Hillsley was first known as Myponga Station. This property taken up by Dr Charles George Everard has, since the 1840s, had few owners and for many years had the distinction of being the largest single grazing property within forty miles of Adelaide.

Dr. Everard was born at Hillsley, Gloucestershire UK and arrived in South Australia in 1836 on the 'Africaine' with his wife Catherine and sons, William, Charles and James. Dr Everard was a member of the South Australian Association for the Establishment of the Colony. He was a keen horticulturalist.

By 1843 Charles' sons William and Charles were farming a jointly owned property in Myponga. By 1856 the Everard family had accumulated 1494 acres. The five bedroom colonial homestead is original and restored beautifully. It is believed to have been built in the 1850s. The brothers William (1819-1889) and Charles Everard (1821-1892) held Hillsley until their deaths.