james brown was born in east fife, scotland, and in company with his brother, archibald, left liverpool on the barque "fairfield" on 1 november 1838. after a wearisome voyage of 185 days they arrived in south australia on 4 may 1839. in 1840 they settled in allendale in the hindmarsh river valley, the owners of 640 sheep. by 1844 they owned 1,290 ewes, 14 cattle, 6 pigs and 14 acres of wheat. in 1849 brown moved to the south east where he founded the avenue range station consisting of 69 square miles of country, which was secured for an annual rental of 10/ per square mile. the area was subsequently enlarged to 83 square miles, some 50 miles north-east of guichen bay where the wool was shipped. the greater portion of it was covered with water during the winter, and the stock suffered from footrot and coast disease. brown built a ten-room stone house with a verandah. the sheep were shepherded until june 1864, when avenue range and his other leases were fenced at a cost of £6,000. soon he had 24,000 sheep besides cattle and horses. another name for the avenue range run was kalyra, a native word meaning 'hop bush'.