Thomas Bannister

For those of a similar name, see Thomas Banister (disambiguation).

Thomas Bannister (1799–1874) was a soldier and explorer in Western Australia. He was born in Steyning, Sussex in 1799, and arrived in Western Australia in 1829, age 30, with the rank of Captain aboard the Atwick with 3 servants from London, England. [1]

Upon arriving in Fremantle he accompanied Thomas Braidwood Wilson to select land for settlement along the Canning River.

Later the same year he explored the base of the Darling Range and then lead an expedition from Perth to Albany accepting land grants along the way. Bannister came to Forth River and Frankland River in 1831.[2]

Leaving the colony in 1835 (renting his Canning land to William Nairn[3]), and went to Victoria where he became a founding member of the Port Philip Association.[4]

He is the brother of Saxe Bannister, the first Attorney General of New South Wales.

Thomas Bannister died in 1874. The Bannister River, the town of North Bannister, and Bannister Street, Fremantle, are all named after him.[5]

  1. ^ "Passenger Ships arriving in Western Australia". 2001. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  2. ^ "History of river names – F". Western Australian Land Information Authority. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
  3. ^ "Classified Advertising". The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal. Vol. V, no. 236. Western Australia. 8 July 1837. p. 931. Retrieved 5 April 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Explorers Diaries of Western Australia - Updated and Expanded Biographical Notes 1826 - 1835". 2003. Archived from the original on 3 June 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  5. ^ Kate Caldwell (1931). "Nomenclature of Fremantle Streets". Fremantle Advocate. Wikidata Q123515127.