Make it real

The early years

Harry was born in 1920 and grew up in Byford during the Great Depression. In 1934, he was withdrawn from school to help on his family's farm. For the remainder of the 1930s, Harry's life centred around farm work, resulting in minimal outside contact. During the War, he worked long days as a searchlight operator in Fremantle with his brother for the Volunteer Defence Corps. He reflects having no time for sport or socialising with friends.

Harry found comfort from the isolation through an Amateur Radio course he'd taken in the late 30s; unfortunately, he had to return his licence when he moved to a block past Watheroo in 1955 that had no power supply.

At the Watheroo block he cleared the bush and put in 300 acres of crop. Harry was always ready to lend a hand, and not long after, a family from Dowerin approached him to put in a crop for their brother's widow. The following 12 years Harry spent at Wannamal, where he managed 6,000 acres, and was involved in the clearing, dozing, pasture and developing of land.

Years spent in the War and long days of physical labour had taken its toll on Harry's health so in 1971 he went to live in Dongara where he planned to do some travelling and gardening to combat the effects.

Harry the explorer

Harry fulfilled his aspirations over the next 10 years and travelled extensively across Australia covering 250, 000 km in his 4WD. He worked as a gardener at the new Dongara School for five years and took an interest in the Historical Society of Irwin, Geraldton and Mingenew. He joined a camera club in Geraldton and made a dark room to develop his photos and became the local correspondent for a Geraldton newspaper.

During his lifetime, Harry undertook several projects involving painstaking research and fieldwork. Covering 40,000 km, he revealed the origin of place names and the precise location of many historical sites in Western Australia. The first, in 1981, saw him retrace the route taken by explorer George Grey from Kalbarri to Government House in Perth. He also researched the journals from the John Forrest 1869 expedition, undertaking solo field trips to find and verify the readings on the maps, which resulted in an additional 150 places to those mentioned by Forrest in his journals and the revision of over 20 places on the original maps.

Other projects he undertook included the Geraldton Historical Society's 'Follow Forrest 1974 Expedition' and retracing the desert journeys of David Carnegie and Lawrence Wells. He was a patron of Western Australian Exploration and a Member of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society. In 2009, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to the community, in particular for his historical research of early explorers in WA.

Community minded

Along with his achievements, Harry found time to be a valued and committed member of the Moora community. He gave generously, funding eight retirement cottages, later named after him, and was an active member of the Moora Historical Society for 20 years.

Driven by his insatiable curiosity, and after a lifetime of exploring his own country, he also visited eight overseas countries and enjoyed several cruises in retirement.

Harry died in 2015, aged 95 but his legacy lives on. He generously included a number of organisations close to his heart in his Will including Red Cross, Salvation Army and Royal Flying Doctor Services.

Harry's bequest to UWA funds undergraduate scholarships for rural students to study in the disciplines he held dear within Agriculture and Science. One of these students is Gillian Altham. You can read her story here.