James Harrison served a printing apprenticeship in Glasgow prior to moving to London in 1835 where he worked as a compositor. In 1837, as an employee of Tegg & Co., Harrison sailed for Sydney 'with printing equipment for the
Literary News to be edited by
William a'Beckett (q.v.). After five months with this journal, Harrison repaid his passage money and became foreman of the
Sydney Monitor ...
In 1839 Harrison joined the
Port Phillip Patriot under
John Pascoe Fawkner (q.v.) who next year commissioned him to found and edit the weekly
Geelong Advertiser. In partnership with John Scamble he bought this newspaper in 1842; together they also produced a
Geelong Almanac, but Harrison soon became sole owner and emerged as a journalist of power and parts. His standards were high, his policies broad and progressive; he was a fearless humanitarian, devoid of humbug and sectarian prejudice, with natural and acquired width of knowledge.
'As a stationer and job printer he published such works as Alexander Skene, Map of the District of Geelong and James Dredge, Aborigines of New South Wales in 1845, the Australia Felix Monthly Magazine in 1849 and Garrard and Shaw, Map of the Town and Suburbs of Geelong in 1850. He also established the Intelligencer in 1850 as a summary for both isolated settlers and overseas readers.'
In 1862, although Harrison's assets were by then worth £22,000, 'he had to sell his Advertiser to escape bankruptcy. He was retained as editor, and in 1865 founded the Geelong Register; but he could not keep it and in 1867 he became an editor of the Melbourne Age.'
Harrison was a pioneer in refrigeration. 'In 1873 he won a gold medal at the Melbourne Exhibition by proving that meat kept frozen for months remained perfectly edible and that it might be shipped to England for 7s. a ton.' The same year, he travelled to Britain where he remained for nineteen years. He returned to Geelong and 'settled in a small cottage at Point Henry'. Following his death in 1893, monies were raised from a public subscription for a tombstone with the quotation 'one soweth, another reapeth'.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/
Sighted: 03/04/2013
