Alfred Weaver, pastoralist, 1801-1891

Weaver arrived in South Australia in 1839, with his wife and two labourers. By 1840 he had established himself on a property on South Road which was planted with wheat, barley and oats, and a flock of 500 sheep. By 1846 he held property at Currency Creek. One of his employees, Charles Parrington was sent to scout for other land and on his advice Weaver took up the lease on 52 square miles (over 13,000 hectares) of land at Oyster Bay. He ran about 7000 sheep, and also bred horses which he drove to sales yards at Salisbury.

Weaver moved with his family to the Yorke Peninsula, built his house and a stone tank to gather the runoff down a hill at Stansbury: he acquired land further south as well at Weaver's Lagoon, but kept this only for a few years before selling the lease in 1848. There were ongoing difficulties with the Aboriginal people, and with a small gang of bushrangers and murderers. Inspector Tolmer of the Police Force in Adelaide was sent over to deal with this problem, but these issues and the isolation persuaded Weaver that life on the Peninsula was not for him and he returned to his property at South Road, where among other pursuits he grew vines and produced good wine.

Parrington, Charles, 1811-1877

Cockburn, Rodney, Pastoral pioneers of South Australia [Facsimile ed.] indexed by A. Dorothy Aldersey Blackwood, S.A.: Lynton Publications, [1974] volume 1 pp. 118-9

Stansbury 1873-1973, 1986 [Stansbury, S. Aust.]: Stansbury Centenary Committee, 1986

Linn, Rob Battling the land: 200 years of rural Australia St Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1999