right through to the 1980s when the land changed hands again. In those days, she worked tirelessly with the people of the region. She was a remarkable pioneer of the area and her influence and work is highly respected in the region. She did a lot of work with the bush children, the flying doctors, the CWA and put a lot of money into other charities as well. Everything she made from the tourism venture went to charity. She started the Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame in Alice Springs and she ended up building the track to Alice Springs (via Allambie Station) to save miles to get her shopping. The only alternative route at the time was to go via Finke and then back up the Ghan Road. She blazed the track for her own use by towing a railway sleeper. It started getting used and then the Works Dept made a proper road out of it using the grader in 1991. This road is the Binns Track and the route of this Trek Note.

Molly lived in the homestead exactly as it can be seen today right up to the year 2000 when she broke her hip. She was moved to Alice Springs but the property was managed by caretakers so she would return from time to time to help out and oversee. Molly died in 2012 and has been buried back on the property - the grave site is across the creek and is marked with a plaque.

The Old Andado station is a beautiful and unique place that is now Heritage listed. The interesting feature about this homestead is the early 1950s furnishings, memorabilia, books and artefacts. Old Andado does not make profit but has relied on a Volunteer Caretakers system. The family have worked hard to keep Molly's legacy intact.

To stay up to date with the future of Old Andado, see their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/oldandado/. A post to this page on 23 July 2018 states that the property will be soon handed over to a new leasee who will conduct a tourist based business, which would indicate that access to the homestead and camping will continue.