Editor: Trudi Anne Gribble

Author: Vivienne Sinclair

William Hellyar Cooper was born in Perth in 1870, and his business partner, Frederick Mortimer Blanton, was born in Melbourne in 1875. Cooper attended Perth High School (now Hale School) and at age 16, travelled to the Murchison with his brother-in-law, R. D. O’Grady. He worked as a station hand in the Ashburton district before the lure of gold drew him to Marble Bar, arriving around 1893. Blanton was in the Murchison by September 1895, where he served as secretary of the Marble Bar Athletics Club (Northern Public Opinion & Mining & Pastoral News, 1895, September 14).

In August 1895, Cooper established the Westward Ho Hotel and a general store, including a butcher’s section, on the Upper Nickol Goldfield, for which he applied for a Wayside House Licence (Northern Public Opinion & Mining & Pastoral News, 1895, August 17). By November 1895, he applied for a Publican’s General Licence for the Ironclad Hotel in Marble Bar. The hotel, though modest with just a sitting room, dining room, billiard room, and eight bedrooms, became well-known. Blanton, a bookkeeper, was Cooper’s business partner, though the hotel license was in Cooper’s name. In 1896, Cooper and Blanton installed an aerated water plant, which was “in full swing” by October (Northern Public Opinion & Mining & Pastoral News, 1895, November 23; Northern Public Opinion & Mining & Pastoral News, 1896, October 31).

In 1898, Blanton returned briefly to the Eastern States before he and Cooper opened another hotel in the Klondike (Warrawoona) gold-producing area, with Blanton as the licensee. Meanwhile, Cooper continued as the licensee of the Ironclad Hotel, and both partners jointly operated the aerated water factory inside the hotel (Pilbara Goldfields News, 1898, November 5). Cooper married Elsie Charlotte Hatfield in Claremont in 1898. Over the years, the couple and their four children spent summers in the cooler city temperatures before returning north.

As the town grew, Cooper and Blanton purchased “Augusta” house in June 1899 and relocated it beside the hotel for additional dining and sitting areas. Its spacious verandas provided welcome relief from the heat. Their menu was advertised as first-class, and in November 1899, Blanton applied for a Publican’s General Licence for the hotel, which Cooper held until then (Pilbara Goldfields News, 1899, November 19). In 1902, Cooper expanded his business with a general store, Cooper & Co., offering wholesale and retail items, including food, clothing, shoes, and other supplies, with deliveries to Tinfields and Warrawoona (Pilbara Goldfields News, 1902, April 24).

By 1904, Blanton advertised the Ironclad Hotel as the only hotel in the Northwest with water on the premises, providing showers and plunge baths for guests. The aerated water factory on-site used hand-operated bottling machines, and in late 1904, Blanton installed a 4hp oil engine for water pumping and a dynamo to provide electric lighting for the hotel, factory, and his private residence (Pilbara Goldfields News, 1904, December 1). In 1905, they leased the Stray Shot battery to assist miners with ore crushing and exported several tons of tin per month from the area (Pilbara Goldfields News, 1905, January 21).

In September 1906, Selwyn R. Hedditch applied for a Publican’s General Licence for the Ironclad Hotel, with the license previously held by Blanton. Cooper continued to own the hotel in 1907, having also installed new machinery in the aerated water factory (Pilbara Goldfields News, 1906, September 8; Pilbara Goldfields News, 1907, February 16). Blanton married Annie Joyce Brown in Claremont in 1908.

By December 1911, the Gallon Licence for the Ironclad Hotel was transferred to George W. Miles & Co., as Marble Bar’s business environment had shifted. Blanton moved to the Eastern States by 1912, eventually settling in Karridale, WA, in 1915, where he ran a store until 1918. He later relocated to New South Wales and passed away in Penshurst, Sydney, on October 26, 1937, at age 62. Both he and his wife Annie are buried in Woronora Cemetery (West Australian, 1931, July 1; Sunday Times, 1932, July 31).

Cooper remained in the Northwest. In 1912, he still owned the Ironclad Hotel, which required extensive repairs due to termite damage in 1913. He subsequently purchased Murrabunda Station near Nullagine in 1914, which he stocked with sheep, and dissolved his partnership with S. A. Hedditch as Forwarding and Commission Agents. In 1915, Cooper’s Japanese cook attacked him with a shotgun, set fire to station buildings, and injured Cooper, who required hospitalization. His family had fortunately already moved to the city for the summer (Meekatharra Miner, 1914, April 4; Western Mail, 1915, February 26).

Cooper dissolved his partnership with Adelaide Cook and Thomas Alfred Barrow of Murrabunda Station on July 1, 1920, and moved to the city. His wife Elsie passed away in Nedlands in 1931, and Cooper died on July 1, 1932. He is remembered as a true pioneer of the Northwest (West Australian, 1931, July 1).

References

Daily News. (1913, April 14).

Meekatharra Miner. (1914, April 4).

Northern Public Opinion & Mining & Pastoral News. (1895, August 17; 1895, September 14; 1895, November 23; 1896, October 31; 1897, March 5; 1898, May 6; 1898, June 2).

Pilbara Goldfields News. (1898, July 1; 1898, November 5; 1899, August 10; 1899, November 19; 1902, April 24; 1902, June 26; 1904, February 27; 1904, July 2; 1904, December 1; 1905, January 21; 1906, March 3; 1906, September 8; 1907, February 16; 1911, April 27; 1911, December 7; 1912, December 10; 1914, March 31; 1915, December 21).

Sunday Times. (1932, July 31).

South Western News Busselton. (1915, March 26; 1918, June 21).

West Australian. (1931, July 1).

Western Mail. (1915, February 26).