Fossil Downs Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) North East of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The first Europeans to visit the area were part of Alexander Forrest's party who passed through in 1879 followed by Charles Hall in 1885. Hall later struck gold at Halls Creek. The station was established the following year when cattle arrived from the eastern states to stock the lease. The lease had been issued in 1883 to Dan MacDonald for the MacDonald family who were living in Cliffords Creek, New South Wales at the time. He applied for an area of 100 square miles (259 km2) at the junction of the Margaret and Fitzroy Rivers.