Bee Keeping
In South Australia around 1880, beehives were transitioning from traditional shapes to more modern designs, with dome-shaped straw skeps and rectangular wooden boxes being the most common types. In the mid 1880s amidst a crisis over the threat to the honey industry from the hive disease 'foul brood', 86 bee-keepers in the Mount Barker area added their signatures to a petition in support of a parliamentary bill aimed at curbing the spread of the disease.

Dairies
Creameries at Bull Creek, Dawesley, nr. Dawesley (Native Valley) & Echunga
Dairy factories at Blakiston, Mount Barker, Macclesfield & Meadows
Kondoparinga dairy factory, nr. Meadows
SA Farmers' Union factory, Mawson Rd, Meadows

Milling
Dunn's first mill, Hay Valley (c1841-42)
Nixon's mill, nr Hahndorf (1842)
Dunn's flour mill, Cameron Street Mount Barker (1844)
Johnson's mill, Nairne (c1850s)
Albert Mill, Nairne (1857)
Wittwer's mill, Hahndorf (1864)
Burley flour mill, Meadows (1840-63)

Mining & Smelting
Some of the State's most significant early mines were established in the Mount Barker District. Major mining areas included Echunga/Meadows (gold, etc.), Callington/Kanmantoo (mostly copper), Aclare near Callington (produced the highest volume of silver in 19th Century), and Brukunga (Iron Pyrites) The Mount Barker Mineral Survey was undertaken in 1845, and in the following year the Paringa and Kanmantoo mines were opened. The Bremer mine was discovered in c1847, and by 1848 the country's first smelter was established there. The Bremer mine settlement became the town of Callington. Other mines in the area were West Kanmantoo; Wheal Fortune, Margaret, Prosper, Mary, Friendship, Elizabeth & Maria; also Menkoo & Tresevean.

Tanneries
South Australia's first tannery outside of Adelaide was established by Henry Timmins at Nairne in c.1851. In 1853, Storch constructed a tannery near the Hahndorf Windmill in 1853, and moved nearer to Verdun in 1858. There were also several wattle-bark mills in the district.