Map showing Wallaroo area from Point Riley to several coastal bays south. The sketch shows grassland in little detail, but there are notes on the bottom of the map.

Walter Watson Hughes arrived in South Australia around 1840 and originally took up land near Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills on which to run his sheep. Later, with his brother-in-law John Duncan, Hughes purchased land at Wallaroo in the northern Yorke Peninsula. He was interested in mineralogy and believed that mineral deposits existed on Yorke Peninsula. Hughes charged his shepherds with observing for evidence of these deposits whilst minding the sheep. One of Hughes' shepherds, James Boor, reported a sighting of green rocks in 1859 and when the discovery was confirmed as copper a rush for land began.

In his history of the Wallaroo Mine Bailey writes:

Because of the glowing reports brought back to Adelaide some claims were taken out by people who did not even take the trouble to inspect the land first but made their selection at random from a map. J.B. Austin, a mine agent and broker, wrote in 1863 (three years after the discovery) that "not more than half a dozen of the YP claims show at this time any prospect of proving renumerative, and not even half that number are as yet paying." Walter Hughes, astute businessman that he was, had made sure before announcing the find that he had obtained leases to the more promising sections (p. 6).

Hughes established a mine on his Wallaroo property and subsequently copper was also discovered on his Moonta property. Hughes' mining company, which exploited both sites, became the first Australian company to make a million pounds in dividends in 1877.

Hughes, Walter Watson, 1803-1887

Bailey, Keith. The Wallaroo mine, Kadina, South Australia (1860-1923) : a pictorial history, Adelaide : National Trust of South Australia, 1985

Wiltshire, Rex. Copper to gold : a history of Wallaroo : Wallaroo, South Australia, 1860-1923, Wallaroo, S. Aust.: Corporation of the Town of Wallaroo, [1983]

Russack, E. K. Wallaroo Mines, Wallaroo, Kadina copper centenary celebrations, 1860-1960 : souvenir programme, October 7th to 12th, 1960 / [Comp. by E.K. Russack. Centenary Celebrations Committee of the Corporation of Wallaroo, Corporation of Kadina and District Council of Kadina Kadina, 1960]

Perry, Edward Leighton. Chronology of Moonta, Wallaroo, Kadina and surrounding districts as reported in the Yorke's Peninsula advertiser, 1872-1914., [Unley Park, S.A., The Author, 1967]