William Edward Harney

William Edward Harney (18 April 1895 – 31 December 1962), also well known as Bill Harney, was a largely self-educated Australian writer. Most of his early life was an itinerant one of poverty and hardship, punctuated by tragedy, spent mainly in the outback. He is notable for his writings about the Aboriginal peoples of Australia’s Northern Territory.

Harney was born in Charters Towers, Queensland, the second of three children of English-born parents. From the age of twelve he was working as a drover and boundary-rider in western Queensland. In 1915 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and, following training in Egypt, served during the First World War on the Western Front.

After the war he worked at various jobs, mainly in the Northern Territory. He married Kathleen Linda Beattie in 1927 and had two children, though his wife died in 1932, his daughter Beattie in 1934, and his son Billy in 1945. He also partnered a Wardaman woman, Ludi Libuluyma, resulting in a son born c.1934 who grew up to be the well-known Wardaman elder Bill Yidumduma Harney.

From 1940 to 1947 Harney worked for the Australian government’s Native Affairs Branch as a Protector of Aborigines and as a patrol officer. Subsequently he concentrated on writing as well as acting as an adviser on expeditions by the National Geographic Society to Arnhem Land and Melville Island. He was also an adviser during the making of the film Jedda (1955).

He was appointed the first ranger of Uluru in 1959, a job he held until he retired in 1962.

He moved to the Queensland coast, and died the same year at his home in Mooloolaba, Queensland. He is commemorated in the scientific name of the Sandstone Dibbler, Pseudantechinus bilarni, which reflects the Aboriginal pronunciation of his name.