Cliffdale Station was divided off from Westmoreland Station in 1959. It was first taken up as a separate lease in 1960 for an annual rent of Three Hundred and Four Pounds and Four Shillings, or Nine Shillings per square km per annum, approximately 34 cents per square km. Cliffdale Station is 1710 square km or 171,000 hectares.
Bill & Leona Olive and their partners, purchased Cliffdale Station's lease in 1973. At the time, the number of cattle were unable to be estimated as all the stock were feral. No fences had been built nor any buildings erected, except one round paddock of approximately 2.58 square km, and one small set of yards made out of bush timber.
Shortly after the purchase of the lease, the 1974 beef crash happened. This led to an all time low in beef cattle prices. With this slump in cattle prices, there was no point in continuing to develop the property. The station laid idle until 1980.
In 1980 with a working capital of $10,000 the next chapter of Cliffdale Station began. Since 1980, some 322 km of fencing has been erected and 4 dams constructed. No easy task as lines and sites had to be cleared through thick tea tree scrub.
The Roadhouse
The completion of the B.T.E.C (Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign) left the cattle herd completely depleted. Facing a period of six years of extremely low income, the decision was made to establish the Hell's Gate Roadhouse. In 1985, building materials were purchased and the profusion of red tape applying to the setting up, building, gaining licenses and permits for the roadhouse, were finally untangled, translated into understandable terms and overcome. Luckily the building was completed before the onset of the wet season. On April 5th 1986, ‘Hell’s Gate Roadhouse’ was officially opened.
By now Cliffdale Station had re-established a herd of some 400 tested cattle ‘behind wire’. This herd was tested and certified clean and free of TB in early 1991.
Where does the name Hell’s Gate Originate
The roadhouse got its name from a small gap in the escarpment about 1km south where the road passes through that gap called Hell's Gate.
In the early days of the Gulf settlement the police would escort settlers and travellers from Corinda at the Nicholson River to the portal of Hell's Gate. In those days people travelled either on foot or at best mounted on horses. It was named Hell's Gate because once passed the gap, the travellers were on their own until they reached the safety of police protection at Katherine in the Northern Territory. Considering that roads, 4WD's or two way radios didn't exist then and the land passed Hell's Gate was largely unexplored and considered to be dangerous, the name was quite appropriate.
In 1881, the legendary explorer, overlander and bushman Nat Buchanan travelled on that same road through Hell's Gate when he guided the first settlers to take up and settle the first two cattle runs in the Northern Territory.