A grand old man of the west.(Book Review)

Steadfast Knight: A Life of Sir Hal Colebatch, by Hal G.P. Colebatch; Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004, $32.95.

SIR HAL COLEBATCH, Premier of Western Australia in 1918-19, was a type recognisable in Australia between 1850 and 1950. He was a practical man who started out with no inheritance or status, and created by his own drive a prominent career for himself. Protestant, hard-working and imbued with the Puritan ethic, his interests were non-ideological. Though uneducated, he had a great curiosity and love of learning.

Being a good speaker and organiser, and disciplined in his habits, he soon gravitated to the sphere of public leadership. He got on well with people and didn't create personal animosities around himself--he was the sort of person who would naturally rise to become president of any organisation he joined. Similar personalities from Victoria who come to mind are Sir Reg Ansett in business, Sir Keith Murdoch in journalism and Sir Henry Bolte in politics. This biography is written by his son.

Colebatch began his working life as a cadet journalist on a paper in Norwood in Adelaide, and attended evening classes at the same time. He then spent six years as a reporter at Broken Hill. Attracted by the gold rushes of Kalgoorlie, he arrived in Coolgardie in 1895, after walking the last part of the way. Here he became a journalist and friend of the famous West Australian mining developer and speculator Claude de Bernales, whose biography Hal G.P. Colebatch has also written.

Moving to Perth in 1896, he worked as a mining journalist, married and had two sons around the turn of the century. He eventually bought a newspaper at Northam, east of Perth, and became mayor of that city. His eldest son Harley eventually succeeded him in both positions. Hal Colebatch was not overly ambitious, and let a fellow Northam personality, James Mitchell, precede him into politics for the seat of Northam. This meant that when Colebatch himself moved into politics in 1912 at the age of forty, it was into an upper house seat. He supported the conservative parties of the day, but from a position of some independence.

For a short time over the Christmas holidays in 1918-19 he was Premier. During this time occurred the dramatic incident for which he is best remembered--he had to terminate a strike on the wharves, and was shot at in the process. The striking workers were members of the Lumpers Union, a name unknown in the eastern states--presumably they were wharfies.

He was a minister in many governments, including those of his friend Sir James Mitchell. Colebatch was particularly pleased to be Minister for Education, and to set up high schools in country towns, since he keenly felt his own lack of access to secondary education when ...