The developing industries around Twofold Bay soon revealed the potential of the region and began attracting competition for the Imlay brothers. The British entrepreneur Ben Boyd arrived and went about establishing his own commercial empire during the 1840s – the ambitious but short-lived "Boyd Town". By the time Boyd had entered the whaling industry, the once thriving business was reaching the end of its boom period – the Imlay brothers had fallen victim to the economic depression in the late 1840s and, by 1849, Boyd too had abandoned his pastoral lands following the collapse of his empire.