John Laurence Hardy (born 14 September 1942) is an Australian

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and businessman who founded the aviation company

Airnorth Capiteq Pty Limited, trading as Airnorth, is a regional airline based at Darwin International Airport in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. It operates scheduled and charter services in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria, Western ...

in 1978 and Hardy Aviation in 1991. He was Administrator of the Northern Territory from November 2014 until October 2017. Hardy was born at Midland Junction in Perth, Western Australia, and moved to

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

at the age of six, where his father, Evan, was chief metallurgist at North Broken Hill mine. He was schooled at Broken Hill High School. He moved to the Northern Territory in 1971 to work as a pilot in the South Australian and Territory Air Services, where he flew supplies from Darwin to the Indonesian island of Ceram for the American oil giant

Gulf and Western Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an Americans, American conglomerate company, conglomerate. Originally, the company focused on manufacturing and resource extraction. Beginning in 1966, and continuing throughout ...

's oil field there. When aviation work was not available, Hardy worked as a radiographer at Darwin Hospital in

Larrakeyah Larrakeyah is an inner suburb of Darwin, the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory. It was one of the first parts of the city to be developed, and borders the Darwin Central Business District. At the 2016 Census, there were 3,729 peop ...

. On 10 November 2014, Hardy was sworn in as Administrator of the Northern Territory by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

Honours

In 2012 Hardy was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to aviation in the Northern Territory, and to the community;HARDY, John Laurence
''It's an Honour'', 11 June 2012. and in 2017 he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for distinguished service to the people of the Northern Territory, and as a patron and supporter of a range of aviation, health, emergency service and charitable organisations.

References

1942 births Living people Administrators of the Northern Territory Australian aviators Australian businesspeople Officers of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia People from Perth, Western Australia {{Australia-bio-stub