Hopetoun, Western Australia

Hopetoun is a town on the south coast of Western Australia in the Shire of Ravensthorpe. Located on Mary Ann Harbour, Hopetoun is 590km south-east from capital city Perth and 160km west of Esperance.HistoryMary Ann Harbour was named in November 1865 by the sealer James Sale on the cutter Mary Ann. The Mary Ann was owned by whaling master John Thomas of Cheyne's Beach, 65km east of Albany, who had named it after his eldest daughter.Hopetoun was established in 1900 as the port servicing the Phillips River goldfield, named after the first Governor General of Australia, John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun. The townsite was gazetted on 9 February 1901.It was the terminus of the railway line between Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe. The line opened in 1909.The town became a shipping port for the mining industry, with a jetty built in 1901. The railway closed in 1925 and the port closed in 1936, with the jetty remaining until its destruction in 1983.Some of the town's electricity is generated by a wind-diesel system. Hopetoun has two 600 kilowatt wind turbines and two low-load diesel generators.