Thomas Elder, Robert Barr Smith from South Australia in 1863 build vast empire of pastoral property and wool trade
Investing in the Moonta and Wallaroo copper mines (inset, left) on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula allowed Thomas Elder and Robert Barr Smith to concentrate on their Elder, Smith & Co. vast empire pastoral properties with wool broking through Port Adelaide (inset, right). Barr Smith closely watched business through his "Commonplace Books" (inset, centre) recording wool clips, estates, wills, fencing, sales of rams, property syndicates and shares.
Images (including main created by Lee Danielle Hayes) courtesy State Library of South Australia
Thomas Elder and Robert Barr Smith in 1863 formed the famous Elder, Smith & Co. that became unrivalled Australian leaders in pastoral and farming markets. After experiencing earlier business risks, the partnership of brothers in law Elder and Barr Smith grew with the Barr Smith’s analytical approach complementing Elder’s imagination.
With his brother George, Thomas Elder, at 36, has started Elder & Co. in South Australia in the early 1840s, with main investments and trade in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. He took shares in flour mills, financed farmers and wool growers, and was an agent and retailer for all kinds of goods. Within three years of arriving in South Australia in 1854, Elder was a major force in the province’s business.
In 1856, Elder formed a new partnership, Elder Stirling & Co., with Barr Smith, Edward Stirling and John Taylor. Taylor was a difficult partner and took the business into risky areas. It expanded into the Murray Basin soon after the river’s first steam navigation, began lending large sums to pastoralists moving into South Australia’s north and invested in major runs there.
Debts built to dangerous levels and the firm was soon close to collapse. Its downfall was averted when, in 1860, it became the joint owner, with Walter Watson Hughes, of the vast Moonta and Wallaroo copper mines on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. With his firm acting as the mines’ banker, Elder began to accrue major wealth. Financing the mines enhanced Elder’s reputation but he was relieved when the banks took over that role.
With Stirling and Taylor retiring in 1863, Elder and Barr Smith returned their attention to the pastoral and farming markets through Elder, Smith & Co,. They built up a huge pastoral empire, spread over many thousands of square miles into the extremes of South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. With Barr Smith, Elder bought Nilpena station in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges in 1859. Elder became associated with Peter Waite in the Paratoo run in 1862 – the same year he bought Beltana station, also in the Flinders Ranges. Other Elder properties added during this time included Ketchowla Station, Oulnina, Anabama, Tualkilky, Grampus, Ouratan and Netley.
Elder Smith & Co. became one of the world's largest wool-selling firms with Barr Smith conceding later that wool, not the mining investment, was its most satisfying asset. Elder and Barr Smith's huge pastoral territory, with stations also including Umberatana, Mount Lyndhurst and Blanchewater, was said to be bigger than the whole of their native Scotland. Much of its land had a very low rainfall, and Elder spent a great deal of money sinking artesian wells, making dams and fencing – with the importing camels and the astute management of Peter Waite as added major assets.
Barr Smith had vast pastoral leases of his own, with Elder and others. His first property, Yalata station, at Fowlers Bay in the 1860s in partnership with William Swan, eventually stretched from the head of the Great Australian Bight to Streaky Bay. Other South Australian stations included the Hummocks, Bundaleer and Warrakimo. Ned’s Corner run covered 1,300 square miles in northwest Victoria and 100 miles in South Australia. The southwest Queensland runs of Gooyea, Tintinchilla, Welford Downs and Sedan were amalgamated to form the Milo and Welford Downs company.
Milo’s largest wool clip was taken in 1891 when 507,774 sheep were shorn for 6,232 bales of wool. In the early 1880s Elders, Smith & Co were shearing at least 1.5 million sheep across their properties, yielding conservatively 30,000 bales. Elder also started a horse-breeding centre at Blanchetown to supply stock to the Indian market. Elders, Smith & Co. was directly or indirectly concerned with every branch of commerce: mercantile, shipping, mining, pastoral, and financial.
