Walter Padbury

Walter Padbury (22 December 1820 – 18 April 1907) was an Australian pioneer and philanthropist.

Padbury was born at Stonesfield, near , in the English county of Oxfordshire. He arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia in the Protector with his father on 25 February 1830, but in the following July his father died. The lad was left in the care of a married couple who stole the money his father had left and absconded. Padbury then had to fend for himself. He followed various occupations and when 16 was shepherding near York for £10 a year. Later he saved enough to send for his mother and the rest of his family, took up land, was one of the first settlers to open up the north-west of Australia, by becoming a pastoral squatter on the traditional lands of the indigenous Nyamal around the De Grey River in 1863- a venture which failed after several years. In 1863 was sending stock by sailing ships to Carnarvon.

He retained his interest in the north-west all his life, but he also established a general store business in Perth and other centres. Late in life he founded a successful flour-mill at Guildford. He was much interested in the Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia and was president in 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1885.

For many years he was a member of the Perth city council, for some time was chairman of the Guildford council (now the Swan), and for five years was an elected member of the Western Australian Legislative Council. He travelled in Europe and the United States of America, and at one time thought of settling in England again, but found the climate did not suit him. He died at Perth on 18 April 1907. His wife, Charlotte, had died in February 1895.

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