Arthur Hardy (businessman)

Arthur Hardy (1817 – 13 July 1909), British born Australian pastoralist, barrister, quarry-owner, businessman and politician, was a successful South Australian colonial settler who is also known for a number of other achievements, including building the mansions Birksgate and Mount Lofty House, and establishing (and funding) the Glen Osmond Institute.

On his doctor's advice to seek a warmer climate, he migrated to South Australia on the Platina, arriving in February 1839, his brother Alfred Hardy (1813–1870) having migrated there in September 1836 on the Cygnet as one of William Light's surveyors, appointed Town Surveyor in 1839 then sacked in 1842 during Governor Grey's cutbacks.

[2][3] He was fond of entertaining and a standard of gracious living which he could not support, and after some reverses was obliged to sell Mount Lofty House and take his second son Herbert out of St. Peter's College (elder son Arthur Marmaduke had been to Marlborough College, London).

[5] He continued practising law well into his 90th year, the oldest member of the South Australian Supreme Court, and was still attending the office every morning.

[6] Arthur Hardy (1817–1909) married Martha Price (c. 1821 – 18 June 1904) in England on 30 August 1849.