Robert Wardell was a founder, owner and first editor (until June 1828) of the
Australian newspaper. A prominent Sydney barrister and friend and associate of W. C. Wentworth, Wardell was unsuccesfully prosecuted for libel by Governor Darling. He was murdered by convicts on his estate at Petersham, New South Wales, in 1834. (Accounts of the trial of those accused of Wardell's murder can be found in Sydney newspapers in September 1834. See, for example, the
Sydney Monitor 17 September 1834 and
8 November 1834.)
