Two German settlers from Hamley Bridge, Johannes Rudolph Ferdinand Heopner and Elise Moeller, who married on 6 June 1878, purchased property at Whitwarta upon marriage. They purchased property 44, 45 and eight other lots of the Hundred of Stow within the township of Whitwarta. They moved to Whitwarta in an attempt to set up a successful blacksmith business, and because they saw Whitwarta as a fit place to raise children. Johannes purchased land at Whitwarta with the hope that the town and surrounding districts would boom not only because of the availability of freshwater but because it was along one of the paths ("Gulf Road") that "Bullockies" used to cart copper from Burra to Port Wakefield. However, the boom period at Whitwarta did not last for long because of the creation of a railway at nearby Balaklava.