Shine Awards: Lyndee Severin’s big heart at the red centre

Lyndee Severin is an outback woman whose outlook on life mimics the landscape: warm, open and with endless opportunity.

Lyndee Severin is one of those rural women whose attitude and outlook on life mimics the landscape around her: it’s warm, open, and abundant with possibility.

Lyndee and her husband Ash run Curtin Springs cattle station, 360km southwest of Alice Springs. The station spans more than 400,000ha, and includes their wayside inn and accommodation for tourists to the red centre.

Curtin Springs also makes paper from native grasses found on the property, another arm in their sprawling enterprise.

The property has been in Ash’s family since 1956.

Ash and Lyndee Severin run Curtin Springs station in the Northern Territory, while juggling farming with their accommodation business. Picture: Supplied.

“The station would provide spare tyres, a cold drink … our location meant we were in a spot where those early visitors needed to pass through,” Lyndee said.

What first started as a family endeavour to supply cool drinks and supplies to some of the tentative first travellers to Uluru, has grown to 27 rooms of accommodation and more.

Alongside their accommodation business, Lyndee and Ash manage about 4000 head of Murray Grey cattle, which are sold on to sale yards and feedlots.

Lyndee is a savvy businesswoman, keen on working alongside nature in order to best make a profit in a sustainable fashion.

“Our perfect number is about 4000 head … you wanna run a number you can run sustainably,” Lyndee said.

“And that means that the animals are actually really well adapted into the landscape … corporate knowledge and the business wisdom of how to survive in the landscape actually sits in the animals, it doesn’t sit in the office.”

Curtin Springs Northern Territory, spans more than a 400,000ha. Picture: Supplied.

Barriers in recent years included the pandemic, the cattle market crash, and more recently, cost of living pressures hampering tourism and limiting travel options for many Australians.

Add in the recent cattle market woes and many in Lyndee’s shoes would be willing to throw in the towel.

But this woman is resilient, hard working, and passionate about what she does, seeking out opportunities to buffer the farm, business, and family from economic headwinds.

“We want to know, how do we encourage people to stay a bit longer? How do we look at becoming that destination? How do we tell our story?” Lyndee said.