Lang Hancock

Langley ("Lang") Hancock was born on 10 June 1909 in Leederville, Perth, Western Australia. He was the eldest of four children born to Lilian (née Prior) and George Hancock. His mother had been born in South Australia and his father in Western Australia. His father's great-aunt was Emma Withnell, while a cousin was Sir Valston Hancock.

Lang spent his early childhood on the family station, Ashburton Downs, run by the three Hancock brothers. His interest in mining was sparked by his uncle John, who lived at Ashburton Downs and was a keen prospector. Hancock later moved to Mulga Downs Station in the north-west after his father, George Hancock, bought a farming property there. Initially educated at home, at the age of eight he began boarding at the St Aloysius Convent of Mercy in Toodyay. From 1924 to 1927, he attended Hale School in Perth, where he played for the school cricket and football teams. Upon completing his secondary education, he returned to Mulga Downs Station to help his father manage the property.

In 1935, he married Susette Maley. The couple lived at Mulga Downs, but Maley left Hancock to return to Perth, and their separation was formalised in 1944. Also in 1935, Hancock took over the management of Mulga Downs station from his father. He partnered with his schoolmate, E. A. "Peter" Wright, in running the property, later boasting that no deals between the two men were ever sealed with anything stronger than a handshake.

During the Second World War, Hancock served in a militia unit, the 11th (North-West) Battalion, Volunteer Defence Corps, and attained the rank of sergeant. On 4 August 1947, he married his second wife, Hope Margaret Nicholas, the mother of his only acknowledged child, Gina Rinehart. He and Hope remained married for 35 years, until her death in 1983 at the age of 66. In 2012, Hilda Kickett, who in 1992 had claimed to be Lang Hancock's illegitimate daughter, claimed that the late mining magnate had had an illicit affair with an Aboriginal cook on his property at Mulga Downs, resulting in her conception. Those claims have not been corroborated.

Although Lang Hancock never aspired to political office, he held strong conservative political views and often entered the political arena. In addition to his activities in the 1950s, lobbying against government restrictions on the mining of iron ore, Hancock donated considerable sums of money to politicians of many political stripes. His political views aligned most closely with the Liberal and National Parties of Australia. He was a good friend and strong supporter of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and donated A$632,000 to the Queensland National Party while Bjelke-Petersen was in charge. He gave A$314,000 to their counterparts in Western Australia, but also gave the Western Australian Labor Party A$985,000; because "at least they can't do any harm". Hancock had had a falling-out with Sir Charles Court and the Western Australian Liberals and was adamant that the Liberals should be kept out of power as long as possible.

Hancock also offered strong advice to the politicians he favoured. In 1977 he sent a Telex to the then-Treasurer of Australia Sir Phillip Lynch, telling him he needed to "stop money coming in to finance subversive activities, such as Friends of the Earth, which is a well-heeled foreign operation." He also suggested to Bjelke-Petersen that the Federal Government should attempt to censor the works of Ralph Nader and John Kenneth Galbraith, lest they "wreck Fraser's government".

In 1969 Hancock and his partner Peter Wright commenced publication in Perth of a weekly newspaper, The Sunday Independent, principally to help further their mining interests. Faced with strong competition, the newspaper is thought never to have turned a profit, Hancock largely relinquishing his interest in it in the early 70s and Wright selling it to The Truth in 1984.

Hancock was a staunch proponent of small government and resented what he considered to be interference by the Commonwealth Government in Western Australian affairs. He declared before a state Royal Commission in 1991 that "I have always believed that the best government is the least government", and that "Although governments do not and cannot positively help business, they can be disruptive and destructive."

Hancock bankrolled an unsuccessful secessionist party in the 1970s, and in 1979 published a book, Wake Up Australia, outlining what he saw as the case for Western Australian secession. The book was launched by Gina Rinehart and Bjelke-Petersen.