Henry Allerdale Grainger

He soon made himself known through well-written articles in the local newspapers on subjects as diverse as Emigration agents in England and the workers they recruit,[5] Christmas at the North Pole, Artesian wells[6] and Government auctions.

[7] He held a public meeting, chaired by W. C. Buik, on the subject of Chinese immigration (he was against it, except to the Northern Territory), at which he signalled his parliamentary ambitions,[8] to a small and rowdy audience who showed the chairman much more respect than the speaker.

Grainger upset this cozy state of affairs with his outspoken advocacy for protectionism, which he had picked up in America, then in June 1877 founded his own penny weekly newspaper, the Australian Star.

It was in terms of circulation quite successful, but Grainger was not a man to stick to a task long enough for it to be profitable[9] and some three years later it had new owners and management.

Grainger was in Sydney and Melbourne in 1886, initially in an attempt to gain custody of his son, then remained in Victoria until early 1887, when he once more entered the South Australian political fray.

Undeterred, he continued his campaign of self-advertisement as the worker's friend,[18] and nominated for the seat of Sturt, whose successful candidates were W. F. Stock and J. G. Jenkins.

[28] In 1901 Sir John Cockburn's term of office as South Australia's Agent-General in England was about to conclude, and Grainger was appointed as State Agent with much the same role, but with Federation a much reduced diplomatic responsibility.

His health had suffered during his last year in England, and there was no-one at the wharf to meet him, perhaps as a rebuke for voicing his displeasure at the slow response he received while in London.

Grainger lost no time in satisfying his penchant for publication: his thoughts on the State's image overseas,[34] eccentricities and corruption in the British Houses of Parliament[35] A lecture he gave to an appreciative audience which included Thomas Hardy, H. M. Martin and H. Buring on the export of wine[36] could have been made yesterday.

They had one son: Allerdale and Isabella separated in 1886, and then began a custody battle in which so much mutually contradictory evidence was produced that one person was clearly lying.