Sir Laurence "Brodie" Brodie-Hall (10 June 1910 – 1 October 2006) was an influential figure in the mining industry of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

(WA).

Early life

Brodie-Hall was born in London and emigrated to Australia in 1924, leaving his parents. He worked as a farm hand in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and moved to WA in 1927. He co-bought a garage business but went broke during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Early mining career

He was an underground gold miner in WA's Murchison. In 1934 he joined

Western Mining Corporation Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

's Triton mine near Cue as a machine miner. Next he went to

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

, took a shift job at the Kalgurli Ore Treatment Company's plant and began a part-time course at the WA School of Mines. On the Goldfields he played the violin, sang and was involved in amateur theatricals. In 1939 he worked at the Emperor Mine in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

started he returned to WA and worked as plant superintendent on

Claude de Bernales Claude Albo de Bernales (31 May 1876 – 9 December 1963) was a Western Australian mining entrepreneur whose business activities and marketing did much to stimulate investment in Western Australia during the early years of the twentieth ce ...

' Baileys Mine at Coolgardie. When Japan entered the war in 1941 Brodie-Hall enlisted as a

sapper A sapper, also called a pioneer (military), pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefie ...

in the

Royal Australian Engineers The Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) is the military engineering corps of the Australian Army (although the word corps does not appear in their name or on their badge). The RAE is ranked fourth in seniority of the corps of the Australian Army, be ...

. By the end of the war he was a captain. He returned to Kalgoorlie after demobilisation and completed mining and metallurgy degrees at the WA School of Mines under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Scheme. In 1948 WMC's managing director, (Sir)

Lindesay Clark Sir Lindesay Clark (7 January 18963 January 1986) was a renowned Australian mining engineer and company director. He had a profound influence on the Metallurgy, metallurgical industry in Australia and on the attitudes of many of its later leader ...

, offered him a job as junior mine geologist at

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

. He was soon transferred to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

as technical assistant to Sir Lindesay.

Management and later career

In 1951, Brodie-Hall was appointed General Superintendent of Great Western Consolidated. For the next seven years he worked at

Bullfinch Bullfinch is a name given to two groups of passerine birds. True bullfinches The true bullfinches are thick-billed finches in the passerine family Fringillidae. They comprise the genus ''Pyrrhula''. These birds are restricted to the Old World, an ...

where he established a reputation for technical innovation and good management. A combination of high inflation and below-expected grades resulted in a financial disaster for the company. In 1958 he was promoted to WMC's General Superintendent in WA, and in 1962 he became an executive director. He was involved in the Geraldton Iron Ore Joint Venture, which led to Australia's first shipment of iron ore under long-term contract to Japan in March 1966. It was due to his encouragement and support that WMC discovered

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

sulphides at

Kambalda Kambalda is a small mining town about from the mining city of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, within the Goldfields. It is split into two townsites apart, Kambalda East and Kambalda West; and is located on the western edge of a giant salt ...

in January 1966. The rapid establishment of Kambalda Nickel Operations in 1967, the

Kwinana Nickel Refinery The Kwinana Nickel Refinery is a nickel refinery in East Rockingham and Kwinana Beach, Western Australia. The refinery is operated by BHP and part of its Nickel West operations. Having originally been built by WMC Resources, it changed ownershi ...

in 1970 and the

Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter The Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter is a nickel smelter in Feysville, south of the town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The refinery is operated by BHP and part of its Nickel West operations. Having originally been built by WMC Resources, it cha ...

in 1972 were among his major achievements. After moving to Perth in 1967 he increasingly involved himself in industry and community affairs. He was President of the WA Chamber of Mines from 1970 to 1974, a member of the Australian Mining Industry Council and President of the

Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia. History The Institute had its genesis in 1893 with ...

in 1973. Government and advisory body service included the WA Environmental Protection Council, the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

Council and Chairman of the State Committee of CSIRO. He received the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award in 1974, was made a Companion of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG) in 1976, created a Knight Bachelor in 1982, and was made a Freeman of the

City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in 1989. He was a director of

Ansett Australia Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into adminis ...

. He was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AO) in the Australia Day Honours in 1993 in recognition of his contribution to the Australian mining industry.

Later years

After retiring as an executive director of WMC in 1975, Brodie-Hall kept his position on boards of WMC and

Alcoa Australia Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals is a joint venture between Alumina Limited (40% share) and Alcoa (60% share) and is abbreviated to AWAC. AWAC's business is the mining of bauxite, the extraction of alumina ( aluminium oxide) and the smelting of ...

for seven years. He was chairman of Kalgoorlie Lake View Pty Ltd, Kalgoorlie Mining Associates, Central Norseman Gold Corporation NL, and Three Springs Talc until 1982 and Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie Ltd until 1985. He was chairman of Westerntech Innovations Corp and Energy Research Group, and a director of Coolgardie Gold NL and a number of non-listed enterprises. For many years he maintained a keen interest in the WA School of Mines and was chairman of the School's board of management for a long period. He served on the Council of the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT, which became

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

) and received an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from WAIT in 1978. He was appointed a Fellow of Curtin University for his service to tertiary education in Western Australia. His name is commemorated in the L C Brodie-Hall Administration Centre at Agricola College, Kalgoorlie, the Brodie-Hall Research and Consultancy Centre at Curtin University and Brodie-Hall Drive at Technology Park. In 1994 he published his memoirs". He died in October 2006.

Family

Brodie-Hall married Dorothy Jolly. Dorothy supported Brodie-Hall and their young family while he was studying geology at the Kalgoorlie School of mines. They had five children. After her death he married Jean Verschuer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodie-Hall, Laurence 1910 births 2006 deaths English emigrants to Australia Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Officers of the Order of Australia Australian Knights Bachelor 20th-century Australian businesspeople