Bateman Hardware

J. & W. Bateman Ltd.
Industry Hardware
Founded Fremantle (1834)
Founder John Bateman
Area served
Western Australia
Key people
John Bateman
John Wesley Bateman
Walter Bateman

Bateman Hardware was the earliest hardware shop established in Western Australia (and the second-oldest commercial enterprise of any sort),[1] and until its demise in the 1980s was the longest-running.

The business was founded by John Bateman in 1834 on property that he bought in the second round of land sales in the nascent Swan River Colony.[1] This land on Henry Street was to be the home of J. & W. Bateman Ltd. for the next 150 years. Initially it was a shipping and warehousing business (including lighterage and river transport), and 1840 is given (in a 1951 company prospectus) as the "early start of trading, with the help of his young sons, John and Walter".[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Henderson, Charles W. (1981), The Bateman hardware enterprise in Western Australia, retrieved 18 March 2014