Challa shares an extensive boundary with Meeline. This property completes the Western Deserts landscape for Forever Wild, and was acquired in late 2025 from the Dowden family. The Dowdens had owned and managed Challa since 1888.
Spanning a vast 220,000 hectares, Challa Station hold extensive cultural heritage sites, and is rich in biological diversity - over 1000 vascular plants have been recorded on this property!
This property is the head-catchment for the lake systems that flows through Meeline, into Boodanoo and Narndee, and onwards to the Warne River. By having Challa within the Western Deserts landscape, we can now holistically manage the entire wetland system that connects the 4 properties.
Wilderness Values
Challa is vast, and sitting at the northern end of our Western Deserts landscape receives the lowest average rainfall of all four properties. The property has a number of banded ironstone hills, and spectacular scenery. Standing on the high viewpoints at Challa Station offers an extraordinary perspective on the entire landscape, stretching over 100km north-south.
Human Spirit
Challa is truly rich in cultural heritage. The old shearing shed still stands, with the wool press ready to go. Standing inside, it feels as if the old timbers still hold the echoes of the shearers' voices, now long silent.
Beyond the edge of the sheds and homestead, the ancient land stretches away in all directions, beckoning the adventurous (and well-prepared) to explore, to camp under the endless starry skies, and to reflect on the priceless value of the Earth's remaining wildernesses.
Biodiversity
The Dowden family spent years recording the biological diversity on Challa Station, and we are lucky enough to have many of those records. Plant life is incredibly diverse, partly as the vegetation on Challa changes regularly, and partly due to the diverse soils.
We expect that in the years to come, we will discover many species new to science, and this will be a major focus for us going forward.
Wilderness Economies
Samphire Wild is the operating company in the Forever Wild Group, and oversees all operations on Challa. The station has been run conservatively over the years, as a sheep and then a beef cattle enterprise, and we will maintain that ethos as we slowly work towards even lower impact, while remaining economically viable and ensuring Challa remains an active contributor to the local economy.
