William Finke (1814 or 1815 – 17 January 1864) was chief clerk to the first treasurer of the province of South Australia who arrived in the first fleet carrying British settlers there.
[citation needed] He was a member of a syndicate with Osmond Gilles, the first treasurer of the province, his nephew John Jackson Oakden and three others,[note 1] who entered the ballot in February 1839 for the right to purchase land in Glenelg, in which they were successful.
[3] He was also appointed honorary secretary of the Glenelg Pier and Warehouse Company, which had offices in Gilles Arcade, Adelaide.
[4] Finke was an energetic explorer and prospector throughout South Australia, particularly in the northern Flinders Ranges, where he established productive copper mines at Nuccaleena and Oratunga,[5] but missed the huge deposits at Burra and Kapunda.
[citation needed] Finke and James Chambers developed the Moolooloo station, from where Stuart's final and successful expedition departed.