Peter Waite

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Peter Waite (9 May 1834 – 4 April 1922) was a South Australian pastoralist and public benefactor.

Waite was born at Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland. On leaving school he was apprenticed to an ironmonger and spent nine years in commercial pursuits. When 25 years of age he sailed to Australia and, landing at Melbourne, went on to South Australia. There he joined his brother James who was part owner of Pandappa station near Terowie. Waite worked on this station for some years and acquired a thorough knowledge of the pastoral industry. He then in conjunction with Sir Thomas Elder bought Paratoo station, and gradually obtained interests in other properties. He was one of the first to realize the value of fenced as against open runs, and spent Over £200,000 in fencing and providing water. For many years he lived in the country and kept a strict eye on the management of his various properties. Later on he was able to hand over much of this management to a son, while he worked from Adelaide. He thoroughly understood the needs of pastoralists, and in 1885 the business of Elder Smith and Company was formed at Adelaide to arrange for their supplies and manage the disposal of their wool and sheep. Waite was elected chairman of directors of the new company and held the position for 37 years, resigning only a few months before his death. The development of this great business owed much to Waite's acumen and foresight. In 1913 he presented to the University of Adelaide his valuable Urrbrae estate comprising 134 acres (54 hectares) and house, to which in 1915 was added the adjoining Claremont and Netherby estates of 165 acres. Benefactions to the University of Adelaide allowed the university to establish the Waite Agricultural Research Institute which later became the Waite Campus of the university. The Waite Institute was established on the site in 1924 following a bequest of Urrbrae House and 300 acres from Mr Peter Waite. The objective of the bequest was "to advance the cause of education and more especially to promote the teaching and study of Agriculture and Forestry and allied subjects". The Waite has developed into an integrated research and teaching precinct that has been presented as a model for the collocation of agricultural research institutions.

Waite also gave an adjoining estate of 114 acres to the government of South Australia for the purpose of founding an agricultural high school: Urrbrae Agricultural High School. Waite was working until a few months before his death in his eighty-eighth year, on 4 April 1922. He married in 1864 a daughter of James Methuen of Leith, Scotland, who survived him with a son and three daughters. One of his daughters, Mrs Elizabeth Macmeikan, who died on 5 April 1931, left the residue of her estate, some £16,000, to the university of Adelaide to be used for the study of sciences relating to the land, either in connexion with the Waite research institute or otherwise.

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This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
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