William Nairne Clark arrived in the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) in the Eliza and practised as a lawyer in Fremantle. He selected, and later purchased, land in the colony including in the Avon region, on Rottnest Island and a town allotment in Fremantle. G. C. Bolton in his entry for Clark in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online describes Clark as having a 'restless temperant'. B. K. De Garis in 'Political Tutelage 1829-1870', published in A New History of Western Australia, calls Clark 'a colourful character ... [a] well-educated and well-connected Scots lawyer but a hot-tempered and outspoken man who set himself up as the champion of the Swan River working class and a critic of ... the principal officials'. (311) Clark immersed himself in the legal and journalistic life of the Colony in the climate of litigation that prevailed in the early years.
Clark is linked with a series of Western Australian firsts. He fought the first duel and compiled the first book published in the colony. He is also connected to an early newspaper. With William Temple Graham, Thomas Newte Yule and George French Johnson, Clark published the short lived Inquisitor newspaper in 1832. An argument between Clark and Johnson led to a duel in which Clark mortally wounded Johnson. Clark was put on trial for manslaughter but was acquitted. The first book published in Western Australia, A Report of the Late Trial for Libel !!! : Clarke versus Macfaul, September 4th, 1835 was compiled by Clark. The trial concerned articles published in the Perth Gazette newspaper, edited by Charles Macfaull, criticising the character and navigational skills of a seaman, Captain Clark.
William Nairne Clark founded and edited the Swan River Guardian as a rival to the Gazette in 1836. Initially published and printed by Charles Bourne as sole proprietor, Clark continued to edit and also published and printed the newspaper after Bourne's departure to Mauritius in 1837. Attacked periodically by Charles Macfaull's Perth Gazette and by some of the government officials in the Colony, the Swan River Guardian continued to be published until 1838. The withdrawal of surety by William Lamb and Louis Giustiniani meant that Clark was no longer able to comply with a local law demanding surety against the possibility of libel. This local law, B. K. De Garis writes, was enacted 'possibly with the intention of silencing [Clark].' (312) The loss of surety and mounting debt caused the cessation of the paper.
Clark tried to continue with a newspaper entitled the Political Register, first published as a pamphlet, but could not raise surety.
In the early 1840s Clark made journeys into the south west of the colony. He applied for a pilotage contract on Rottnest Island and proposed a scheme to lease salt-mines on Rottnest and develop a fish trade. However these latter projects did not eventuate and Clark lost some of his selected and purchased land due to non improvement of the land and non payment of monies owed. Bolton also notes that Clark intended to write a book on Western Australia, 'but this, if it existed, was never published.' Perhaps these disappointments caused Clark to try his luck in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Clark left the Colony on 29 November 1848. His request to practise as a notary public in Hobart Town was not granted and he worked as a journalist and died in Hobart Town in 1854.
Sources: G. C. Bolton, 'Clark, William Nairne (1804-1854)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clark-william-nairne-1900/text2243, accessed 18 April 2013; Pamela Statham (comp.), Dictionary of Western Australians 1829-1914 : Volume 1 : Early Settlers 1829-1850 (1979): 57; B. K. De Garis, Political Tutelage 1829-1870', C. T. Stannage, ed. A New History of Western Australia (1981): 297-325
