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. 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 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. He selected a property at
Strathalbyn, part of the Angas Special Survey of 1841, where he died on 11 October 1855. ==Wheat==