Thomas Hardy (winemaker)


Thomas Hardy was a winemaker in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. He has been called the "Father of the South Australian Wine Industry".

History

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 is reported as having taught the girls, however that name does not appear on passenger lists. 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 on the River Torrens which he called "Bankside", now Underdale, near the present Hardys Road.
In 1854 he planted of fruit trees, mainly oranges, and 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 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.
He purchased "Brookside" of 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.
The Tintara winery at McLaren Vale was built by Dr. Alexander Charles Kelly and purchased by Hardy in 1877 and was used for wine production until 1927. In 1878 or 1879 he expanded his McLaren Vale holding by purchasing a disused flour mill and the Bellevue Hotel.
He started Adelaide's first wine bar.
In 1881 he built a four-storey warehouse, head office and bottling cellars "Tintara House" at 87–89 Currie Street. In 1887 he founded Thomas Hardy and Sons Ltd. with his three sons James J. Hardy, Thomas N. Hardy and Robert B. Hardy, and Joseph Rowe Osborn.
Hardy planted specimens of various grape varieties at Adelaide Botanic Gardens, but these were subsequently removed to provide more open space for recreation purposes.
He founded a jam manufacturing company with premises at Dequetteville Terrace later occupied by Adelaide Malting and Brewing Company and now a block of luxury apartments.
The Mile End cellars were built in 1893. Around this time Thomas Hardy and Sons were South Australia's largest wine producers.
The Bankside winery was destroyed by fire in 1904. It was not rebuilt.
He oversaw the destruction of a Geelong, Victorian vineyard infected with Phylloxera and was a prime mover in writing the Phylloxera Act of 1879.

Later developments

Around 1910 management of the company passed to his son Robert, followed in 1928 by Robert's nephew Thomas Mayfield Hardy.
Bankside was sold to F. G. Gill. The homestead was demolished in 1962.
In 1976 the company acquired Emu Wines with a high export profile and vineyards in Western Australia.
Hardy's had at McLaren Vale and other vineyards at Dorrien, Keppoch and Waikerie.

Personal

His sister Martha married Frederick Stoward.
In 1854 he married Joanna or Johanna Holbrook. He married a second time, to his cousin Eliza Hardy of Colyton, Devon on 29 September 1869. His children included:
At the Adelaide Exhibition of 1881 he was awarded a trophy valued at 100 guineas awarded by Sir Edwin Smith for the "exhibit of greatest national importance to the State".