Charles Fisher

Charles Brown Fisher (25 September 1817 – 6 May 1908), generally referred to as C. B. Fisher, was an Australian pioneer pastoralist and livestock breeder.

History Born in London, he was the eldest son of (later Sir) James Hurtle Fisher and his wife Elizabeth. At around age twenty he spent two years on an uncle's farm at Little Bowden, Northamptonshire, before migrating to South Australia in 1836 with his parents in .

Early in 1838 his brother James, in partnership with Fred Handcock, bought some sheep and established a squatting station (Fisher and Handcock's Station) near the Little Para River. C.B. Fisher assisted his brother, droving ten of the first lambs bred there on foot to Adelaide for delivery to a Mr. Crispe.

In the early 1840s he purchased Section 145 near The Reedbeds, which he named "Lockleys", largely congruent with the present suburb.

He began by dealing in cattle in 1851, which proved to be the most lucrative business he could have chosen, as it was just before the Victorian gold rush (within 3 years the price of a fat bullock rose from £2 10/ to £15 or £17). He purchased drafts of cattle wherever he could buy them up, and drove them across to Victoria, where the diggers bought them up at high prices. He was an excellent horseman, and spent most of his time in the saddle at this period, being obliged to make many long and rapid journeys to keep up the supply of stock. He extended his operations to supplying the Adelaide market and droving mobs of cattle and sheep into Victoria, in some of the largest droving operations in the history of either State.

Failure and death In the early nineties he fell on hard times, in company with many other station-holders throughout Australia. The North Australian Territory Company, which he had floated (secretly in partnership with Goldsbrough Mort & Co.) failed.

His finances steadily worsened and although insolvent, he continued trading until, with debts of nearly £1.5million, he was forced to declare himself bankrupt.

Fisher died at his residence, Seafield Towers, Albert Terrace, Glenelg, only seven or eight months after returning to Adelaide. He was remembered as having a kindly, genial nature, strong, self-reliant, and large-hearted. He was always courageous and hopeful, even optimistic. Perhaps unique among wealthy pastoralists and speculators of the time, he never once left the shores of Australia.