William Nairne Clark

William Nairne Clark (1804–1854) was a public notary and publisher, active at the Swan River Colony and Tasmanian settlements founded in Australia.

The son of Charles Clark of Princeland, he was born in Scotland at Coupar Angus, Perthshire, to Marjory, née Barclay. His great uncle, advocate and judge William Nairne (Lord Dunsinane), provided his early education at Dunsinnan House in Collace, and he studied law to become appointed a life long public notary. Amongst the recognition of his works and contributions, aside from the contemporary notability of his firsts in publishing and duelling, "Clarke" is Captain Clark and "Macfaul" is Charles Macfaull (de garis, Bolton, LISWA). has been noted by academic Geoffrey Bolton and others as the first publication in Western Australia. The text concerns a court settlement in favour of a Captain Clark, of the vessel Skerne, whose seamanship had been questioned in the pages of the Perth Gazette. A letter of apology was refused by Clark and the court's determination found the publication was slanderous in their comments on the captain and the proprietor Charles Macfaull was ordered to pay £21 in damages. The work was produced on a Ruthven printing press that had been delivered to the colony in 1831, from Tasmania; the printer was W. T. Graham of Fremantle. The ex-catholic cum missionary Louis Giustiniani, who returned from a tour of York decrying the murderous treatment of the Aboriginal Australians he had been appointed to Christianise, entered into an alliance with Clark to denounce the governor and gentry at Perth in his Swan River Guardian. After a series of violent acts or reprisals, the popular sentiment of the colonists was challenged by Clark in an editorial that suggested the outcome of any war was the certain destruction of one or the other of the parties and ought to be dreaded by both.

Journalism: trade unionism Clark sought to present himself as a people's champion, so was strident in his criticism of what he portrayed as an aristocratic elite. In reporting the meeting of the Western Australian Agricultural Society, he proposed the organisation of tradesmen and employees in response to the elites, "labourers, mechanics etc., ought to form a Society of their own for the protection of mutual rights, and send quarterly reports to the Secretary of State …".

Land grant A land grant of was given to Clark and a Mr. C. Spyers at Wadjemup (Rottnest Island), west of Fremantle, and in the district around inland York to the east of the settlers' establishment at Perth, Western Australia.

Tasmania and death Clark left for Tasmania at the end of 1848, where no warranted official was available for his recognition as a public notary and he instead resumed a career in journalism at the colony. The uncertain report of his death on 15 February 1854 was not recorded by the Registrar-General's Department.