[1] He selected Crown land at Mount Remarkable (now Melrose township), South Australia, grazing sheep until 1863, when he sold up to move to Queensland.
Later he sold that property, and in 1868 selected land on the Don River, near Bowen, where they resided until 1880, when he entered into partnership with J. F. Cudmore, and moved to Adavale where they purchased Boondoon and Mentone leaseholds, with 4000 cattle.
Subsequently, these properties were stocked with 50,000 sheep and were carried on until 1894, when Sidney Yeates retired from the partnership and lived privately first in Brisbane and later in Toowoomba.
Sidney Yeates was a keen politician in the days of McIlwraith and Griffith, and fought vigorously for the transcontinental land grant railway scheme in the early 1880s.
Albert (1860–1941) and the other older sons were pastoralists, while the two youngest, Kenneth and Herbert (1879–1945) were the principals of the firm of Yeates Bros, and Co., stock and station agents, Toowoomba, while Milo was in charge of the Dalby branch.