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32 100 MOST INFLUENTIALDAVIDFREECORNIn 1932, WA was in Depression. On the otherside of the country Jack Lang was openingthe Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Federalgovernment was creating the ABC and, inCalifornia, Phar Lap was dead.In Fremantle, despite the economicgloom, David Allister Freecorn opened hisfirst retail outlet. For the next 40 years,Freecorns would be a part of everyday lifefor many West Australians.In 1967, in a dissertation on thedistribution of groceries published by theUniversity of WA Press, Freecorn explainedthe first four years Freecorns was open forbusiness were the worst.“Sales and the number of stores haveincreased steadily ever since,” he said.“It is no more difficult to operate 60 storesthan five, in fact less worry is involved.“It is a matter of keeping customers happy.We give them good value for their money.”By 1948 there were nine Freecorns stores.In the following years he took over 15 CPSstores and two draperies.Freecorn was a leading figure in Perthsociety — an active member and master ofthe WA Hunt Club. His wife was a regular atthe Karrakatta Club.Freecorn died in 1969, the same year hisnew $500,000 purpose-built supermarketopened on the corner of Queen and AdelaideStreets in Fremantle. The business was soldin 1977 and the Freecorns namedisappeared.Pantry king: David Freecorn with his wife.Brew House: The Swan Brewery as viewed from Mounts Bay Road.GEOFFREYCOHENJohn Hosken’s grave site at Northhampton.HOSKENFAMILYIn the age of obesity, we take forgranted the enormous amount offood that is at out fingertips. Butin the early days of the colony,having enough food to eat was adaily struggle. As the pioneeringfarmers struggled for yield in theoften poor-quality soil aroundPerth, it was up to a determinedfew to convert farm produce intofood for the flood of settlers.Geoffrey Cohen came from a long line ofbrewers. His grandfather, Montague Cohenhad, together with some friends, establishedin 1907 what would become Carlton andUnited Breweries.His father, in his turn, would be thatbrewery’s chairman until his death in 1946,when Geoffrey Cohen would step into therole himself.Cohen would ultimately leave Melbourneand head west. The Cohens also held muchof the Swan Brewery.His grandfather had also helped float TheSwan Brewery Company Ltd in 1887 — thecompany even in those early days had a30-year history — and moved the head officeto Melbourne.There was no financial connectionbetween CUB and Swan but most of Swan’sstock was now in Victorian hands.Geoffrey Cohen was chairman of the SwanBrewery from 1946 and managing directorfrom 1951, until his retirement in 1972. In theGeoff Cohen (right) with (from left) GeorgeGeddes, Wilfred Barrett and Don Watt.18 years to 1960, share value went up 500per cent. In an oral history with the BattyeLibrary Cohen said when he took over thecompany the brewery owned and controlledmany hotels, but drinking patterns and thehigh costs of construction made that lessattractive.Mining has always been an industry ofbooms and busts and it was the bust of theCornwall mining trade in the 1840s that setthe Hosken family on a journey that wouldtake them halfway around the world to findtheir fortune. When they did find it, theyfound it in the drink, not the rock.The Hoskens drifted from San Janiero toBrazil, then to California, on to Ballarat andthen, in the 1850s, Northampton andGeraldton. Martin Hosken was originally torun the underground activities at GeraldineMine. His brother John built the Miners’Arms Hotel in Northampton, after the StateGovernor issued a liquor licence in the areain a bid to control drunkenness. It opened in1863 and was the beginning of the family’shotel empire. Hosken’s sons and heirs wouldalso develop and operate the GeraldtonHotel, the Railway Hotel, the Belvederegaming centre and ballroom, the Club Hotel,and local beverage manufacturer TrefusisAerated Waters and Cordial Manufactory.Friday, November 29, 2013