Alexander Tolmer was a Police Commissioner, initiator of the gold escorts, and by all accounts a colourful character with a thirst for action and adventure.
South Australian mineral discoveries of the 1840s (especially at Kapunda and Burra in the Mid North) and extension of the farming frontier, were a magnet to the Cornish.
Elder Family of Scots merchants and ship owners saw the infant South Australia as an opportunity to expand their business interests. Alexander Lang Elder (1815–1885), the pioneer, arrived in 1839 and established a trading business.
Equal parts naturalist and artist, George French Angas depicted the South Australian landscape, Aboriginal inhabitants, and flora and fauna with meticulous accuracy.
Labour settlements were created during the 1890s to trial collective ownership, new farming technology and the high unemployment created by the Depression.