[1] Initially, the family was sustained by the large tracts of land they owned on the islands of Tiree and Mull as well as on the mainland at Mowern and Ardnamurchan.

[1] Mary took the five surviving of her eight children to Australia after widespread crop failure; they left Tobermory, Mull on the George Fyfe on 15 September 1839 and arrived in Sydney on 23 January 1840.

[2] John McLean and his brothers Allan[3] and Robertson (Robert) made a living as working class shepherds,[4] and became established enough so that they could buy two sheep runs in west Victoria, which they owned from 1848 to 1851.

[4] In 1852, the brothers purchased the Ashfield run adjacent to the Waimakariri River in Canterbury, New Zealand, and the family moved to that country.

[1] Robertson returned to Scotland, where he died in 1871, but Allan and John owned runs in Canterbury, Otago, and Morven Hills, acquiring the Waikakahi property near Waimate from a Mr. Harris in 1866.