Edward Hardman

Edward Townley Hardman ( born April 6, 1845 in Drogheda in Ireland, † April 30, 1887 in Dublin, ) was a geologist who found the first gold fields in Australia.

Harman had in addition to his training as a geologist and a degree in mining. In 1870 he took up his work for the Geological Survey of Ireland and was admitted to the Royal Geological Society of Ireland and in 1874 in the Chemical Society of London in 1871.

Hardman was appointed by the Colonial Office of the Government of Western Australia to their geologists, reaching Perth in March 1883. Previously, the government had suspended in 1872 a prize of £ 5000 for the discovery of the first commercially feasible gold field. Phillip Saunders looked then at the Ord River in the eastern Kimberley and found gold. the government held Hardman for the more appropriate expedition leader and 1884 was the expedition of Hardman gold in streams, which suggested that gold deposits were found. Then gold was discovered by an expedition on Hall Creek on July 14, 1885. This expedition of Charles Hall and John Slattery found gold in various fields, of which Hardman had reported.

He also stopped in the area of Perth and discovered tin at Greenbushes and reported by artesian water in the area of Perth.

In October 1885 Hardman moved back to Ireland because the government did not fund further work from him. In Ireland, he died in the hospital of Dublin at the age of 42 years, leaving his widow with two children.

Before he left Western Australia, he filed his claim to the exposed price. The government decided not to pay out the prize because the conditions were not met in full. However, the widow of Hardman £ 500 and the expedition of Hall were also paid £ 500. Saunders, the gold was first there was nothing.

Hardman was the author of very significant publications on Ireland's geology, but his work in Australia as the discoverer of the first gold fields in the British colonies is much better known.