Hardey was the son of Ann (née Robinson) and Joseph Hardey, who had arrived in the
Swan River Colony in February 1830. His parents, originally from
Lincolnshire, England, were devout
Methodists, with his father being the leader of the first Methodist congregation in Perth (as a lay preacher rather than an ordained minister). Hardey was sent to England to be educated, only returning to Australia in 1866. He took over his father's property,
Peninsula Farm, and also purchased an estate near
York (an inland town). Hardey had married twice, to Jane Lowe in 1876 and to Kathleen Beurteaux in 1892. He had one child by his first wife and two children by his second. == Political career and later life ==