Media: BOOK - paperback, 240 pages
Author: I. Morison
Year: 2012
Other: 2nd ed., bibliography, Index
Publisher: Ian Morison

The Warrens settled in South Australia's Barossa Range in 1840. 

John Warren wanted to run sheep and cattle, but pastoralists were pushed northward by the expansion of farmlands favoured by the colony's strict rules promoting closer agricultural settlement. The northward movement faced the barrier of an "inland sea", until it was penetrated in 1858. Beyond that mythical barrier MCDouall Stuart found new pastoral opportunities watered by a magical chain of artesian mound springs to the south and west of Lake Eyre.

John Warren and son-in-law Thomas Hogarth took up leases to the west of Lake Eyre, at Strangways Springs and Anna Creek. For 50 years their Australian-born sons and grandsons ran sheep, cattle and horses there, while Thomas Hogarth and the second John Warren in Parliament defended pastoral interests. Though not illegal 'squatters', as in New South Wales, they were happy to wear that label.

The second John Warren, seeing limited scope for his sons in South Australia, took up land in the southwest of Western Australia. Four sons and one daughter migrated to the west around the turn of the century. Others stayed on or near the family base, Springfield. After Anna Creek was sold to Sid Kidman in 1918, Frrancis Warren stayed in the north, moving with his Arabunna family to Finniss Springs. His descendants regained ownership of the station in 1980, and were prominent in securing native title to trraditional Arabunna lands in 2012.