Joseph Strelley Harris

Joseph Strelley Harris (1811–1889) was a pastoralist in Western Australia. Between 1840 and 1888, he was a resident magistrate, serving in the towns of Williams, Toodyay, Busselton and Kojonup.

Early life

Harris was born on 23 November 1811 to Dr Joseph Harris and Lucy ( Strelley). In 1833, he arrived with his parents at Fremantle on , and moved to Guildford.

Drover and pastoralist

In 1838 he was contracted to deliver mail from Albany to Perth, and in 1839 pioneered the droving of sheep from Albany to the Avon and Swan districts. when he was transferred to Busselton. He also served at Kojonup for a time. Although known for his sociability, Harris was regarded as an, However, as a former pastoralist and drover, Harris must have gained practical experience about some of these matters before becoming involved with government bureaucracy.

Toodyay

Harris arrived in Toodyay in August 1850 following the death of the previous resident magistrate, Frederick Slade. Slade and those before him had been retired naval or army officers who had been granted large tracts of land in lieu of a pension. Their role was to represent the law and provide annual reports about the district to the colonial secretary. Initially, while the population was relatively small, the workload was light and business was conducted from home. When Harris arrived he found there was no residence for the magistrate so he had to stay in one of the wayside inns. This was the cause of one of his early altercations with the locals. He found these establishments lacking suitable accommodation for travellers, so on 30 December, the day licenses were renewed and when the locals came to town to celebrate the end of the year, he refused to grant the inn owners their license to trade. This resulted in an uproar, with a petition circulated on New Year's Day refuting his claims. He proposed the laying of the main road from Busselton to Bridgetown.

When he retired in 1888, a profile written by the Busselton correspondent for the Western Mail indicates Harris's personality and style of governing had not changed.

Harris died on 9 December 1889.