Frederick Panter

Who was Frederick Panter?

Frederick Kennedy Panter was a police officer, pastoralist and explorer in colonial Western Australia. While exploring in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1864, he was killed by Australian Aborigines.

Born in 1836, Frederick Panter was a relative¹ of Governor of Western Australia Sir Arthur Kennedy. Little is known of his early life, except that he was a police constable in Queensland, came to Western Australia, and by 1861 was Perth's Inspector of Police.

In 1864, Panter was selected to lead an expedition to Camden Harbour to test the story of a convict, Henry Wildman, who claimed to have found gold there many years earlier. On arrival in the area, Wildman became sullen and uncooperative, and tried to escape. No gold was found, but large areas of good pastoral land were discovered around Roebuck Bay. Consequently, a public company, the Roebuck Bay Company, was formed to establish a chain of stations in the area, and Panter joined the advance party that sailed to the area to set up a base camp. The following month, Panter, along with James Harding and William Goldwyer set out from the base camp on an expedition to explore the area around La Grange Bay. The Panter-Harding-Goldwyer expedition did not return, and eventually a search party under Maitland Brown was sent to find them. Brown's La Grange expedition party eventually found the three men dead, having been clubbed and speared to death. It has been claimed that Panter and Harding were killed in their sleep, while Goldwyer was keeping watch.