 Nevertheless, as a result of the Canowie sale Price was able to buy Wilpena in his own right in 1861, paying £40,400 to the Browne brothers for the lease, including livestock comprising some 17,000 sheep.That same year, 1861, copper mines opened at Blinman and Wilpena homestead was directly on the busy road between Kanyaka and Blinman.Wilpena was paradise for Price, who was destined to hold it for nearly four decades.