John McKinlay and his party would have trekked through the area in 1862, while searching for the
Burke and Wills expedition, following the banks to the Diamantina to where it met
Middleton Creek en route to the
Gulf of Carpentaria. This point later became the boundary of the Elderslie.
William Landsborough also passed through in 1866 and described the land as well grassed in season but stocking it could be difficult through lack of surface water. In 1873, William Forsayth took up three blocks fronting the Diamantina and Western Rivers covering some and named the run Doveridge. and then later the same year Forsayth transferred the lease to Donald Wallace, a
Victorian pastoralist, who began to acquire surrounding blocks until the area was , encompassing the land where
Winton is located all the way to Middleton Creek. By 1887, the property was advertised as occupying an area of and held 40,000 sheep, 13,000 cattle, and 250 horses. The adjoining properties included Warrnambool Downs, Vindex, Ayrshire Downs, and
Dagworth Stations. At the time, the lease had of double frontage to the
Western River and over of double frontage to Middleton Creek with of fencing having been installed. In 1891, the property had 70,000 sheep and 20,000 head of cattle depastured, and was still owned by Samuel Wilson. The
woolshed burnt down later the same year.
Banjo Paterson was thought to have worked at Elderslie as a
jackeroo or storekeeper in 1895, at about the time he wrote "
Waltzing Matilda", while visiting nearby
Dagworth Station. The property was sold in 1896 by the executors of Wilson's estate to the Ramsay brothers. An
engineer named Douglas Hutchinson drowned when he tried to cross the
Diamantina River in 1901. In 1912, the size of the station was , and held a flock of about 112,000 sheep. The property was sold by the then owners, the Ramsay brothers, for £110,000. It had been acquired by Mr. C. J. Brabazon, who had recently sold Warenda Station and began improving his new run by employing about 100 men to work on fencing and other projects. The first commercial flight in the Northern Territory by
Qantas carried Mr. C. J. Brabazon from Elderslie to
Austral Downs, another property he owned, in 1921. The property was sold in 1924 by the Queensland Stock and Breeders Company to a Southern company, Australian Estates and Mortgage Company, that already had large interests in Queensland. The sale included the 80,000 sheep with which the property was stocked, along with all plant and equipment. At this time the station occupied an area of . By 1933, the size of the property was and it was staffed by about 36 people. In 1950, the property was sold by the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company and was then divided into seven separate grazing properties which were opened up for selection by the ballot process. The Elderslie leasehold was reduced to a size of and purchased by John Dixon, who sold again in 1954 to Keith Watts for five shillings per acre. Watts started to carry out repairs on the homestead which were later classified by the
National Trust. A
drover drowned while trying to ford the swollen Workingham Creek in 1955. During the 1980s, the roof of the manager's house was damaged during storms, resulting in the deterioration of the building. The property was still owned by the Watts family in 2011 and was stocked with a flock of 5300 sheep and 800 cattle. ==See also==