John Poulton owned about 300 acres of land in the Owen district, north of Adelaide, but after a few years the land was depleted of nutrients and was failing. In 1890, with brothers Ted and Charlie, John decided to move to Victoria having seen the E.H. Lascelles advertisements at Lake Coorong, Victoria. The trip took 6 months, apparently just going overland through the Ninety Mile Desert, sometimes having to cut down brush to stop the wagons from bogging in sand. They arrived at Galaquil and Brim. Beulah was the end of the railway line then. They farmed in this area for two years when a spark from the train set fire to the crop burning it all.
Then they moved to Cambacanya, 10 miles NW of Hopetoun (snow fell as they passed through the township of Hopetoun). The Cambacanya homestead was soon established in 1891 with the help of Charles Poulton who was a stonemason. The house was firstly made of wattle; timber and daub, then 4 stone rooms were erected. John took a grazing lease on nearby Pine Plains, together with the rights for the Wonga Lake run. The Poultans connected Cambacanya and Pine Plains with a single-strand telephone line of fencing wire. It was later relocated between Rainbow and Pine Plains; however, in 1934 it was removed when Pine Plains was connected to the Baring exchange. The Poultans owned Pine Plains until 1917. They were forced to leave the land at Cambacanya after the 1914 drought, then going to live with son Alf.