From 1882 to 1885 he was an accountant in Naracoorte, and secretary of its Pastoral and Agricultural Society, the Naracoorte Institute and the Naracoorte Turf Club.Narracoorte Herald, 7 July 1882, p. 2; Narracoorte Herald, 12 October 1883, p. 3; Border Watch, 20 May 1885, p. 2; Western Mail, 16 December 1898, p. 28; Border Watch, 2 November 1923, p. 3. In early 1886 Gardiner briefly took a post as a provisional school teacher at Lochaber, South Australia.Border Watch, 17 February 1886, p. 3; Border Watch, 24 July 1886, p. 2; 1963, J. Murdoch and H. Parker, History of Naracoorte, p. 105.
