William Henry Corbould (4 November 1866 – 16 March 1949) was an Australian mining engineer and company executive. He played a key role in the establishment of Mount Isa Mines in Queensland.

Early life

Corbould was born on 4 November 1866 in

Ballarat, Victoria Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Within months of Vic ...

. He was the son of Julia Augusta (née Signall) and William Corbould, a tailor. He left school at the age of twelve but later obtained a certificate in chemistry at the

Ballarat School of Mines The University of Ballarat, Australia was a dual-sector university with multiple campuses in Victoria, Australia, including its main Ballarat campus, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that were authorized by the university to provide diploma, unde ...

. From 1885 he worked at the Central Mine in

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, as an assayist and chemist.

Career

Corbould spent time in the United States, Europe and South Africa in the early 1890s. He returned to Australia and by 1895 was manager of

Paddy Hannan Patrick Hannan (baptised 26 April 1840 – 4 November 1925) was a gold prospector whose lucrative discovery on 14 June 1893 set off a major gold rush in the area now known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia. The resulting goldfield has ...

's Reward mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In about 1902 he was appointed manager of the Burraga copper mine in New South Wales.

Mount Elliott

In 1909 Corbould was appointed general manager of the

Mount Elliott Mine The Mount Elliott mine is a large copper mine located in eastern Australia in Queensland. Ernest Henry represents one of the largest copper reserves in Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, ...

near Cloncurry, Queensland. He turned the mine into "one of the most profitable operations in the Commonwealth", paying over £400,000 () in dividends between 1910 and 1913. He was subsequently appointed managing director of Mount Elliott Ltd, the mine's London-based holding company, a position he held until 1922. After a copper boom during World War I, Corbould faced a number of challenges including falling commodity prices, strikes, and the exhaustion of rich surface orebodies. By 1918 Mount Elliott Ltd was unprofitable, which Corbould attributed in part to labour troubles. In an interview with ''

The North Queensland Register ''The North Queensland Register'' was a newspaper published in Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia from 15 June 1892 to 30 March 1984. The paper was formerly known as the ''North Queensland herald'' and ''Northern mining register''. It was a ...

'' he claimed that the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) had been infiltrated by " Wobblies" and " Bolshie-Joes" attempting to cripple the mining industry. He was widely rumoured to have lobbied the federal government for the deportation of strike leader Paul Freeman, although both he and the government denied this.

Mount Isa

In 1924, Corbould floated Mount Isa Mines Ltd (MIM) in Sydney. He had been invited to tour the field, assessing the ore bodies discovered by

John Campbell Miles John Campbell Miles (5 May 1883, Richmond, Melbourne – 4 December 1965, Ringwood, Victoria) was an Australian prospecting, prospector and pastoral worker who discovered the mineralisation upon which the Mount Isa Mines were established in Queen ...

as similar to those at Broken Hill. He was appointed director and general manager of the new company, supervising the exploratory work and raising capital. Corbould played a key role in consolidating MIM's ground, engineering the acquisition of Randolph Bedford's Mount Isa Proprietary Ltd. He also convinced the state government to extend the Great Northern Railway from Duchess to service the mine. He resigned from the company in 1927 but lived to see it pay its first dividend in 1947.

Personal life

In 1896, Corbould married Una Robina Dodds, with whom he had four children – two daughters, one of whom died in infancy, and twin sons. He was widowed in 1948 and died in

Nice, France Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, on 16 March 1949, aged 82. His son

Ted Corbould TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depart ...

was a prominent pastoralist and philanthropist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbould, William 1866 births 1949 deaths Australian mining engineers People from Ballarat Mount Isa Australian company founders Australian mining entrepreneurs