William Finke

William Finke (1814 or 1815 – 17 January 1864) was a prospector and pastoralist in South Australia, remembered as a sponsor, with the Chambers brothers, of John McDouall Stuart's exploratory journeys.

Finke, who may have been born Johann Wilhelm Finke from Cuxhaven, arrived in South Australia aboard Tam O'Shanter in November 1836 as part of the First Fleet of South Australia. He was clearly a man with some financial backing and social position, but real information is hard to find.

He was a member of a syndicate with Osmond Gilles and his nephew John Jackson Oakden and three others that entered the ballot in February 1839 for the right to purchase town acres in Glenelg, in which they were successful.

He was appointed chief clerk to Osmond Gilles, the Colonial Treasurer, and in 1839 put in charge of mining galena for his Glen Osmond Union Mining Company, the first mine for metal-bearing ores in South Australia, perhaps Australia.

He was appointed Hon. secretary of Glenelg Pier and Warehouse Company with offices in Gilles Arcade.

He was an energetic explorer and prospector throughout South Australia, but particularly in the northern Flinders Ranges, where he established productive copper mines at Nuccaleena and Oratunga, but missed the fabulously wealthy deposits at Burra and Kapunda. He frequently employed John McDouall Stuart as travelling companion on these trips: Finke had the resources; Stuart the resourcefulness.

Finke and James Chambers developed the Moolooloo station, from where Stuart's final and successful expedition departed; James died before the party's triumphant return and Finke not long after. John Chambers, as executor of his brother's Will, sold the run to Philip Levi & Co., who sold it to John Rounsevell in 1871.

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