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| '''Claude Albo de Bernales''' (] ] - ] ]) was a mining entrepreneur from ]<ref name="colebatch">{{cite book | title = Claude de Bernales, the magnificent miner: A biography | author = ] | date= 1996 | publisher = Hesperian Press | id = ISBN 0859052001}}</ref> whose business activities and marketing did much to stimulate investment in Western Australia during the early years if the twentieth century. During the 1930s gold production in the State increased from £1,600,000 to £11,800,000 and employment in the industry quadrupled due in considerable part to de Bernales' marketing of the goldfields to overseas investors.<ref name="adb">{{cite web | author=Laurence, John H. | title= De Bernales, Claude Albo (1876 - 1963) | work = Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition | url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080283b.htm | date=1981 | accessdate= 2007-03-15}}</ref> | '''Claude Albo de Bernales''' (] ] - ] ]) was a mining entrepreneur from ]<ref name="colebatch">{{cite book | title = Claude de Bernales, the magnificent miner: A biography | author = ] | date= 1996 | publisher = Hesperian Press | id = ISBN 0859052001}}</ref> whose business activities and marketing did much to stimulate investment in Western Australia during the early years if the twentieth century. During the 1930s gold production in the State increased from £1,600,000 to £11,800,000 and employment in the industry quadrupled due in considerable part to de Bernales' marketing of the goldfields to overseas investors.<ref name="adb">{{cite web | author=Laurence, John H. | title= De Bernales, Claude Albo (1876 - 1963) | work = Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition | url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080283b.htm | date=1981 | accessdate= 2007-03-15}}</ref> | ||
| De Bernales accumulated immense wealth through complex and elaborate schemes by which he acquired many mining companies and attracted overseas investment and personal support. In the latter part of his life however, financial difficulties and ill-health saw him live as a recluse in London. | De Bernales accumulated immense wealth through complex and elaborate schemes by which he acquired many mining companies and attracted overseas investment and personal support. In the latter part of his life however, financial difficulties and ill-health saw him live as a recluse in ]. | ||
| ==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
Revision as of 17:20, 29 April 2008
Claude Albo de Bernales (31 May 1876 - 9 December 1963) was a mining entrepreneur from Western Australia whose business activities and marketing did much to stimulate investment in Western Australia during the early years if the twentieth century. During the 1930s gold production in the State increased from £1,600,000 to £11,800,000 and employment in the industry quadrupled due in considerable part to de Bernales' marketing of the goldfields to overseas investors.
De Bernales accumulated immense wealth through complex and elaborate schemes by which he acquired many mining companies and attracted overseas investment and personal support. In the latter part of his life however, financial difficulties and ill-health saw him live as a recluse in London.
Early life
De Bernales was born in London, the son of a wealthy Basque, Major Manuel Edgar Albo de Bernales, and his American wife Emma Jane, née Belden. Whilst his parents lived in Paris, de Bernales was educated at Uppingham School in Rutland in the East Midlands of England and later at the University of Heidelberg in the Rhineland, Germany. He did not graduate.
In 1897 de Bernales emigrated to the Western Australian goldfields, drawn like many other European immigrants to the lure of the gold rush of the region.
Goldfields
His first job was running the Western Machinery company which supplied and financed various mining machinery purchases for the hundreds of large and small gold mining companies in the region.
In 1903 de Bernales married Bessie Picken Berry.
His business contacts continued to expand and in 1909 became managing director of a major mining plant supplier, the Kalgoorlie Foundry. In 1911, he purchased a property in Cottesloe and redeveloped it into an ostentatious Spanish style mansion named 'Overton Lodge' and which is now the Cottesloe Civic Centre. In 1912 he became a director of Hoskins Foundry in Perth and moved there in 1915.
During this time, he developed his forté as a mining promoter while acquiring leases through defaults by some of his clients at Kalgoorlie and Wiluna. These leases were eventually used to form the Wiluna Gold Mines company which he owned jointly with several overseas companies including Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa.
In 1926 he went to London and raised £1 million to develop the Wiluna leases. A later issue of promissory notes for £300,000 was backed by the State government, after de Bernales fostered a close alliance with the Governor of Western Australia, Sir William Campion. Campion would later become a close business associate and took chairmanship roles of a number of de Bernales' companies including the Anglo-Australian Gold Development Co. and the Commonwealth Mining and Finance Co. Ltd.
Following the death of his first wife in 1927, de Bernales married Florence Berry, née Alger, on 5 February 1930 in Cottesloe, Western Australia.
Using London capital, the Wiluna mines were expanded and by 1934, 10,000 people had settled there and gold worth £3 million had been extracted. The Wiluna mine ultimately earned £12 million and provided an impetus for other mines in the region.
With the onset of the Great Depression, de Bernales campaigned for government support of the gold mining industry, arguing that investment would enable the industry to continue to operate throughout the depression as unemployment rose to 25%. He devised a gold bonus campaign, where the Federal government would pay a 'bounty' of £1 an ounce on gold produced in excess of the 1928-30 average. Not surprisingly, the idea had widespread support from his fellow entrepreneurs and state government politicians. De Bernales led several delegations to the eastern states to lobby for the scheme which was known as the 'Gold Bounty Acts', but by the time it became law in 1930 and 1931, the exchange rate had collapsed and price of gold had risen to well above the rate of the bounty paid.
De Bernales moved to London in 1932, forming several investment companies which he promoted to seek new capital for mining leases on new land reserves provided by the state government. Capital of £1,261,000 was raised, though much of the land was unproven. In 1933-35, yet more companies and another £6,110,000 was pumped into his leases. By now, de Bernales' fundraising represented a major proportion of overseas capital inflows for Australian mining and the Western Australian economy as a whole. In 1936, he won control of one of the oldest and richest mines of the 'Golden Mile', the Great Boulder Proprietary Gold Mine. He also developed new mines at Yellowdine and to the north at Marble Bar.
In 1935-36 he returned to Western Australia with ex-governor Campion, being feted by local politicians acknowledging his ambassadorial role for the state. At that time he acquired properties in Melbourne and Perth including the well-known 'London Court' shopping arcade in the Perth CBD.
De Bernales returned to London, but from 1939 his empire started to encounter difficulties. The Great Boulder mine went into liquidation and its shareholders sought recovery of their losses, accusing de Bernales of mismanagement. The London Stock Exchange suspended trading in several of his companies in July 1939 which sent them also into liquidation. An extensive investigation into de Bernales' Commonwealth Group of companies by Sir William McClintock for the Board of Trade was made during 1939 and 1940. This uncovered income tax liabilities from share dealings on profits of £1,382,000. These were however, never brought to trial as the case arguments dragged on for ten years. Between 1945 and 1948, the official receiver undertook further investigations but partly due to his failing health the claims were finally settled for just £125,000. In the meantime, a concerted attack campaign by Lord Beaverbrook's influential Daily Express continued.
De Bernales became a recluse and died on 9 December 1963, survived by his second wife and two daughters from his first marriage.
References
- Colebatch, Hal (1996). Claude de Bernales, the magnificent miner: A biography. Hesperian Press. ISBN 0859052001.
- ^ Laurence, John H. (1981). "De Bernales, Claude Albo (1876 - 1963)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- "Claude Albo de Bernales, 1876 - 1963". Mining Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- "History". Town of Cottesloe. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
- James, R.M. (1977). Heritage of Pines - A History of Cottesloe.
- Bolton, Geoffrey. "'Campion, Sir William Robert (1870 - 1951)'". Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition.