Portrait of F.W. Thring, explorer, from the S.A. Northern Pioneers' composite, 1850-1859 (shown in position on B 6912/2).

Thring was a member of John McDouall Stuart's fifth and sixth expeditions between 1860-62 and the John McKinlay Expedition in the Northern Territory 1865-66. Born in England in 1837, his father was a freehold farmer in Wiltshire and looking for better prospects the family emigrated to South Australia in 1849 on the Duke of Wellington. After a brief period in Adelaide the family moved to Encounter Bay. Francis was employed in carting telegraph poles from the tiers near Port Victor (Victor Harbor) to Mount Barker and Adelaide for W. Thompson. It was probably here that he gained bushman skills and became an experienced horseman.

Thring was the third officer on Stuart's expedition of 1861-62 and he had charge of the horses. On the sixth expedition Stuart named a water source in central Australia for Thring, Thring's Pond, now Thring Swamp. Stuart spoke very highly of Thring's work on the expedition. In 1865 he was one of John McKinlay's party, which was to explore between the Adelaide and Liverpool Rivers to locate a good site for the main settlement.

On his return to South Australia Thring managed properties for Messrs Browne including Buckland Park at Two Wells and subsequently for John Howard Angas. He was also employed on an ostrich farm near Port Augusta before returning to Adelaide. Here he worked as a business and commercial agent dealing in stock and land sales. He died in Parkside in July 1908.

In November 1916, the town Thrington between Wallaroo and Port Wakefield in the Yorke Peninsula, was named after him.

McDouall Stuart, John, 1818-1866

McKinlay, John, 1819-1872

Thring, F.W., 1837-1908

[Francis William Thring] Observer, 25 July 1908, p. 29, 40, col. b

Obituary. Mr. F.W. Thring Farm stock and station journal, vol. 4, no. 3 (September 1908), p. 17

Blacker, Margaret Francis William Thring Adelaide: John McDouall Stuart Society, 1998

Blacker, Margaret Things about Thrings : an anthology of the Thring family tree, 1849-1985 Happy Valley, S. Aust.: M. Blacker, c1985

SA Memory Taking it to the edge: Land: John McDouall Stuart's six expeditions

Explorers of the South Australian Great Northern Exploring Expedition, 1861-1862 PRG 280/1/15/1109

SA Memory: Taking it to the edge: John McKinlay: Northern Territory expedition