The Western Australian Hickmotts

A number of descendants of Henry Hickmott went from the eastern states to Western Australia either during the gold rushes there or to take up newly released farming land. They included James John Hickmott (1854-1935) and his wife Fanny Hicks and their family, James' younger brother Alfred Hickmott who married Alice McLeod in Perth in 1898, and the boys' older half-brother Henry Edward Hickmott and his wife Elizabeth Owen and some members of their family (some remained in Victoria).

James John and Fanny Hickmott (nee Hicks)

Born at Meadows in South Australia in 1854, James travelled the following year with his father Henry and mother Harriet and their family to Victoria where they lived first at Clunes and, from 1872, at East Charlton where James worked as a brick maker, farmer and road contractor. In 1874 he was granted a 206-acre block of land to the west of Charlton along the Wooroonook Road (his block adjoined two smaller blocks that were originally taken up by his father Henry but were taken over by James' younger brother Samuel).

James married Fanny Hicks in Charlton in 1879. The couple lived in a brick cottage at Clifton Hill in West Charlton until October 1881 when the house was sold to a Mr P. Quirk for £101 (the family's household furniture was sold at the same auction for a 'very satisfactory rate'). The family probably went to live either with relatives or on their 206-acre block at West Charlton. In March 1885 they moved into a four-room brick house that James had had built on Camp Street in Charlton (and to 'the rear of Foreman's Mill'. James' half brother, Henry Edward Hickmott, occupied another brick house in the same street).

In 1888 James decided to move from Victoria to Kookyne (north of Kalgoorlie) in Western Australia. The decision may have been prompted by a successful operation undergone by Fanny in the same year. According to the East Charlton Tribune, she had long suffered from the effects of a hydatid tumor that had not been able to be removed until she entered a private hospital in Melbourne run by a Dr Fitzgerald. 'In little more than a fortnight', the paper continued, 'the patient was discharged, suffering as may be imagined, from extreme weakness, after such a trying ordeal, but otherwise in good health, which is still maintained'. James sold the title to his 206-acre allottment to a neighbour, James Bennett. He and Henry Edward dissolved 'by mutual consent' their working partnership as brickmakers and contractors. And not long afterwards James and Fanny and their family left the district.

James died of prostate cancer in Perth in 1935 and was buried at the Methodist cemetery at Karrakatta. His death certificate states that he had been in Western Australia for 38 years and that he and Fanny (who had pre-deceased her husband by five months) had together had five children. These were:

1. James H. Hickmott who we think was accidently killed in a mining accident at Mertonvale in Western Australia on 21 January 1911. He was 31 years old.

2. Richard Hickmott who married Caroline Morris at Kookyne on 29 November 1904, and had at least two children: Myrtle Nellie (1905-1974) who married James Scheerer Brooke (1903-1989) in 1927; and Richard James (1911-1992) who married Kathleen Margaret Gamble (1911-1984) in 1934. Records in the Australian Archives indicates that Richard enlisted in the 2nd AIF at Bullsbrook in Western Australia. His NOK was his wife Kathleen. The couple had two children, Trevor Richard and Graeme George Hickmott. Richard died at Leonora in Western Australia in 1910. His wife Caroline died at Fremantle in 1932

3. William Ernest Hickmott who we think married Evelyn Rogers in Perth in 1910 and had a son, William Ernest Hickmott, who died as an infant in Perth in 1914. Evelyn died in Perth in 1927.

4. Harriet Elizabeth Hickmott who was born at Charlton in 1885 and married Lewis John Harris at Kookyne in 1903. The WA index of bdms shows Lewis and Harriet had at least two children: Matilda Mailett Harris, who was born at Kookyne in 1904 and died there in the same year, and Florence Violet Harris (born in Perth in 1905).

5. Emily Louisa Hickmott who married Sam Davis at Kookyne in 1904 and had at least one child, Horace Lindsay Davis, who was born at Kookyne in 1905 and died there three months later.

6. Albert Samuel Hickmott who was born at Charlton in 1888 and died at Bairnsdale in Victoria in 1889.

Alfred and Alice Hickmott (nee McLeod)

Born at Clunes in Victoria in 1869, Alfred married Alice McLeod in Perth in 1898. The couple had three children we know of:

1. George Henry Hickmott who was born at Tampa in Western Australia in 1901 and married Ruth Manderson Pearce Davies in Perth in 1929. The WA Metropolitan Cemeteries' Board website records that George Henry Hickmott died ay Mount Lawley in Western Australia in 1980 and that Ruth Manderson Pearce Hickmott, aged 94 years, died at Mt Lawley in 1999.

2. Annie Louisa Hickmott who was born at Kookyne in 1903 and married Robert Roy in 1926. Annie died at Nedlands in Western Australia in 1993, aged 90 years.

3. Christina May Hickmott who was born at Kookyne in 1905.

Alfred Hickmott died at Subiaco in Perth in 1956. His wife Alice had died in West Perth in 1913.

Henry Edward and Elizabeth Ann Hickmott (nee Owen)

The known members of Henry Edward and Elizabeth's family who went to the west were:

1. Florence Mary Hickmott (1882-1977)

Born at Charlton in 1882, Florence married Richard Austin (1875-1940) at Cottosloe in Perth in 1904. According to one of their descendants, John Austin, Richard's parents, William George Austin and Mary Ann Joyce, came respectively from London and County Mayo in Ireland. They had eight children in addition to Richard, all born in Melbourne.

Florence and Richard had four daughters all born in Perth: Gladys Elizabeth Joyce Austin (1905-1988) who married Albert Holdsworth (1901-1980) in Western Australia in 1925 and had seven children; Mavis Florence Catherine Austin (1907-1999) who married William Leo Gattenhof (1909-1990) in 1944 and had two children; Elsie Lilian Austin (1911-1977) who married Charles Edward Burke (1902-1983) at Caulfield in Melbourne in 1939 and had two children; and Olive Rose Austin who married John Joseph Ivers (1904-1974) in Melbourne in 1935 and had five children there. As we can see from the above list, some of Florence and Richard's family returned to live in Victoria. They were joined by their mother, Florence, (probably following Richard's death at Perth in 1940) who seems to have remarried before her death in 1977. She was then Florence Wilmshurst and was 95 years old.

Details of Florence and Richard's family and descendants can be seen on John Austin's Rootsweb sites entitled 'Richard Austin (1777-1831)' (5 October 2003) and 'Austin' (6 October 2005); and Vanessa Wright's Rootsweb site entitled 'Warren Taylor Extended family tree' (1 August 2006).

2. George Alfred Hickmott.

Born at Charlton in 1899, George (pictured on the left) went to Western Australia with his parents in around 1909. As the photo below shows, he worked for a time as a miner before taking up farming at Brookton. Records in the Australian War Memorial show that he enlisted in the 1st AIF on 31 August 1914 and embarked from Fremantle on the transport ship A7 Medic on 2 November 1914. He trained with the 12 Battalion in Egypt but returned to Australia on 20 March 1915.

The WA index of bdms show that a George A. Hickmott married Mena 'Minnie' May Spice in the Perth registration district in 1920. He and Mena had at least two children, Charles Alfred and Robert Arthur Hickmott both of whom saw active service in the Second World War (see their photos below). In compensation, perhaps, for missing out on Gallipoli, George also enlisted (together with his son Robert) in the Second AIF at Yealering on 26 April 1942. His date of birth was recorded as 21 July 1891 (two years after his actual dob). His next of kin was Mena Hickmott. His date of and posting at discharge were 'unknown'.

Win Noblet's The Hickmott Story 1812-1981 records that after the war George was a farmer at Yealering in Western Australia and that he died of lung cancer at Perth. His wife, Minnie Hickmott (nee Spice) died at Leederville in Western Australia in 1969.

3. Ruby Minnie Hickmott (1893-1941)

Minnie was born at Charlton in 1883 and moved to Brookton in Western Australia with her parents in around 1909. She married Enoch A. Holdsworth (1892-1966) there in 1916. The WA online index of bdms shows that an Aubrey M. Holdsworth, Ella J. Holdsworth and Wallace K. Holdsworth were born in the Beverley Registration district in 1911, 1914 and 1918 repectively. Minnie died in West Midland in Western Australia in 1941. Her husband died there in 1966.

4. Ella Adeline Hickmott (1895-1975)

Ella was born at Bungeeluke North near Charlton in Victoria. She went with her parents to Western Australia in around 1909 and married Robert Bowron (1897-1981) there two years later. As the photo below shows, the couple had at least one child Wilma.

5. Rebecca Elsie Hickmott

Born at Lalbert in 1898, we think that Rebecca married Selby Whittington in Western Australia around 1915. They had at least three boys: Arthur James, Kenneth Selby and another who may have been killed in the Second World War. Arthur enlisted in the second AIF at Claremont on 4 June 1941. He served as a gunner in the 2/3 Australian Field Regiment and was discharged on 18 April 1946. His brother Ken enlisted at Rottnest on 28 July 1942. He served as a gunner in the 1st Australian Sound Ranging Battery and was discharged from the Army on 21 June 1946.

A photograph of the couple and their three children is shown below.

5. James Auther Hickmott (1903-1922)

Born at Lalbert in 1903, James died in a shooting accident on his parents' property at Brookton when he was nineteen years old.

Image sources:
Win Noblet's The Hickmott Story 1825-1981 (Bendigo: Cambridge Press, 1981) and
Private photograph collection (the young Minnie, Charles & Robert, Charles Alfred, Ella & family and Elsie and family).