What did Hoover do in Western Australia?
Hoover arrived in Albany, Western Australia, in May, 1897 as an employee of the British mining firm, Bewick, Moering & Co. He traveled by train to Coolgardie, at that time the center of mining operations in Western Australia, where he worked under the direction of Edward Hooper, the resident partner of the company. The goldfields were located in the middle of the Great Victoria Desert, which Hoover called a land of “black flies, red dust, and white heat.” Lack of water, lumber and fuel made any kind of mining operation difficult. Hoover spent the next year and a half planning development work, ordering and laying out equipment, and examining new prospects. Hoover would often travel to outlying mines by camel, which he called “even a less successful creation than a horse.” On one of his trips, he made a detailed inspection of a new mine called the “Sons of Gwalia,” which he recommended that his company buy. It proved to be one of the richest gold mines in the world. As a result of his h
