Finniss Springs is located south of the Oodnadatta Track, 50km west of Marree on Arabana Country, South Australia. Pastoralist Francis Dunbar Warren established a station at Finniss Springs in 1922, and lived there with his wife Laura Paralta, an Arabana woman, and their seven children until his death in 1958. At a time when Aboriginal children were forcefully removed from their families, Finniss Springs station became a refuge for Aboriginal people – Warren refused to allow the children at the station to be removed. In 1939, he agreed to the establishment of the Finniss Springs Mission by the United Aborigines’ Mission. The station operated as a mission, school, dormitory and government ration station until severe droughts, water shortages and fire led to its permanent closure in 1962.
