Robert Thomas (newspaper proprietor)

Robert Thomas (November 1781 – 1 July 1860) was a Welsh newspaper proprietor, printer and early settler of South Australia who was born on a farm 'Rhantregynwen', at Llanymynech, Powys, Wales.

[1] In 1836, Thomas migrated to the new colony with his wife Mary and family on the Africaine, arriving at Holdfast Bay on 8 November.

On 27 and 28 March 1837 he purchased from the South Australian Company, at auction, numerous plots of land as surveyed by Colonel Light in the new capital: Town Acres Nos.

Gawler was particularly attacked in September 1840 over his ordering of the execution of two Ngarrindjeri men as a reprisal for the killing and dismembering of the survivors of the Maria shipwreck on the Coorong the previous July.

After an unsuccessful trip to London to protest the loss of business from the Government, he returned to Adelaide, where he continued to be involved in further printing and publishing.