Donald McLean (pastoralist)
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Donald McLean | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1780 Argyleshire, Scotland |
| Died | 11 October 1855 (75 years)[1] |
| Spouse |
Christina McPhee (m. 1810) |
| Children | 11 |
Donald McLean (c.1780 – 11 October 1855) was a Scottish-born Australian pastoralist.
McLean, a Scotsman from Duisky, near Blaich, Ardgour, Argyleshire, was in July 1837 an early investor with the South Australian Company; for his £1000 he was entitled to select one "town acre", one surveyed section near the city, and the option on one future special survey further away. His family were once substantial landowners, but he was reduced to the status of tenant farmer. He was clearly not without means however; £1000 would be equivalent to several million dollars today.[citation needed]
The 1836 famine in Scotland which led to one of the Highland Clearances may have been a factor in this decision, and to live in the new province. He and his large family emigrated on the Navarino, falsifying their ages and occupations in order to qualify for free passage. They arriving at Holdfast Bay on 6 December 1837. He selected "grid plan" number 57 on Hindley Street and Section 50, Hundred of Adelaide, an 80 acres (32 ha) property at Hilton, South Australia, a few miles from Adelaide, adjacent to one of Charles George Everard's selections. Immediately on arrival in South Australia he sent his son Allan to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) to bring back a team of working buffalo, implements and seed wheat, which they planted and reaped by hand in 1838, arguably the first such crop in the colony. He built a modest house. Ten years later he sold the property to John Marles (c. 1817–1914); it is now the suburb Marleston.[citation needed]
He selected a property at Strathalbyn, part of the Angas Special Survey of 1841,[2] and was the second settler there, after John Rankine. He built a two-storey house which he named either "Auchananda" or "Auchanada's",[2] where he died on 11 October 1855.[citation needed]
Wheat
McLean is generally credited with producing South Australia's first commercial crop of 20 acres of wheat in December 1838,[3] but it is likely that others had domestic plots at home of small plantings around the same time. Dr. Everard had a small plot at his home on the corner of Hindley and Morphett Streets — the ground was hard and apparently infertile, but the experiment was successful, and heavy ears of grain were produced, to the discomfiture of his detractors.
Claims that eldest son Allan McLean was the first to plough land in South Australia on Donald Mcleans '80 acres (32 ha) at Hilton ([3a] with plough newly purchased in January 1838 from Tasmania), were refuted by John Chambers.[4]