Portrait of James Fisher from Bundaleer from the S.A. Northern Pioneers' composite, 1850-1859 (shown in position on B 6912/2).

James Fisher was born c. 1816. James was the elder son of Sir James Hurtle Fisher, the first resident commissioner of South Australia. The family arrived on the Buffalo (ship) in December 1836.

After a brief interlude as a merchant and importer, James Fisher went into partnership with his brother Charles in pastoral leases. They bought Bundaleer near Clare in 1854 and Hill River, also near Clare in 1855 after selling large numbers of sheep and cattle to the Victorian goldfields. The Fishers would become one of the biggest pastoralists in Australia with properties in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and later in the Northern Territory.

James Fisher retired to England with eye trouble, brought on he believed by years of overlanding herds from New South Wales. The partnership between the brothers was dissolved in the early 1870s, but on the most amicable of terms, with the brothers remaining in frequent communication. James also made a number of trips back to Australia.

James Fisher died in 1913 in England.

Fisher, James, 1816-1913

Fisher, C. B. (Charles Brown), 1818-1908

Fisher, Sir James Hurtle, 1790-1875

Cockburn, R Pastoral pioneers of South Australia Adelaide : Publishers Limited, 1925-1927 ("Reprinted from the Adelaide Stock and Station Journal.") vol. 1 pp. 16-17

Pitt, G. H. Historical notes on Lockleys Research note, no. 284 includes notes on James and Charles Brown Fisher, early settlers in the area.

Morphett, George C C.B. Fisher: pastoralist, studmaster and sportsman: an epic of pioneering Adelaide: Advertiser Printing Office, 1945

Bundaleer Station 1870

Bundaleer Station 1890

Reaping operations using horse drawn machinery on C.B. Fisher's farm at Hill River Estate, 2 miles east of Clare. (60,000 acres) 1871

Woolshed, Hill River 1870

Australian dictionary of biography online edition : Search for Fisher, Charles Brown (includes information on James Fisher)