Lang Hancock
Encyclopedia
Langley Frederick George "Lang" Hancock (10 June 190927 March 1992) was an Australian iron ore magnate
from Western Australia
who maintained a high profile in the competing spheres of business and politics. Famous initially for discovering the world's largest iron ore deposit in 1952 and becoming one of the richest men in Australia, he is now perhaps best remembered for his marriage to the controversial and much younger former maid Rose Porteous
. Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart
, was bitterly opposed to Hancock's relationship with Porteous. The conflicts between Rinehart and Porteous overshadowed his final years and continued until more than a decade after his death.
, Western Australia
, to one of that state's oldest land-owning families. He spent his early childhood on his family's station
at Ashburton Downs and moved to Mulga Downs in the north-west after his father, George Hancock, bought a farming estate there. Lang attended Hale School
in Perth as a boarder
and upon completing his education returned to Mulga Downs to help his father manage the estate.
As a young man, Hancock was widely considered charming and charismatic. Popular with the white women of Perth, he was also suspected to have fathered illegitimate children with Aboriginal workers in the area. In 2001, the Geraldton Guardian reported on Hilda Kickett, an Aboriginal woman who claimed to have been fathered by Hancock, and commented that "it was common for white men to enter into relationships, consensual and otherwise, with Aboriginal women."
In 1935 he married 21-year-old Susette Maley, described by his biographer Debi Marshall as "an attractive blonde with laughing eyes". The pair lived at Mulga Downs for many years, but Maley pined for city life and eventually left Hancock to return to Perth. Their separation was amicable. Also in 1935, Hancock took over the management of Mulga Downs station from his father. He partnered with his old schoolmate E. A. "Peter" Wright in running the property, later boasting that no deals between the two men were ever sealed with anything stronger than a handshake
.
During the Second World War, Hancock served in a militia unit and obtained the rank of sergeant
. On 4 August 1947, Hancock married his second wife, Hope Margaret Nicholas, the mother of his only acknowledged child Gina Rinehart
. Lang and Hope remained married for 35 years, until Hope's death in 1983 at the age of 66.
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 national behemoths CSR Limited
, 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.
On 16 November 1952, Hancock discovered the world's largest deposit of iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia
. Hancock 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. Hancock returned to the area many times and, accompanied by prospector Ken McCamey, followed the iron ore over a distance of 112 km. 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 speculation of the geologist W. P. Woodward, who asserted in 1890 that "this is essentially an iron ore country".
At the time, however, the common perception was that mineral resources were scarce in Australia. The Commonwealth Government
had enacted an embargo on the export of iron ore, while the Government of Western Australia
banned the pegging of claims for iron ore prospects. Hancock lobbied furiously for a decade to get the ban lifted and in 1961 was finally able to reveal his discovery and stake his claim.
In the mid sixties Hancock turned once more to Peter Wright and the pair entered into a deal with mining giants Rio Tinto Group
to develop the iron ore find. Hancock named it "Hope Downs" after his wife. Under the terms of the deal Rio Tinto set up and still administer a mine in the area. Wright and Hancock walked away with annual royalties of A
$25 million, split evenly between the two men. In 1990, Hancock was estimated
by Business Review Weekly
to be worth a minimum of A$125 million.
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 Sir Joh 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 Sir Joh 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".
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 Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
on a three-month working visa
. By the arrangement of 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, in Sydney
. The marriage marked the third time each of the newlyweds had exchanged vows. Porteous, who was thirty-nine years younger than her husband, was often accused of gold digging because of their age disparity
, as well as being unfaithful and promiscuous. These perceptions were heightened by her habit of flirting with other men. She was known to introduce a number of men as "my future husband" while still married to Hancock. As Porteous later stated: "I have been accused of sleeping with every man in Australia ... I would have been a very busy woman." 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, dying 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 the Tara Plantation
from Gone with the Wind
, was the setting for many large parties at which Hancock and Porteous would "dance into the night".
As the marriage wore on, however, the relationship between Lang and Rose began to break down. Rumours surfaced of her having disputes with servants and others close to Hancock, especially Gina Rinehart, and as Hancock's health worsened so did his relationship with Porteous. Rinehart would later claim that Hancock's bride had paid little attention to his worsening health, but had instead "screeched at him for money". Although there were many quarrels, the Hancocks remained married until Lang's death in 1992.
On 25 June 1992, less than three months after Hancock's death, Porteous married for the fourth time, to Hancock's long-time friend William Porteous
. Rinehart was indignant at the haste with which her stepmother had remarried.
The Prix d'Amour, built in 1990, was bulldozed in March, 2006.
An autopsy showed that he had died of arteriosclerotic heart disease
and police investigation revealed no evidence to contradict that. However, Hancock's daughter insisted that her stepmother had unnaturally hastened his death. Two successive state coroners refused to allow an inquest, but one was eventually granted in 1999 under the direction of WA Attorney-General
, Peter Foss.
After preliminary hearings during 2000, the inquest began in April 2001 with an initial estimate of 63 witnesses to be called over five weeks. The inquest was dominated by claims that Porteous had literally nagged Hancock to death with shrill tantrums and arguments. Porteous denied the allegations, famously explaining: "For anyone else it would be a tantrum, for me it's just raising my voice." In the last few days of Hancock's life, Porteous had attempted to pressure him into changing his will and Hancock eventually took out a restraining order against her. 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.
With a legal bill of A$2.7m, Rose and William Porteous commenced action against Rinehart, that was eventually settled out of court in 2003.
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
from Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
who maintained a high profile in the competing spheres of business and politics. Famous initially for discovering the world's largest iron ore deposit in 1952 and becoming one of the richest men in Australia, he is now perhaps best remembered for his marriage to the controversial and much younger former maid Rose Porteous
Rose Porteous
Rose Porteous , a Filipino-born Australian, is best known for her marriage to Lang Hancock, a West Australian iron ore mining magnate, and the protracted legal battle with her step-daughter, Gina Rinehart, over the circumstances that lead to the death of Hancock, and the distribution of his estate...
. Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart
Gina Rinehart
Georgina "Gina" Hope Rinehart is a mining heiress. She is the heiress of Hancock Prospecting and the daughter of the late mining magnate Lang Hancock and Hope Margaret Nicholas...
, was bitterly opposed to Hancock's relationship with Porteous. The conflicts between Rinehart and Porteous overshadowed his final years and continued until more than a decade after his death.
Early life
Lang Hancock was born in PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, to one of that state's oldest land-owning families. He spent his early childhood on his family's station
Station (Australian agriculture)
Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...
at Ashburton Downs and moved to Mulga Downs in the north-west after his father, George Hancock, bought a farming estate there. Lang attended Hale School
Hale School
Hale School is a selective, independent, Anglican day and boarding school for boys, located in Wembley Downs, a coastal suburb of Perth, Western Australia....
in Perth as a boarder
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
and upon completing his education returned to Mulga Downs to help his father manage the estate.
As a young man, Hancock was widely considered charming and charismatic. Popular with the white women of Perth, he was also suspected to have fathered illegitimate children with Aboriginal workers in the area. In 2001, the Geraldton Guardian reported on Hilda Kickett, an Aboriginal woman who claimed to have been fathered by Hancock, and commented that "it was common for white men to enter into relationships, consensual and otherwise, with Aboriginal women."
In 1935 he married 21-year-old Susette Maley, described by his biographer Debi Marshall as "an attractive blonde with laughing eyes". The pair lived at Mulga Downs for many years, but Maley pined for city life and eventually left Hancock to return to Perth. Their separation was amicable. Also in 1935, Hancock took over the management of Mulga Downs station from his father. He partnered with his old schoolmate E. A. "Peter" Wright in running the property, later boasting that no deals between the two men were ever sealed with anything stronger than a handshake
Handshake
A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other's like hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands.-History:...
.
During the Second World War, Hancock served in a militia unit and obtained the rank of sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
. On 4 August 1947, Hancock married his second wife, Hope Margaret Nicholas, the mother of his only acknowledged child Gina Rinehart
Gina Rinehart
Georgina "Gina" Hope Rinehart is a mining heiress. She is the heiress of Hancock Prospecting and the daughter of the late mining magnate Lang Hancock and Hope Margaret Nicholas...
. Lang and Hope remained married for 35 years, until Hope's death in 1983 at the age of 66.
Wittenoom Gorge
As a child, Hancock showed a keen interest in mining and prospecting and discovered asbestos at Wittenoom GorgeWittenoom, Western Australia
Wittenoom is a ghost town located 1,106 kilometres north-northeast of Perth in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is the site of Australia's greatest industrial disaster....
at the age of ten. He staked a claim at Wittenoom in 1934 and began mining blue asbestos
Riebeckite
Riebeckite is a sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of silicate minerals, chemical formula [][Na2][32][2|Si8O22]. It forms a series with magnesioriebeckite. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, usually as long prismatic crystals showing a diamond-shaped cross section, but also in...
there in 1938 with the company Australian Blue Asbestos
Australian Blue Asbestos
Australian Blue Asbestos Pty. Ltd. was a company founded by Lang Hancock, operated between the years responsible for the mining, bagging and distribution of blue asbestos or crocidolite, in Wittenoom, in northern Western Australia. The operation, purchased in 1943 by CSR Limited, was operated as...
.
The mine attracted the attention of national behemoths CSR Limited
CSR Limited
CSR Limited is a major Australian industrial company, producing aluminium and building products. It is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange. In 2009, it has approximately 10,000 employees and during a period of a major cyclical downturn the company made an after-tax profit of...
, 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
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma, more precisely malignant mesothelioma, is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, the mesothelium...
came to light.
The Pilbara discovery
Pilbara region of Western Australia
The Pilbara is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia known for its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore...
. Hancock 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
Turner River
The Turner River is a river in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.The headwaters of the river rise below Pullcunah Hill and flows in a northerly direction and crosses the North West Coastal Highway approximately south of Port Hedland and discharging into the Indian Ocean...
. In Hancock's own words,
- In November 1952, I was flying down south with my wife Hope, and we left a bit later than usual and by the time we got over the Hamersley Ranges, the clouds had formed and the ceiling got lower and lower. I got into the Turner River, knowing full well if I followed it through, I would come out into the Ashburton. On going through a gorge in the Turner River, I noticed that the walls looked to me to be solid iron and was particularly alerted by the rusty looking colour of it, it showed to me to be oxidised iron.
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. Hancock returned to the area many times and, accompanied by prospector Ken McCamey, followed the iron ore over a distance of 112 km. 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 speculation of the geologist W. P. Woodward, who asserted in 1890 that "this is essentially an iron ore country".
At the time, however, the common perception was that mineral resources were scarce in Australia. The Commonwealth Government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
had enacted an embargo on the export of iron ore, while the Government of Western Australia
Government of Western Australia
The formation of the Government of Western Australia is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1890, although it has been amended many times since then...
banned the pegging of claims for iron ore prospects. Hancock lobbied furiously for a decade to get the ban lifted and in 1961 was finally able to reveal his discovery and stake his claim.
In the mid sixties Hancock turned once more to Peter Wright and the pair entered into a deal with mining giants Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
to develop the iron ore find. Hancock named it "Hope Downs" after his wife. Under the terms of the deal Rio Tinto set up and still administer a mine in the area. Wright and Hancock walked away with annual royalties of A
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
$25 million, split evenly between the two men. In 1990, Hancock was estimated
BRW Rich 200
The BRW Rich 200 is a list of Australia's two hundred wealthiest individuals and families, ranked by personal net worth. The list is released annually during May in a special issue of the Business Review Weekly, published by Fairfax Media....
by Business Review Weekly
Business Review Weekly
BRW is an Australian weekly business magazine published by the Fairfax Media group. It regularly compiles lists which rank corporations and individuals according to various criteria, similar to Fortune magazine in the United States.BRW provides news and commentary on the economy, business and...
to be worth a minimum of A$125 million.
Political activity
Although Lang Hancock never aspired to political office, he held strong conservativeConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
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
Political donations in Australia
The term political donations refers to gifts to a politician, a political party, or an election campaign.In Australia, the majority of political donations come in the form of financial gifts from corporations, which go towards the funding of the parties' election advertising campaigns. Donations...
considerable sums of money to politicians of many political stripes. His political views aligned most closely with the Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
and National
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
Parties of Australia. He was a good friend and strong supporter of Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen, KCMG , was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, a period that saw considerable economic development in the state...
and donated A$632,000 to the Queensland National Party while Sir Joh was in charge. He gave A$314,000 to their counterparts in Western Australia, but also gave the Western Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
A$985,000; because "at least they can't do any harm". Hancock had had a falling-out with Sir Charles Court
Charles Court
Sir Charles Walter Michael Court, was a Western Australian politician, 21st Premier of Western Australia and member for the seat of Nedlands for the Liberal Party for nearly 30 years.-Early life:...
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
Teleprinter
A teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
to the then-Treasurer of Australia
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
Sir Phillip Lynch
Phillip Lynch
Sir Phillip Reginald Lynch KCMG was an Australian Liberal politician.Lynch held the House of Representatives seat of Flinders from 1966 to 1982. Between 1968 and 1972, he served variously as Minister for the Army, Minister for Immigration, and Minister for Labour and National Service, under Prime...
, telling him he needed to "stop money coming in to finance subversive activities, such as Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
, which is a well-heeled foreign operation." He also suggested to Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen that the Federal Government should attempt to censor the works of Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
and John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...
, lest they "wreck Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
's government".
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
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
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
Secessionism in Western Australia
Secessionism has been a recurring feature of Western Australia's political landscape since shortly after European settlement in 1829. The idea of self governance or secession has often been discussed through local newspaper articles and editorials and on a number of occasions has surfaced as very...
. The book was launched by Gina Rinehart and Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Attitudes towards Aborigines
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 rightsNative titleNative title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
and things of this nature shouldn’t exist."
Rose Porteous
In 1983, the same year as Hope Hancock's death, Rose Lacson (now Porteous) arrived in Australia from the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
on a three-month working visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
. By the arrangement of Rinehart, Porteous began working as a maid
Housekeeper (servant)
A housekeeper is an individual responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the interior of a residence, including direction of subordinate maids...
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, in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. The marriage marked the third time each of the newlyweds had exchanged vows. Porteous, who was thirty-nine years younger than her husband, was often accused of gold digging because of their age disparity
Age disparity in sexual relationships
Age disparity in sexual relationships refers to sexual relations between people with a significant difference in age. Whether these relationships are accepted and the question of what counts as a significant difference in age has varied over time; and varies over cultures, different legal systems,...
, as well as being unfaithful and promiscuous. These perceptions were heightened by her habit of flirting with other men. She was known to introduce a number of men as "my future husband" while still married to Hancock. As Porteous later stated: "I have been accused of sleeping with every man in Australia ... I would have been a very busy woman." Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, who stood to inherit his entire estate, did not attend the wedding.
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
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
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
put it, "Rose made Lang feel younger, sprucing up his wardrobe, dying his hair and getting rid of his cane". Together they built the "Prix d'Amour", a lavish 16-block mansion overlooking the Swan River
Swan River (Western Australia)
The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....
. The mansion, which was modelled after the Tara Plantation
Tara Plantation
Tara, the fictional plantation found in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind, was located near Jonesborough , Georgia...
from Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
, was the setting for many large parties at which Hancock and Porteous would "dance into the night".
As the marriage wore on, however, the relationship between Lang and Rose began to break down. Rumours surfaced of her having disputes with servants and others close to Hancock, especially Gina Rinehart, and as Hancock's health worsened so did his relationship with Porteous. Rinehart would later claim that Hancock's bride had paid little attention to his worsening health, but had instead "screeched at him for money". Although there were many quarrels, the Hancocks remained married until Lang's death in 1992.
On 25 June 1992, less than three months after Hancock's death, Porteous married for the fourth time, to Hancock's long-time friend William Porteous
William Porteous
William "Willie" Porteous , an Australian land developer and real estate agent, is best known as the husband of Perth socialite, Rose Porteous, the widow of iron ore mining magnate, Lang Hancock.-Bibliography:...
. Rinehart was indignant at the haste with which her stepmother had remarried.
The Prix d'Amour, built in 1990, was bulldozed in March, 2006.
Death and inquest
In March 1992 Hancock died, aged 82 years, while living in the guesthouse of the Prix D'Amour, the palatial home he had built for his third wife, Rose. According to his daughter, the death was "unexpected" and came "despite strong will to live".An autopsy showed that he had died of arteriosclerotic heart disease
Cardiovascular disease
Heart disease or cardiovascular disease are the class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels . While the term technically refers to any disease that affects the cardiovascular system , it is usually used to refer to those related to atherosclerosis...
and police investigation revealed no evidence to contradict that. However, Hancock's daughter insisted that her stepmother had unnaturally hastened his death. Two successive state coroners refused to allow an inquest, but one was eventually granted in 1999 under the direction of WA Attorney-General
Attorney-General of Western Australia
The Attorney-General of Western Australia is the member of the Government of Western Australia responsible for maintenance and improvement of Western Australia's system of law and justice. Before the advent of representative government in 1870, the title was Advocate-General of Western Australia...
, Peter Foss.
After preliminary hearings during 2000, the inquest began in April 2001 with an initial estimate of 63 witnesses to be called over five weeks. The inquest was dominated by claims that Porteous had literally nagged Hancock to death with shrill tantrums and arguments. Porteous denied the allegations, famously explaining: "For anyone else it would be a tantrum, for me it's just raising my voice." In the last few days of Hancock's life, Porteous had attempted to pressure him into changing his will and Hancock eventually took out a restraining order against her. 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.
With a legal bill of A$2.7m, 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. She is Australia's richest person, as named by Forbes Asia in 2011, with a net worth of A$9bn.External links
- Hancock Prospecting website
- Why Gina just got richer, ABCAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
North-West WA, 8 July 2005. - Book review of Robert Wainwright's Rose, from aussiereviews.com