Hancock Booklet

The following is an extract from a forthcoming biography of Lang Hancock by Lang and Hope in their frail aircraft survived to tell the tale but Lang had made a John McRobert. This is the only biography to have been authorised by Mr commitment to go back and examine the area more closely. After their breathtaking Hancock’s family and the author has been afforded complete access to all flight through the gorges they landed briefly at Yinnietharra to refuel before records held by Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. The book will be released to resuming their flight to Woolleen. mark 50 years of HPPL, the parent company founded by Lang Hancock. The following day, the trip to Perth was comparatively uneventful - as uneventful as another 5 or 6 hours aloft in a small aircraft watching the unfolding landscape for The discovery flight of November 22, 1952. navigational clues can be. They had no radio for weather warnings or entertainment, so they sang, talked and watched the world go by, with a particular In Nunyerry the summer storm season was approaching and soon the access road interest in familiar landmarks, their aerial roadsigns. would be inaccessible. The flimsy little Auster was parked on the 'airstrip' Lang had cleared on the floor of the gorge - the plan was to fly south to Lang’s sister’s sheep On returning to the North West after their annual sojourn in Perth, Lang flew his station at Woolleen and then to Perth. Clouds were building on the horizon. Lloyd little Auster back time and time again to the 'deep ochre red' gorges through which Marshall described the flight in an article published in 1963. he escaped the storms. He landed on unprepared ground, in spinifex country, on mesas, in gorges, places no other vehicle had been or could get to. He took ore Over the Hamersleys he faced a barrier of massed towering cumulus - suicide for an samples for a stretch of over 50 miles and after having them assayed in Perth Auster to attempt to enter. There was no going back to Nunyerry. They were realised he had made a discovery of world significance. shaping up behind him as fast as they were shaping up in front. There was only Hobson’s, or Hancock’s choice. He had to go under them. They forced him lower A superb bush pilot in a fragile, basic flying machine had done what no major and lower on to streaming red cliffs, jagged gorges and boulder-strewn flat tops of company in the country had been able to achieve. the Hamersleys. But there was still a Commonwealth embargo on the export of iron ore and a State But he had not lived his life in the Hamersleys to end it here ... He knew he was in ban on pegging iron ore prospects. Lang couldn't reveal his find until he could the Turner River country. He knew he was somewhere over the source. It was secure legal tenure over the area. He lobbied relentlessly. The Commonwealth country rarely, if ever, entered by a white man. He knew that the water in the gorges embargo was finally partially lifted in December 1960 but it took another year for running south must be joining the Turner. So gorge-groping he went. Just over the the State pegging bans to be eased sufficiently to allow access to these giant deposits. tops of the trees he racketed down the gorges, always following the ever-increasing torrent of water. He had never been down low over this country before. He had McRobert asks - How will future generations perceive Lang Hancock?. More has always flown it with the safety of thousands of feet between him and the been written about him than perhaps any other Australian not in political Hamersleys. office. Much of this has been ill informed, especially when covering only the last few years of an eventful and productive life. A shadow has been The Auster gave everything he asked of it. He reached the Turner headwaters. cast over his enormous achievements. But Lang Hancock’s drive, energy and Judging his way through the neck of a gorge the Turner had cut (I’ve been there. It’s vision should never be forgotten. The wealth he accessed is shared in about half a dozen wing-spans) the pilot’s practised eye surrendered momentarily to various ways by every living Australian and as beneficiaries we must the practised eye of the prospector. The walls of this gorge were different. They were understand and appreciate the background to the affluent society we enjoy still red. But it was a different red. They were a sort of ... a deep ochre red.' today. These pages pay tribute to a great man who did more than his share to make it so. MEMORABLE QUOTES “At that time there was a Commonwealth Embargo on the export of iron ore because it was thought that Australia only had about 30 - 35 years life of iron ore LANG HANCOCK and there was also a state blanket on the issuing of titles, so had this become known, “So I was brought up in those days when I it would have gone straight to Government property, nothing could have been done was a child and then when you're right in the with it privately.” outback, you have to be self sufficient, you “I was able to trace with the plane that this ore body went for 70 miles and I didn't have the luxury that you've got now, so if followed it along in the plane for 70 miles and I had just assumed that seeing that you were bought up in that atmosphere and the Australia officially had no iron ore in it, that it must have been low grade and a lot father before me bought up in that atmosphere, of rubbish. So I managed to buck myself down in a patch of Spinifex, if it wasn't it gives you a sense of independence because if so thick in the little plane I could walk across, took some samples and to my surprise you don't look after yourself then nobody else is they were 2% higher than the standard blast furnace feed in the mightiest nation on going to look after you.” earth, the United States, so I knew that it was not only large, but it was high grade.” “In those days the only communication “It was the same old story, the myth about Australian iron ore was deeply from the point of view of getting supplies, the ingrained in the politicians and power brokers of the day. There was no progress wagons used to come out every four or five or and an almost stultifying inactivity pervaded.” six months, they were camel wagons. The “…. Well when we found out that the blanket was going to be lifted, we got in conditions were a bit too rough for horses, but touch with Rio Tinto and got backing from their Managing Director and then we the camels used to drag the wagons out. The sent some ground parties headed by Bill Newman.” flour was a bit weevilly, a case of jam was a luxury, there was no butter, but there was of course plenty of meat. And vegetables were grown. People were very self BILL NEWMAN reliant in what they couldn't bring from civilised areas, they made and did for themselves”. (Cousin of Lang Hancock) “… everything comes out of the earth, you either mine it or you grow it and you “It was a bit tough but it was alright. It was can't even grow anything until you first of all mine the tools of trade and the exciting - the enthusiasm that Lang showed, you phosphates and the things that are necessary for agriculture, you've got to start with couldn't help but to be taken up with that the earth”. enthusiasm and I've prospected most of my life “I was travelling down overland to Perth which was a distance of a thousand as Lang said, to be on a thing which was world miles. The roads were pretty bad, the vehicles weren't what they are today, I got 17 class I suppose is the dream of every prospector, punctures on the way down, the gearbox fell to pieces on me, and two or three to have an Eldorado.” other, the starter motor got stuck and the driest stage was 120 miles between water, and the starter motor went out so um and finally when I did get a bit closer to LANG HANCOCK civilisation, half way down, an aeroplane went over the top and there's only one, I “Well people knowing this throughout the think we had about three in Western Australia at that time and I thought well that's world, people interested in iron ore, knew that the way to do it and since then I think I've had more aircraft than I have had motor there was no iron ore in Australia and here was cars." I, a boy from the bush, no experience, no “In November of 1952, I was flying down south with my wife Hope, and we education, no letters after his name or anything, left a bit later than usual and by the time we got over the Hamersley Ranges, the trying to tell them that I'd found by far the clouds had formed and the ceiling got lower and lower. I got into the Turner River, world's largest iron ore deposits, a whole field knowing full well if I followed it through, I would come out into the Ashburton.

Load more