McLean, a Scotsman from Duisky, near Blaich, Ardgour, Argyleshire, was in July 1837 an early investor with the South Australian Company; for his £1000 he was entitled to select one "town acre", one surveyed section near the city and the option on one future "special survey" further away. His family were once substantial landowners, but he was reduced to the status of tenant farmer. He was clearly not without means however; £1000 would be equivalent to several million dollars today. The 1836 famine in Scotland which led to one of the Highland Clearances may have been a factor in this decision, and to live in the new province. He and his large family emigrated on the Navarino, falsifying their ages and occupations in order to qualify for free passage. They arriving at Holdfast Bay on 6 December 1837. He selected "town acre" number 57 on Hindley Street and Section 50, Hundred of Adelaide, an property at Hilton, South Australia, a few miles from Adelaide, adjacent to one of Dr. Everard's selections. Immediately on arrival in South Australia he sent his son Allan to Van Diemen's Land to bring back a team of working buffalo, implements and seed wheat, which they planted and reaped by hand in 1838, arguably the first such crop in the colony. He built a modest house. Ten years later he sold the property to John Marles ; it is now the suburb Marleston. He selected a property at Strathalbyn, part of the Angas Special Survey of 1841, and was the second settler there, after Dr. Rankine. He built a two-storey house which he named either "Auchanadala" or "Auchanada's", where he died in October 1855.
Controversy
He is generally credited with producing South Australia's first crop of wheat, but it is likely that others has small plantings around the same time. Dr. Everard had a small plot at his home on the corner of Hindley and Morphett Streets — the ground was hard and apparently infertile, but the experiment was successful, and heavy ears of grain were produced, to the discomfiture of his detractors. Claims that eldest son Allan McLean was the first to plough land in South Australia were refuted by John Chambers.
Family
Donald McLean married Christina McPhee. Their children included:
Allan McLean married Catherine Dawson on 29 February 1844
Ewen "Hugh the Elder" McLean married Christina "Christy" Black on 15 May 1849. He ran a farm near Milang, then Point McLeay, and retired to Meningie.
John McLean married Mary Stacey on 25 September 1845, Elizabeth Dixon on 16 April 1874
Mary McLean married Adam Abercrombie Duncan McRae
Archibald McLean married Ann Soward Janeway on 11 September 1846
Ewen "Little Hugh" "Hugh the Younger" McLean married Ann McBain Margaret Tannahill on 13 April 1862; lived "Sunny Brae", North Parade, Strathalbyn.
He died at his home, "Auchanadala", Strathalbyn. Allan McLean, 19th premier of Victoria, was a relative. He has been confused with another, possibly unrelated, Donald McLean who was manager of the North West Bend station on the River Murray for C. H. Armytage, and was the first in South Australia to create sheep paddocks. He pumped water for his flocks and also paid generous bounties for dingo scalps. He married Mary Barker, a niece of John Chambers, on 21 June 1866. In 1871 he and William Barker purchased Murbko station, on the River Murray opposite Morgan, then Comongin station near Quilpie.
