Thomas Hardy lectured and wrote on the wine business and olive growing, was a member of the Phylloxera Board, Wine Growers’ Association, South Australian Agricultural and Horticultural Society and the Chamber of Manufactures, judged local horticultural shows, published regularly in the local press and wrote two books, Notes on Vineyards in America and Europe (1885) and A Vigneron Abroad, Trip to South Africa (1899).