Hopetoun, Western Australia

Hopetoun is a town on the south coast of Western Australia in the Shire of Ravensthorpe. Located on Mary Ann Harbour, Hopetoun is 590 kilometres (370 mi) south-east from capital city Perth and 160 kilometres (99 mi) west of Esperance.

Hopetoun
Western Australia
Hopetoun is located in Western Australia
Hopetoun
Hopetoun
Coordinates33.948°S 120.126°E / -33.948; 120.126
Population783 (UCL 2021)[1]
Established1900
Postcode(s)6348
Elevation13 m (43 ft)
Area539.8 km2 (208.4 sq mi)
Location
LGA(s)Shire of Ravensthorpe
State electorate(s)Roe
Federal division(s)O'Connor

History

Mary Ann Harbour was named in November 1865 by the sealer James Sale on the cutter Mary Ann. The Mary Ann was owned by whaling master John Thomas of Cheyne's Beach, 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Albany, who had named it after his eldest daughter.[2]

Hopetoun was established in 1900 as the port servicing the Phillips River goldfield, named after the first Governor-General of Australia, John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun.[3] The townsite was gazetted on 9 February 1901.[4]

The town became a shipping port for the mining industry, with a jetty built in 1901, the terminus of a railway line between Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe that operated from 1909 to 1935. The port was closed in 1937, with the jetty remaining until its destruction in 1983.[3][5][6][7]

Some of the town's electricity is generated by a wind-diesel system. Hopetoun has two 600 kilowatt wind turbines and two low-load diesel generators.[8]

The population in the 2016 Census was 871, a 38% fall from 1,398 in the 2011 Census, due to the closure of the nearby Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine. Hopetoun was a major site of accommodation for the mine, east of the town of Ravensthorpe. There is a primary school, police station and a doctor has clinics in both Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe. Hopetoun also has a hotel, tavern, bakery, IGA Supermarket, two cafes, post office/general store, hairdressers, beauty salon, CRC/library, chemist and two real estate agencies.[9][10]

References
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Hopetoun (Urban Centre and Locality)". Australian Census 2021. 
  2. Sale, Captain James (22 June 1897). "Mary Ann Harbor - A Reply to Captain Denver". Albany Advertiser. p. 3. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  3. "History of country town names – H". Western Australian Land Information Authority. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
  4. Western Australian Government Gazette, file 9159/00, 9 February 1901, p.676.
  5. The Hopetoun - Ravensthorpe Railway Nugent, P.W. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, November 1966, pp249–262
  6. Alex Gibson and D. H. S. du Plessis (December 1947). "Report to the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the management, workings and control of the Western Australian Government Railways" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  7. "Hopetoun". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 February 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  8. "Blowing a gale". InterSector. Government of Western Australia. 19 September 2006. Archived from the original on 8 September 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
  9. Nuic, Elvira (20 July 2007). "Swamped by the mining boom ... A plea for help from a small coastal community". ABC Stateline. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  10. Bennett, Mark (22 September 2017). "Ravensthorpe nickel mine closure fails to dent WA town's optimism". ABC News. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
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