Portrait of P. Ferguson from Crystal Brook from the S.A. Northern Pioneers' composite, 1850-1859 (shown in position on B 6912/3).

Peter Ferguson was in partnership with William Younghusband during the 1840s-1850s in the Crystal Brook run, 560 square miles of country which included the region of present day Port Pirie. It was stocked with 25,000 sheep and 3400 cattle, and was sold to the Bowman brothers for 50,000 pounds. Ferguson and Younghusband then took up the Mount Hamilton run on the road from Nuccaleena to Mount Margaret. It comprised over 780 square miles of land and included the artesian mound spring Blanche Cup. The property suffered heavy losses in the drought of the 1860s. Ferguson then became a travelling stock manager for Herbert Bristow Hughes and on one occasion overlanded a flock of 4000 sheep from Hughes' Kinchega property in western New South Wales to his South Australian station Booyoolee in the Mid North.

Peter Ferguson died 11 September 1877 aged 65 years. His long time partner William Younghusband died in May 1863.

Younghusband, William 1814?-1863

Cockburn, R Pastoral pioneers of South Australia Adelaide: Publishers Limited, 1925-1927 ("Reprinted from the Adelaide Stock and Station Journal.") vol. 1, pp. 141-42

Death of Mr Peter Ferguson South Australian register, 6 October 1877, p. 13, col. g

About mound springs

SA Memory: Taking it to the edge: Did you know? Mound springs