Aroona Homestead ruins

On the ridge above the Aroona hut lays the remains of the original Aroona run homestead built by John Hayward in 1851. Not far from the remains is a permanent spring which still bares water today. Hayward ran 3,300 sheep of the property. In 1853 Hayward made a profit of 1,419 pound on the 106 bales of wool from 9,500 sheep shorn. Hayward sold the property and returned to England a rich man with 40,000 pound only 15 years after his arrival with 40 pound. Bad droughts between 1864 - 1866 destroyed these pastoral runs and put an end to gross overstocking. The smaller runs never recovered. Some were absorbed into larger stations while others where abandoned.