Edward Weller was born on 6 July 1814 in Folkestone, Kent, England. He was the seventh of nine children of a wealthy middle classed Georgian family . His father was Joseph Weller, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Bucks yeomanry, and Mary Brooks, the daughter of Joseph Brooks and Mary Cheese who were farmers and malsters from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Edward's family had shifted to Folkestone,Kent from Amersham,Buckinghamshire in 1806. Joseph spent his entire childhood on the family estate in Kent, but due to his father's poor health, the family made plans to emigrate to the warmer drier climate of Australia. Both Joseph Brooks and George Weller (Edward's older brothers), went to Australia on reconnaisance trips from 1824 to 1827 with favourable reports.
On the first of January 1829, at the age of 14, Edward set off on a sea voyage with his older brother Joseph Brooks Weller, bound for Australia and a new life. He never returned to the country of his birth. They arrived in Sydney on 13th April 1829 and were present for the census held in Sydney in July 1829. The rest of the Weller family followed later and arrived in Sydney in March 1830. Joseph senior purchased Cleveland House in Sydney which was the base for the family while they investigated potential business ventures. George purchased the Albion, a 479 ton vessel and started a trading business between Hobart and Sydney. He also purchased Government Cottage in Kings Town.
Joseph Jnr. saw great potential in neighbouring New Zealand. He had looked into the timber and flax trade in Hokianga, Northland in 1826. Now he turned his attention to the South Island and went to Murihiku (Southland ) with a sealing expedition but noticed much higher profits could be made from whaling. He pursued this idea and chose a site to establish a whaling station near a Maori village of Otakou and then returned to Sydney where he purchased a 214 ton colonial barque name the Lucy Ann in August 1831.
OTAKOU WHALING STATION - The Weller Brothers-
On the 21st of September 1831 Joseph Jnr. and Edward along with a whaling gang, left Sydney bound for New Zealand and a new and exciting business venture. George was to manage the business affairs from Sydney while Joseph was the leader of the shore station to be established in Otakou. Edward was only 17 years old and definitely the junior partner. They arrived in Otakou in October 1831 after having collected a party of shipbuilders from Stewart Island to help build their whaling station . A plaque commemorates their landing point called Weller's rock. It was an ambitious project with over 80 buildings constructed in 6 months. Unfortunately, the entire station was burnt down as soon as it was constructed and just before the whaling season was to commence and so the 1832 whaling season was a complete loss. They immediately began to rebuild the station and succeeded in time for the following season. Around this time, Edward was seized by a group of Maori and would have been killed and eaten had not the chiefs quarrelled over him. They decided to draw lots for him and Chief Taiaroa won and allowed him to live in his domain, thus enhancing his mana.
The first shipment of 180 tons of whale oil left Otakou for Sydney in November 1833. For the next 4 years, the business flourished. The boom years were 1835 and 1836 when the business would have grossed over 20,000 pounds per year. When Joseph Jnr. died of consumption on 28th July 1835, Edward was forced to ship his body back to Sydney in a barrel of rum. He was buried in the Parramatta cemetery on 6 September 1835. Edward took over , at the age of 21,as the Otakou manager , in charge of approximately 85 men and 11 boat crews. They continued to have skirmishes with groups of visiting Maori who on one occasion pillaged their station, and on other times harassed their crews, so the Wellers decided to equip one of their ships ( the"Joseph Weller") with 6 swivel guns and a long gun, but fortunately it was never needed. This was largely due to the decimation of the Otakou Maoris by a measles epidemic in 1835. Around 1837, their whaling business began to flounder. Unscrupulous competition from Johnny Jones's whaling station at Waikouaiti and a poor global price for oil due to over-expolitation by American whalers were largely responsible for this decline.
The Weller Brothers also suffered some unfortunate losses caused by the shipwrecking of 2 of their ships.
As the whaling industry slumped, the brothers decided to purchase large tracts of land up the east coast of the South Island. In all they purchased around 3.5 million acres from Maori chiefs. In December 1833, Joseph Jnr had purchased Stewart Island and 2 smaller islets.