W.S. Peter held extensive occupation licences during the 1840s, setting up many outstations in the Mid-North for his flocks. Those outstations included the upper reaches of the Light River and the subsequent site of the Burra copper mine. Peter had shepherd huts at Burra as early as 1842. In 1844 he had 10,000 sheep depastured on a station known as Emu Lodge, or Emu Springs, with headquarters at Black Springs on the River Gilbert in County Light. 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.