Richard Hardey

Richard Watson Hardey (9 February 1844 – 12 February 1910) was an Australian pastoralist and politician who was a member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia on three occasions – from 1876 to 1880, from 1890 to 1894, and then from 1894 to 1896.

Early life and family Hardey was the son of Ann (née Robinson) and Joseph Hardey, who had arrived in the Swan River Colony in February 1830. His parents, originally from Lincolnshire, England, were devout Methodists, with his father being the leader of the first Methodist congregation in Perth (as a lay preacher rather than an ordained minister). Hardey was sent to England to be educated, only returning to Australia in 1866. He took over his father's property, Peninsula Farm, and also purchased an estate near York (an inland town).

Hardey had married twice, to Jane Lowe in 1876 and to Kathleen Beurteaux in 1892. He had one child by his first wife and two children by his second.