In partnership with his brother (or cousin) Edward Peter, he arrived aged 19 at Adelaide, South Australia in January 1839 aboard the Indus.
Promptly making their way to New South Wales by sea, the Messrs. Peter there purchased 12,500 sheep from the celebrated flocks of Icely & Co. and then successfully overlanded these from Bathurst to Adelaide in June 1840.
[1] The partners then took up pastoralist occupation licences at various locations in the lower Mid North, turning their flocks out onto these unfenced runs under the care of wandering shepherds.
Peter is listed in a government return of 1841 as the fifth largest sheep holder in the Province, the first being the South Australian Company.
In February 1845 Roach was visiting his employer Campbell at his Adelaide residence when he fell from his horse while intoxicated and was killed.
Those outstations included the upper reaches of the Light River and the subsequent site of the Burra copper mine.
[7] Peter then established his Gum Creek Station near Hanson, about 16 km southwest of Burra, being regarded as a prominent pioneer and citizen of the Manoora region.
The fame and reputation of his Gum Creek Station was later imitated by the naming of a pastoral property in the Flinders Ranges.
Jane's elder sister Elizabeth had married in 1845 to George Charles Hawker of Bungaree and Anama Stations, to whom W.S.
By 1861 the combined Gum Creek and Booleroo runs comprised an area of 896 square miles and were carrying 60,500 sheep.
When another shepherd made a similar discovery in May 1861 several rival claimants rushed to make their applications but at first were uncertain as to the exact locality.
Peter was an equally successful politician, being appointed on 23 June 1868 to represent the Canterbury region on the Legislative Council; he remained a member until his death.
[16] His son, Charles James Peter, married Violet Sealy on 21 December 1898 at St Mary's Church in Timaru.