Mount Hart Wilderness Lodge - WA

At Mt Hart you will be able to enjoy rare flora and fauna (including friendly resident dingoes), peace and serenity, spectacular scenery, stunning geological features, a strong sense of pastoral and aboriginal history, as well as warm bush hospitality.

Covering almost a million acres of rugged terrain in the King Leopold Ranges, Mt Hart was taken up as a pastoral lease in 1914 by Bill Chalmers and Felix Edgar. These two intrepid men were the first pastoralists to take up a station "over the range". After twenty years of hard work, with little reward, the station was abandoned in 1934. "Stumpy Fraser", who took up the lease in 1935, was immediately met by a severe drought, and was forced to relocate the homestead.

Eleven years later, a more severe drought inspired Stumpy to relocate the homestead again, to the present locality. But alas, even with permanent water, the inaccessibility of this rugged country forced Stumpy to abandon the station in 1957.

The current old homestead and the surrounding gardens of 'Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge' (formerly Mt Hart Station) were originally established by Charles Telford in 1960. Mt Hart cattle station's most prosperous years were during the late 1960s and 1970s, when it was owned by Thiess Brothers from Queensland, and under the managment of Peter Murray. During this time cattle numbers were increased to around 11,000 head. Thiess Brothers were also responsible for building the access road to the homestead, following the completion of the Gibb River Road in 1967.

Under the stewardship of various subsequent owners, Mt Hart was run as a working cattle station until 1987, when it was declassified as a viable pastoral lease, to become the proposed King Leopold Range Conservation Park, finally gazetted in August 2000 by CALM (Conservation And Land Management). Richard Court, then Premier of Western Australia, stated that the King Leopold Range Conservation Park, and Mitchell Plateau "..contain diverse and complex groupings of native flora and fauna..and are thought to be the only mainland parts of the state from which there have been no species extinctions since the coming of Europeans".

Taffy Abbotts entered into a ‘management agreement’ with CALM in 1990, to offer a dinner, bed and breakfast accommodation package at Mt Hart Homestead. The ‘old homestead’ was almost derelict when Taffy Abbotts first arrived at Mt Hart and he has dedicated a considerable amount of time, finances, energy and hard work restoring and preserving it. The tropical gardens and orchards surrounding the homestead have also been maintained, financed, extended and preserved by Taffy Abbotts over the past 17 years. With the addition of a “New Homestead” and a cottage in 1999, Taffy Abbotts in conjunction with CALM financing increased the accommodation capacity gradually to twenty-seven overnight guests.

"Mount Hart", is now run as a joint management venture between Taffy Abbotts, and D.E.C (The Department of Environment And Conservation - formerly CALM), in preserving our heritage and bio-diversity.
Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge has become an icon of private enterprise working hand in hand with the government.