James Harding

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James Harding (1838–13 November 1864) was a pastoralist and explorer in colonial Western Australia. While exploring in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1864, he was murdered by Australian Aborigines.

Born in England in 1838, James Harding emigrated to Western Australia with his family on the Dromo in 1846. He went to England again in 1848 but returned to Western Australia in 1850. In 1859 he was farming at York with Charles Wittenoom.

In April 1861, Harding volunteered to join an exploring expedition to the Pilbara region of Western Australia, under Francis Gregory. The five month long expedition discovered large amounts of poor pastoral land around the De Grey River.

In 1864, an expedition to Camden Harbour was undertaken to test the claims of a convict, Henry Wildman, who claimed to have found gold there many years earlier. No gold was found, but large areas of good pastoral land were discovered around Roebuck Bay. Consequently, a public company, the Roebuck Bay Company, was formed to establish a chain of stations in the area. James Harding was chosen as manager, and in October 1864 he joined the advance party that sailed to the area to set up a base camp. The following month, Harding, along with Frederick Panter and William Goldwyer set out from their base camp to explore the area around La Grange Bay. The Panter, Harding and Goldwyer expedition of 1864 did not return, and eventually a search party under Maitland Brown was sent to find them. Brown's La Grange expedition party eventually found the three men dead, having been clubbed and speared to death by natives. Panter and Harding were apparently killed in their sleep. Goldwyer's death was harder to interpret; some sources claim that all three men were killed in their sleep, while others assert that Goldwyer was keeping watch. The date of death of the men was determined from the date of the last entries in the men's journals.

The bodies of Panter, Harding and Goldwyer were returned to Perth, where thousands of spectators attended their public funeral. In February 1913, a monument to Brown and the three murdered men, the Explorers' Monument, was unveiled in Fremantle.

[edit] References

• Erickson, Rica (ed.) (1979). Dictionary of Western Australians 1829–1914. Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 0-85564-163-0. 
• Forrest, Kay (1996). The Challenge and the Chance: The Colonisation and Settlement of North West Australia 1861–1914. Victoria Park, Western Australia: Hesperian Press. ISBN 0-85905-217-6. 

Persondata
NAME	Harding, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	explorer
DATE OF BIRTH	1838
PLACE OF BIRTH	England
DATE OF DEATH	13 November 1864
PLACE OF DEATH	La Grange, Western Australia