Thomas Hardy (winemaker)

Thomas Hardy (14 January 1830 – 10 January 1912) was a winemaker in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. He has been called the "Father of the South Australian Wine Industry".

Thomas Hardy was born in Gittisham in Devon. He and Joanna Holbrook, whom he later married, arrived in South Australia on the British Empire on 14 August 1850. While on the voyage he acted as schoolmaster to the boys on board, while one Mrs. J. Gillard taught the girls. He soon found work with John Reynell at Reynella Farm, and learned much of winemaking from the German fellow-workers. After two years he left for the goldfields of Victoria, where he was quite successful working with a butcher and droving cattle to the diggings from Yankalilla. He then started work on a station near Normanville. In 1853 he purchased a property of 46 acres (18.6 ha) on the River Torrens which he called "Bankside", now Underdale, near the present Hardys Road.

In 1854 he planted 2 acres (0.8 ha) of fruit trees, mainly oranges, and 0.75 acres (0.3 ha) of Shiraz vines which he enlarged in 1856, then added an acre of Muscatel table grapes in 1861. He made his first wine in 1857 and exported two hogsheads to England in 1859, one of the first exports of wine from South Australia. By 1863 his vineyards covered 35 acres (14 ha) of Grenache, Mataro, Muscat, Roussillon, Shiraz and Zante grapes. He also purchased grapes from other vignerons in the Adelaide area. By 1879 his vintage had reached 27,000 gallons (100,000 litres).

He purchased "Brookside" of 24 acres (10 ha) at Marion, South Australia in April 1862, planted it with grapes and put John Western in charge. Western was followed in 1884 by son-in-law Arthur Quick, who took it over in 1910.

In 1874 Hardy, with A. M. Bickford and Sons, W. N. Crowder and others founded a bottle works in Chief Street, Brompton which began production in 1875, and eventually became the South Australian Glass Works Co. Ltd.

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