From Swansea journalist to Australian gold magnate

Martin Shipton

A largely forgotten Welsh journalist who went on to be a prime mover in the development of gold mining in Western Australia has been commemorated in a book and a film.

George (GW) Hall, who made a name for himself as a combative columnist and editor in Swansea in the late 19th century, was persuaded to switch careers by a buccaneering MP who needed a reliable business partner.

Alwyn Evans, a retired educationist from Penarth, has been fascinated by Hall’s rise and fall for years, visiting the sites of his triumphs and disasters. His book, From Wales to Gwalia, has now been followed up by a short film, produced in Australia as part of a series of documentary films called Wanderland.

Outback

Hall was the key player in the development of the mine that became the third largest gold producer in Australia. In doing so, he wheeled and dealed and travelled alone through the Western Australian outback, dined at the best hotels in London, floated the Sons of Gwalia company on the London Stockmarket and set up his family in a mansion in Adelaide.

In the process, he made a fortune, only to lose it all within 10 years, after sex scandals, tragic accidents and Stockmarket crashes.

Sons of Gwalia mine

The Sons of Gwalia mine is on the edge of the Great Victorian Desert, but the story of this fabulous gold mine actually starts on the other side of the world, in Wales during the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli.

Attracted by reports of the gold finds in Western Australia, a group of Welsh businessmen met at the Eisteddfod and agreed to finance a prospecting syndicate to be run by Thomas Tobias. Tobias was a Welsh-born prospector, who with his brother Ernest had established a thriving retail business in the mining boom town of Coolgardie. With promises of finance, Tobias returned to the gold fields and backed a team to search for new gold prospects.

After trekking hundreds of kilometres, the prospectors found and staked a promising claim in the shadow of Mount Leonora. In honour of Tobias and the Welsh syndicate, they named it Sons of Gwalia. A year later, after the Eisteddfod investors failed to provide the promised financing, Thomas Tobias, out of pocket for a lot of money, was looking for a buyer.

“The timing would prove to be perfect for GW Hall, who as well as being a newspaperman was a self-taught geologist who gave public lectures in Swansea that were very popular.

“Hall met businessman Pritchard Morgan while covering Morgan’s campaign for Parliament. The two men would soon become good friends. They were music-loving and self-promoting kindred spirits, and Hall did not hesitate when Pritchard Morgan offered him a job at the Morgan-controlled gold mine in Gwynfynydd.

“Hall worked with Pritchard Morgan for the next few years and established himself in London’s mining and financial circles. After a boardroom coup ousted them from the Gwynfynydd mine, Morgan and Hall went on the hunt for new deals. The gold rush in Western Australia clearly presented opportunities and in 1895 they set sail for Western Australia. There, Morgan quickly took up options on 120 leases in the gold fields. However, Morgan soon departed for China to look at other prospects, leaving his partner to examine the properties.”

Hall travelled the hot trackless outback for weeks in a four-horsed buggy, which held all his supplies and provided him with his only shelter. When every one of Morgan’s options proved to be worthless, Hall took up several of his own, including the North Star at Mount Malcolm, while he continued to look for new prospects.

Intrigued by the Sons of Gwalia’s Welsh name, he took samples of it back to his mine, the North Star, and discovered he was on to something very rich indeed.

Positive reports

Hall went immediately to Coolgardie and negotiated a deal with his Welsh compatriot, Thomas Tobias.

Using his journalistic experience, he sent the Australian and British press a series of positive reports, knowing that the more publicity he could generate, the better the chances of attracting major financing for the new mine.

The North Star provided Hall with just enough working capital to start mining at the Sons of Gwalia. The State’s mining wardens report confirmed the mine’s new potential, and Hall used his newspaper expertise to promote it.

After two years of dealmaking and PR spin, the result was the monumentally successful flotation in London of The Sons of Gwalia Ltd, in 1898.

However, in keeping with Morgan’s playbook, the deal was structured to benefit the promoters, leaving the company itself short of actual working capital. This would prove to be the high water mark of GW Hall’s career.

Within eight years of setting foot in Western Australia, his life began to fall apart. His retained Gwalia leases needed more capital to mine and processed lower yielding ore.

Meanwhile Hall’s wife Martha Mary had expensive tastes, and she was always pressuring him for money, even as his business ventures became weaker. Matters came to a head when she had an affair with an Adelaide clergyman that resulted in a messy and very public divorce. It was ruinous so far as his reputation was concerned.

The slide downhill accelerated. Hall was unable to raise further finance for new ventures.

Gwynfynydd

A few years later, after working in China and Korea, Hall returned to Wales. Still supported by Pritchard Morgan, he moved into the old mine manager’s bungalow at Gwynfynydd. In 1915, after a dinner with Morgan, Hall lost his footing on the rocky path homewards and fell to his death in the gorge of the River Mawddach.

Evans said: “Hall had been like a meteor across the sky of the mining industry. But by the time of his death, he was unimportant – the world had moved on.

“It was during the First World War and there were other more important things than the death of a former mining magnate. But more than 125 years after GW Hall was first attracted by the Sons of Gwalia name, it is still a producing gold mine.”