Lang Hancock

Langley ("Lang") Hancock was born on 10 June 1909 in Leederville, Perth, Western Australia. He was the eldest of four children born to Lilian () and George Hancock. His mother had been born in South Australia and his father in Western Australia. His father's great-aunt was Emma Withnell, while a cousin was Sir Valston Hancock. Lang spent his early childhood on the family station, Ashburton Downs, run by the three Hancock brothers. His interest in mining was sparked by his uncle John, who lived at Ashburton Downs and was a keen prospector. Hancock later moved to Mulga Downs Station in the north-west after his father, George Hancock, bought a farming property there. Initially educated at home, at the age of eight he began boarding at the St Aloysius Convent of Mercy in Toodyay. From 1924 to 1927, he attended Hale School in Perth, where he played for the school cricket and football teams. During the Second World War, Hancock served in a militia unit, the 11th (North-West) Battalion, Volunteer Defence Corps, and attained the rank of sergeant. On 4 August 1947, he married his second wife, Hope Margaret Nicholas, the mother of his only acknowledged child, Gina Rinehart. He and Hope remained married for 35 years, until her death in 1983 at the age of 66. In 2012, Hilda Kickett, who had long claimed to be Lang Hancock's illegitimate daughter, claimed that the late mining magnate had had an illicit affair with an Aboriginal cook on his property at Mulga Downs, resulting in her conception. Those claims have not been corroborated. ==Wittenoom Gorge==

As a child, Hancock showed a keen interest in mining and prospecting from his uncle John Hancock Jr, and discovered asbestos at Wittenoom Gorge at the age of ten. He staked a claim at Wittenoom in 1934 and began mining blue asbestos there in 1938 with the company Australian Blue Asbestos. The mine attracted the attention of CSR, who purchased the claim in 1943. Hancock retained a 49% share after the sale, but appears to have become quickly disillusioned about this arrangement, complaining that CSR viewed their 51% share as a licence to ignore his views. He sold the remainder of his claim in 1948. The mine would later become the source of much controversy, when hundreds of cases of asbestos-related diseases came to light. He was aware of the dangers of asbestos prior to selling his stake in Australian Blue Asbestos (as recently discovered papers have shown) but never accepted any liability, nor have his companies since his death. Neither the Australian federal government nor the Western Australian state government have pursued his companies for damages as of 2017. ==The Pilbara discovery==

On 16 November 1952, Hancock claimed he discovered the world's largest deposit of iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Hancock said he was flying from Nunyerry to Perth with his wife, Hope, when they were forced by bad weather to fly low, through the gorges of the Turner River. In Hancock's own words, The story is widely accepted in modern descriptions of the discovery, but one biographer, Neill Phillipson, disputes Hancock's account. In Man of Iron he argues that there was no rain in the area of the Turner River on 16 November 1952 or indeed on any day in November 1952, a fact the Australian Bureau of Meteorology confirms. Hancock returned to the area many times and, accompanied by prospector Ken McCamey, followed the iron ore over a distance of . He soon came to realise that he had stumbled across reserves of iron ore so vast that they could supply the entire world, thus confirming the discovery of the geologist Harry Page Woodward, who after his survey asserted: After 1920 development of the Yampi Sound deposits started but exports to Japan were curtailed by the Commonwealth Government in 1938. Prospecting and exploration of other ore deposits continued until 1952 where an agreement between the Government of Western Australia and BHP to build a steel mill and smelter in Kwinana was established. All other iron ore, known or unknown, was reserved to the Crown for 9 years. Representations were made to the Commonwealth Government to have the embargo lifted and in 1960 limited approval was granted for the export of iron ore from non-BHP deposits. This sparked a wave of intensive prospecting and exploration concentrated in the North West, the Hamersley Ranges in particular, where formation had been known but ore bodies not yet delineated. At this time Hancock revealed his discovery. Hancock had lobbied furiously for a decade to get the ban lifted and in 1961 was finally able to reveal his discovery and stake his claim. ==Political activity==

Although Lang Hancock never aspired to political office, he held strong conservative political views and often entered the political arena. In addition to his activities in the 1950s, lobbying against government restrictions on the mining of iron ore, Hancock donated considerable sums of money to politicians of many political stripes. His political views aligned most closely with the Liberal and National Parties of Australia. He was a good friend and strong supporter of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and donated A$632,000 to the Queensland National Party while Bjelke-Petersen was in charge. He gave A$314,000 to their counterparts in Western Australia, but also gave the Western Australian Labor Party A$985,000; because "at least they can't do any harm". Hancock had had a falling-out with Sir Charles Court and the Western Australian Liberals and was adamant that the Liberals should be kept out of power as long as possible. Hancock also offered strong advice to the politicians he favoured. In 1977 he sent a Telex to the then-Treasurer of Australia Sir Phillip Lynch, telling him he needed to "stop money coming in to finance subversive activities, such as Friends of the Earth, which is a well-heeled foreign operation." He also suggested to Bjelke-Petersen that the Federal Government should attempt to censor the works of Ralph Nader and John Kenneth Galbraith, lest they "wreck Fraser's government". In 1969 Hancock and his partner Peter Wright commenced publication in Perth of a weekly newspaper, The Sunday Independent, principally to help further their mining interests. Faced with strong competition, the newspaper is thought never to have turned a profit, Hancock largely relinquishing his interest in it in the early 70s and Wright selling it to The Truth in 1984. Hancock was a staunch proponent of small government and resented what he considered to be interference by the Commonwealth Government in Western Australian affairs. He declared before a state Royal Commission in 1991 that "I have always believed that the best government is the least government", and that "Although governments do not and cannot positively help business, they can be disruptive and destructive." Hancock bankrolled an unsuccessful secessionist party in the 1970s, and in 1979 published a book, Wake Up Australia, outlining what he saw as the case for Western Australian secession. The book was launched by Gina Rinehart and Bjelke-Petersen. ==Attitudes towards Aboriginal people==

Hancock is quoted as saying, :"Mining in Australia occupies less than one-fifth of one percent of the total surface of our continent and yet it supports 14 million people. Nothing should be sacred from mining whether it's your ground, my ground, the blackfellow's ground or anybody else's. So the question of Aboriginal land rights and things of this nature shouldn't exist." In a 1984 television interview, Hancock suggested forcing unemployed indigenous Australians − specifically "the ones that are no good to themselves and who can't accept things, the half-castes" − to collect their welfare cheques from a central location. "And when they had gravitated there, I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in the future, and that would solve the problem." ==Rose Porteous==

In 1983, the same year as Hope Hancock's death, Rose Lacson (now Porteous) arrived in Australia from the Philippines on a three-month working visa. By the arrangement of Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, Porteous began working as a maid for the newly widowed Lang Hancock. Hancock and Porteous became romantically involved over the course of Porteous' employment and they were wed on 6 July 1985 Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, who stood to inherit his entire estate, did not attend the wedding. Although the marriage would later prove tumultuous, early on Hancock was clearly infatuated with his young wife. He gave her money and investments in real estate in the Sydney area. Porteous, in turn, helped Hancock to look and act like a much younger man, belying his eight decades. As The Age put it, "Rose made Lang feel younger, sprucing up his wardrobe, dyeing his hair and getting rid of his cane." Together they built the "Prix d'Amour", a lavish 16-block mansion overlooking the Swan River. The mansion, which was modelled after Tara, the plantation mansion from the movie Gone with the Wind, was the setting for many large parties at which Hancock and Porteous would "dance into the night". Western Australian finance minister Max Evans mourned the loss of the home as the excavators moved in and recalled Hancock had been bemused by his wife's desire for the sprawling mansion: "He'd say, 'Mr Evans, I don't know why Rose wants this house, I'd be happy sleeping in a transportable.' " Mrs Porteous told him she'd always wanted to live in Prix D'Amour, "but I don't want to clean it", she had added quickly. ==Death and inquest==

In March 1992 Hancock died, aged 82 years, The inquest was put on hold after allegations that Rinehart had paid witnesses to appear and that some had lied in their testimony. It resumed three months later with a smaller witness list and ended with the finding that Hancock had died of natural causes and not as a result of Porteous' behaviour. Rose and William Porteous commenced action against Rinehart, that was eventually settled out of court in 2003. ==Legacy==

Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, continues to chair Hancock Prospecting and its expansion into mining projects continues in Western Australia and other states of Australia, estimated to be earning about A$870 million in revenue in 2011. Rinehart is Australia's richest person and was also the world's richest woman for a period of time, with a net worth of 29.17 billion during 2012; by 2019, her wealth had eased to around $US14.8 billion, according to Forbes. The Hancock Range, situated about north-west of the town of Newman at , commemorates the family's contribution to the establishment of the pastoral and mining industry in the Pilbara region. ==Bibliography==