Ti Tree Food Barn

In 1888 an area of about 64 km incorporating the well was formally set aside as the Tea Tree Telegraph Reserve and in 1919 W. J. Heffernan was granted a lease to a parcel of land which he called Tea Tree Station. The current station covers an area of 3584 sq. km.Since the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line Tea Tree Well had become known for its good supply of sweet water but this was not enough to make Heffernan's labours financially rewarding. By 1935 the run was poorly improved with primitive buildings and no horse or bullock paddocks. Heffernan died in Alice Springs in 1969 and the station was carried on by his widow.In 1975 Ian Dahlenberg took up 640 acres of the station and established Dahlenberg Horticultural Enterprise which now grows grapes and watermelons on Ti Tree Farm.Ti Tree Station was sold to the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission in 1976 and became a subject of a land claim on behalf of the local Aboriginal people.The topography around Ti Tree is characterised by flat plains with the Reynolds Ranges in the southwest and the Watt Ranges in the northeast.The area around Ti Tree has a population of about 1450 people of whom only 130 are non-Aboriginal. The population is distributed between the 11 cattle stations, 6 Aboriginal outstations, Ti Tree township, Barrow Creek community and the agricultural produce farms of Ti Tree Farm, Central Australian Produce Farm and the Territory Grape Farm