Hesperus Dawn Mine, Boogardie Goldfield, Mount Magnet, Mount Magnet Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Hesperus Dawn Mine	Mine (Inactive)
Boogardie Goldfield	Ore Field
Mount Magnet	Mountain
Mount Magnet Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

In Greek Mythology, Midas was given the power that everything he touched turned to gold. At first he rejoiced at his new found powers, until he began starving because any food and drink he touched also turned to gold. The moral of this fable is gold can make people greedy, and generally brings out the worse traits.

To find a real life example of this, you do not need to look any further than the Hesperus Dawn Mine (GML 463). From 1899 to 1911, this mine was embroiled in constant litigation. At least thirty people were involved from owners, shareholders, employees, tributors, companies, the government and third parties. In fact any involvement with this mine over the period almost guaranteed a future appearance in a court room. The only people who became rich from the mine were the lawyers.

In June 1899, Thomas Anderson took out a lease at Boogardie he called Hesperus Dawn. It was a decision he would live to regret.

Shortly after, the mine has several shareholders. One of these, William Welsh, sought a dissolution of the partnership, and stated he was entitled to shares, discounts, and various types of legal relief he believed was owed to him. The other shareholders launched what one paper described as a nine year campaign of legal warfare, which became more and more convoluted as time went by. The various shareholders began taking legal action against each other, with a number of cases brought to the Supreme Court over several years.

It was announced in December 1903, after four years of litigation, that William Welsh and Thomas Anderson, had come to a 'mutually satisfactory arrangement'. This arrangement saw Welsh as owner of the mine, and Anderson financially broke and demoralised.

In 1907 it was still going with William Welsh V R.J. Haworth, Thomas Bartlett, Harry Davies, John Pringle, Herbert Henry Weikley and Phoebe Blanche Forster in the Supreme Court with Justice Burnside. Shortly after Welsh announced he had taken ownership of the mine, and expected to employ a number of men to work it.

Meanwhile at this time there was a separate legal case involving Harry Davies and Richard Howarth. This was a complex financial affair. Howarth was accused of fabricating a share certificate, to gain access to 333 shares in the mine owned by Davies. However Davies had borrowed money from Howarth and had given him a blank certificate signed by a Justice of the Peace. When he became aware Howarth had a mortgage over shares in the mine, he told Howarth to destroy the certificate, however Howarth viewed the shares as security over the debt owed to him by Davies. The Mines Registrar was dragged into the affray.

February 1905, the Mines Minister, B. Hastie, along with several MP's, the Mines Inspector and local warden toured the mines at Mount Magnet. A deputation was organised to try and railroad the minister into declaring the Hesperus Dawn lease void. The minister wisely refused to meet them, stating no action could be taken until after legal proceedings had run their course.

The problems at the mine encouraged several parties over this period to try and have the mine lease forfeited, so they could take it over. One early attempt was by R. Sayle mid 1901, who decided not to bother with trivial paperwork. He gathered together several men he intended to employ at the mine, and went out to physically take over the lease. Harry Davies was shareholder, part-time miner and general caretaker of the leases. He was not a man known for diplomacy. In the ensuing local court case, Sayle states Davies confronted the group with threatening and aggressive behaviour. Sayle claimed Davies said he would 'blow them off the lease' and pointed a revolver at him. The other men present never saw this, and who had decided to leave after it became apparent the lease was in dispute. The police constable later found Davies was wearing a gun. The case was dismissed.

William Welsh was sued for wages by five miners. When Welsh did not turn up to the Warden's Court, the judgement went against him by default. Of course this also ended up in the Supreme Court. The court judged the warden had followed the proper process. He was critical of Welsh for being away from the mine most of the time, and therefore not being able to pay the miners. He also stated Welsh should have appointed a representative while he was away, so the warden could deliver the papers to him. The decision was appealed with the same result. Welsh was rarely at the mine, and when he was,stayed at the Maynards Hotel in town. The local paper in June 1907 ran the following advert: "Reward. Lost or strayed from Hesperus Dawn- 5 roomed dwelling house. W Welsh. Maynards Hotel."

In 1906, in a separate but related affair, another legal case reached the Supreme Court, and was later appealed. The dispute was relating to the seizure, sale and smelting of ore from the mine, originally instituted by Thomas Bartlett and F.H. Backhouse against the Fremantle Smelting Ltd, with Walter Coleman as a third party. Bartlett had let Backhouse as tributor on the mine for eight months across 1903 to 1904. The ore raised was carted to the railway station at Mount Magnet, and left there for some time awaiting carting to Perth for smelting. The ore was seized by the bailiff on instructions from the Warden's Court, relating to a prior judgement in a court case relating to the mine. The ore was sold to Coleman who had the ore smelted at the Fremantle Company's works. The court stated the bailiff had the right to seize the ore.

June 1910, someone was finally successful in having the mine forfeited. Phoebe Blanche Forster owned 1300 shares of the 8000 that was issued for the mine. With support from Thomas Bartlett who owned 4000 of the shares, she took the crown to court for illegal forfeiture claiming damages. Both declared they had never received letters detailing the pending forfeiture. The crown argued the proper processes had been undertaken, and it had the power to forfeit leases at will. The crown was eventually successful and the mine was put out to tender in 1913.

Meanwhile some mining was also taking place. This occurred mainly between 1900 to 1914, and across the 1930's. In 1933, it is stated the mine had produced a total to that time of 2895 tonnes of ore for 4728 oz.

In 1954, the Hill 50 Gold Mine NL took over the group of leases including Hesperus, Hesperus Dawn, West, North, South and Extended. An abandoned modern open pit marks the site, along with a stone miners cottage.

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