An apparently close friend of one of the founders of the South Australian Company, George Fife Angas, Giles travelled to South Australia on the ship Hartley in 1837 accompanied by his new (and pregnant) wife, Emily Elizabeth (née McGeorge) (c.
The Hartley was a three-masted vessel measuring 27.13 x 7.19 x 5.61 metres built at Sunderland in England in 1836.