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Historical background
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In 1909 a fifth order leading light was established
on a 25ft steel angle-iron tower.
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The jetty was demolished in 1983 and the light tower
which had been gradually deteriorating since the 1960's was probably demolished
at the same time.
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In 1992, the end of the breakwater was marked by a
light on a post which is still in use today.
Mary Ann Haven was important as a safe
harbour over the years.
By the 1820s the whalers and sealers from Van Diemen's Land, who
hunted in the southern ocean, knew of the shelter which the Hopetoun area
offered. The area was settled in the late 1860s by the Dunn brothers who spent
their first three years there clearing scrub and building sheep yards.
Hopetoun as an area
really took off with the discovery of gold and copper by James Dunn at the
Phillips River Goldfields near Ravensthorpe in 1898. Prospective miners
would travel by ship from Albany or Esperance to Hopetoun then catch road
transport up to Ravensthorpe. A jetty was built in 1901 and in that
year a gold battery was shipped through the port.
The
importance of the port was short lived. The railway which connected
Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun in 1901 was closed in 1925 and the port was
effectively closed in 1936.
Most recently the town had a resurgence
of industry with the opening of the BHP nickel mine which then unfortunately
closed in 2009. Hopetoun is now once again a sleepy hollow doing a great job of
catering for tourists who love the unspoiled beauty of the coastline and
national parks in the area while waiting for the new Canadian owners of the
mines to start up again.
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