Sidney Kidman

Sidney Kidman was born on 9 May 1857 in Adelaide, in the colony of South Australia, the third son of George Kidman (died December 1857), farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Mary, née Nunn. Kidman’s childhood home was located on Maryvale Road in Athelstone, Adelaide. Kidman was educated at private schools in Norwood and left his home near Adelaide at age 13 with only five shillings and a one-eyed horse named Cyclops that he had bought with his savings. He joined a drover and learned quickly. He then worked as a roustabout and bullock-driver at Poolamacca cattle station, and Mount Gipps Station. and later as a drover, stockman and livestock trader. He made money trading whatever was needed, and supplying services (transport, goods, a butcher shop) to new mining towns springing up in outback New South Wales and South Australia, (including Cobar, Kapunda, Burra and eventually Broken Hill). After he and his brothers worked on the same station, they bought their own.

On 30 June 1885, Kidman married Isabel Brown Wright. They had four children.