The Yorke Peninsula coastline near Wallaroo was separately navigated by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in 1802. The next Europeans to explore the district were John Hill and Thomas Burr. Under instructions from Governor Gawler, the pair were landed about 15 kilometres south of Point Riley, near Moonta Bay, on 28 April 1840 from the government cutter "Water Witch". They then made their way back to Adelaide on horseback, traversing Northern Yorke Peninsula. They reported the discovery of 'a very excellent tract of country'. Based on that report a few pioneering British settlers arrived in the Moonta area in the 1840s, as pastoralists, but there was no significant development until the 1860s, primarily because of the lack of water. The scrub in the area was difficult to penetrate (as testified by the town's name) so the first settlers had a hard time clearing the land.