James Stein
James Stein (born c.1804, died October 1877) was an early settler in South Australia’s Mid North and the founder of Kadlunga, a large pastoral estate. He came from Scotland and was related to a notable whisky family. His father, John Stein of Kilbagie, Clackmannanshire, had whisky interests and was a London banker who sat in Parliament. James’s sister, Anne Duff, became Countess of Fife, and her family included a line of nobles connected to the British royal family.
In 1829, Stein’s family business faced financial trouble and dissolved. After a good education, he sailed to Australia in 1833, arriving in Sydney in September. He worked as a grazier in New South Wales, first around Goulburn and then Yass, and was an accomplished horseman who helped run the Argyle Hounds and took part in races and steeplechases. He joined a livestock overlanding venture from Bathurst to Adelaide in 1839, moving thousands of sheep, cattle, and horses with a group that included Charles Campbell and Evelyn Sturt. They settled briefly at Meadows, near Adelaide, before Stein and Sturt began their own runs in the Mid North.
By 1841 Stein and Campbell held occupation licenses in the Mid North, with Stein’s run stretching from Mount Horrocks, through Farrell Flat, toward the Wakefield River and Burra Creek; parts of Gum Creek near Manoora were also included. Some of his shepherds were Afghan men, brought to Australia as servants, who are sometimes said to have named Burra Burra Creek (though this is disputed). In 1845, a shepherd employed by Stein found the ore that led to the Burra copper mines, though Stein did not profit personally.
Kadlunga, Stein’s base, stood near Mount Horrocks, close to present-day Mintaro. John Oakden, an early partner, sometimes managed Kadlunga for Stein. Stein was an active community figure, promoting and judging horse races, serving as a magistrate, and acting as Justice of the Peace until 1853. He also belonged to fraternal lodges and was known as the life of gatherings.
Despite his status, Stein incurred debts and declared insolvency in 1848. Kadlunga later became a merino sheep and Percheron horse stud, owned by John Chewings, then Sir Samuel Way, and later Sir John Melrose. In the mid-1850s Stein moved to South East South Australia. For about twenty years his life was marked by poverty and illness, though he remained aristocratic and kept friends. He worked as a pound keeper at The Springs Ponds near Millicent, living in a hut and enforcing the Livestock Impounding Act. He died in October 1877, at Mount Gambier, aged about 73, and is believed to have never married.
Stein’s life is described in Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia, and his portrait is held by the State Library of South Australia. Kadlunga’s original stone buildings remain, and the estate later gained national recognition as a major sheep, cattle, and horse stud. A hill in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Stein Hill, is named after him.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:10 (CET).