Editing Hal Colebatch (section)

==Early life and career==
Colebatch was born on 29 March 1872 in the village of Underley near [[Wolferlow]] in [[Herefordshire]], England,{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=13|De Garis|1962|2p=1}}<ref name="Australian Dictionary of Biography">{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Brian |last=De Garis |author-link=Brian De Garis |title=Colebatch, Sir Harry Pateshall (Hal) (1872–1953) |volume=8 |year=1981 |id2=colebatch-sir-harry-pateshall-hal-5725}} Published online 2006. Retrieved 3 March 2023</ref> to George Pateshall Colebatch, a chemist and farmer, and Georgina Gardiner.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=16}}<ref name="Parliament biography" /> The family had six sons and one daughter,{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1pp=16, 19|De Garis|1962|2p=2}} with an additional two children who died as infants.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=19}} They were [[low church]] Anglicans.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=43}} They are descended from [[John Colebatch]], a [[physician]] who was knighted by [[George I of Great Britain|King George I]].{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|pp=14–15}} The Colebatch family once owned a castle at [[Colebatch, Shropshire]], and had extensive lands elsewhere in England and France long before Hal was born, but was by this point quite poor.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=14|De Garis|1962|2p=2}} Due to bad economic conditions in England, the family travelled to [[South Australia]] on the ''[[St Vincent (clipper ship)|St Vincent]]'' in 1878.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1pp=16, 19|De Garis|1962|2p=1}} Although it nearly sank along the way, the ship reached [[Adelaide]] on 30 November 1878 after 91 days at sea. They settled in the coastal town of [[Goolwa, South Australia]], where they had relatives.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=21|De Garis|1962|2p=1}}

At age eleven, Colebatch left school as his father could not afford to continue with it. The normal leaving age was thirteen, but Colebatch sat and passed an examination in August 1883 to allow him to leave.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=21|De Garis|1962|2p=2}} He got his first job as a junior reporter, [[printer's devil]], compositor and office boy for the ''Norwood Free Press'', a small newspaper in suburban Adelaide. He also attended evening classes in shorthand, literature and Latin at the Pirie Street Literary Institute. This ended when the ''Norwood Free Press'' collapsed, leading Colebatch to work for a series of short-lived newspapers in the South Australian goldfields,{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=22|De Garis|1962|2pp=2–3}} including the ''[[Petersburg Times]]''.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=23}}

In 1888, aged 16, Colebatch moved to [[Broken Hill]] in [[New South Wales]], working as a reporter for the ''Silver Age'' for six years.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=25|De Garis|1962|2p=3}} Broken Hill suffered three droughts, four typhoid epidemics, and numerous worker [[strike action|strikes]] during the time that Colebatch was there.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=25|De Garis|1962|2p=3}} He reported on a number of strike meetings in the latter half of 1892{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=26|De Garis|1962|2p=3}} and was summoned as a [[The Crown|Crown]] witness in the prosecution of strike leaders. Although he was opposed to the strike leaders' actions, he knew them well and did not want them to go to jail. Several of the leaders were convicted, and Colebatch wrote that "I like to think that my notes were instrumental in securing either acquittal or light sentences for the lesser offenders ... I am glad to say [[Dick Sleath]] bore me no animosity for the part I had played in securing his conviction."{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=26|De Garis|1962|2p=4}} Meanwhile, Colebatch had developed a hobby in [[chess]], becoming the Broken Hill chess champion.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=26}}

===Western Australia===
Gold was discovered at [[Coolgardie, Western Australia]], in 1892 and at the nearby town of [[Kalgoorlie]] the following year. This triggered a [[Western Australian gold rushes|gold rush]] in the colony of [[Western Australia]], which had been an economic backwater up until that point. Meanwhile, waning demand for silver combined with a general economic recession in eastern Australia hurt the prosperity of Broken Hill. The ''Silver Age'', by then known as the ''Broken Hill Age'', was on the verge of collapse and the payment of Colebatch's wages had become irregular. Colebatch was ready to leave Broken Hill when in 1894, he received a letter from his friend [[Sidney Hocking]] saying that he had just purchased the ''[[Western Argus]]'', Kalgoorlie's weekly newspaper, and wanted Colebatch to take his place at the ''Golden Age'' in Coolgardie. Colebatch left for Western Australia later that year.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1pp=26–27|De Garis|1962|2pp=4–5}} Upon arriving in [[Fremantle]], he had made just enough money gambling to catch the train to [[Southern Cross, Western Australia|Southern Cross]], but he had to walk the remaining {{convert|180|km}} across the desert to Coolgardie instead of taking a coach,{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=29|De Garis|1962|2p=6}} arriving there in early 1895.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=30}}

Coolgardie soon died down as all the surface gold was taken, and Kalgoorlie overtook it to become the [[Goldfields (Western Australia)|Goldfields']] largest town.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=33}} The ''Golden Age'' burnt down in September 1895,{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1pp=32–33|De Garis|1962|2p=6}} and so Colebatch moved to Kalgoorlie to work with Hocking on the ''[[Kalgoorlie Miner]]'', a new daily newspaper.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=33}} In Kalgoorlie, he met his future wife, Mary Maud Saunders, born {{circa|1869}} in South Australia.<ref name="Parliament biography" />{{sfn|De Garis|1962|pp=6–7}} At the start of 1896, they moved to [[Perth]], the colony's capital city, for Colebatch to join the ''[[Morning Herald (Perth)|Morning Herald]]'' as its mining and chess editor.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=36|De Garis|1962|2p=6}} He also became the Western Australian correspondent for the ''British Australasian'' and the ''[[Financial Times]]'' and the metropolitan correspondent for several regional newspapers.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=36|De Garis|1962|2p=11}} Among the things he reported on was Premier [[John Forrest]]'s announcement of the [[Goldfields Water Supply Scheme]].{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=36}} Colebatch married Saunders on 29 April 1896 in [[St George's Cathedral, Perth]].<ref name="Parliament biography" />

In 1898, Colebatch was banned from the parliamentary press gallery for reporting on a supposed fistfight that had occurred between two [[Member of parliament|members of parliament]]. A police inspector who had been in [[Parliament House, Perth|Parliament House]] at the time had told the story to a journalist for the ''Morning Herald'', who then passed the story on to Colebatch who then telegraphed it to the ''Kalgoorlie Miner''. Later that day, Colebatch discovered that the story had been exaggerated and that it was merely a verbal disagreement. The telegraph office was closed by that time, and so the ''Kalgoorlie Miner'' on 23 September 1898 had printed the details of the supposed fist fight on its front page. Forrest was furious, and he attempted to have the publishers prosecuted for published libel. After that failed,{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=37|De Garis|1962|2pp=11–12}} Forrest discovered that Colebatch was the reporter who passed the story along, and he had Colebatch banned from the parliamentary press gallery. Colebatch was dragged out by the [[sergeant-at-arms]] on 19 October 1898, and the following day, Colebatch sent a letter that he intended to sue the sergeant-at-arms for assault.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=38}} After heavy media criticism, the ban was lifted and the police inspector was demoted and transferred.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=39}}

Colebatch became the state chess champion in 1898.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=39}} By the late 1890s, the [[federation of Australia]] had become a major political issue. The ''Morning Herald'', which by this time Colebatch had become assistant leader-writer under [[Archibald Sanderson]], campaigned against federation. Colebatch was inspired by Sanderson's anti-federation arguments{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=40}} and became anti-federation himself,{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=41}} unusual for someone from eastern Australia.{{efn|The majority of people from eastern Australia, also known as [[Wikt:t'othersider|t'othersider]]s, that came during the gold rushes in the 1890s supported federation and the majority of people who had lived in Western Australia before that opposed federation.{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=7}}}}{{sfn|De Garis|1962|pp=7–8}} Writing for the [[Royal Western Australian Historical Society]]'s ''[[Early Days (journal)|Early Days]]'' journal in 1951,{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=40}} Colebatch said that "Sanderson's anti-federal articles — from the Western Australian point of view — could be examined line for line [today] and proved to be an absolutely accurate forecast of what has happened to the State under federation." Sanderson was not ideologically opposed to federation but was against the terms with which Western Australia was going to enter, saying that "no words in a written constitution could protect a small state in a federation against larger and more powerful ones making policies against its interest."{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=41}} Western Australia ended up voting for federation in a [[1898–1900 Australian constitutional referendums|1900 referendum]], and so it became one of the six states of Australia on 1 January 1901.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Federation of Australia |url=https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/history-of-parliament/federation/the-federation-of-australia/ |website=Parliamentary Education Office |access-date=26 January 2023}}</ref>

===Northam===
The ''Morning Herald'' eventually collapsed, and so in 1904, Colebatch moved to [[Northam, Western Australia|Northam]], a town in Western Australia's [[Wheatbelt (Western Australia)|Wheatbelt]]. Largely using borrowed money, he bought his own newspaper: ''[[The Northam Advertiser]]''.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=41|De Garis|1962|2p=12}} A friend from Broken Hill, J. T. Nichols, was put in charge of printing the newspaper, leaving Colebatch in charge of the journalism, allowing the newspaper to prosper.{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=13}} By this point, he had two sons: Harley and Gordon Lindsay, and was looking for a more settled life. He lived in Northam for years to come.{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=13}}

In Northam, Colebatch became friends with local bank branch manager and future premier [[James Mitchell (Australian politician)|James Mitchell]].{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=41|De Garis|1962|2p=14}} Impressed by Mitchell, Colebatch encouraged Mitchell to stand for [[Parliament of Western Australia|state parliament]] and he became Mitchell's campaign manager.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=41|De Garis|1962|2p=15}} Mitchell won the [[Western Australian Legislative Assembly|Legislative Assembly]] seat of [[Electoral district of Northam|Northam]] in the [[1905 Western Australian state election|1905 state election]], defeating the incumbent [[Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)|Labor]] candidate, and held it until [[1933 Western Australian state election|1933]].{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=42|De Garis|1962|2p=15}} Although Colebatch was the better public speaker of the two, he often put Mitchell's political career ahead of his own.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=41}} Although he likely would have probably easily won it, Colebatch did not contest the seat as he would have to oust his friend. Mitchell rose rapidly in the ranks of government, becoming a [[Minister (government)|minister]] in 1906 and obtaining the important portfolios of [[Minister for Lands (Western Australia)|lands]] and [[Minister for Agriculture and Food (Western Australia)|agriculture]] in 1909. During this time, Colebatch was seen as Mitchell's [[éminence grise]].{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=42|De Garis|1962|2p=16}}

Colebatch founded the Northam Bowling Club{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=43|De Garis|1962|2p=13}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25518571 |title=Bowls |newspaper=The West Australian |date=8 July 1905 |access-date=26 January 2023 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and also took a part in creating a bowling club in the nearby town of [[York, Western Australia|York]]. In 1905, he won the state championship in bowls pairs and became the vice-president of the Western Australian Bowling Association.{{sfn|Colebatch|2004|p=43}} He became a well-known figure within Northam, becoming a [[justice of the peace]] in 1906, a member of the District Board of Education, the local fire brigades board and the state fire brigades board.{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=16}} In November 1909,<ref name="Parliament biography" />{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=16}} he was elected unopposed as the mayor of [[Town of Northam|Northam]]{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=16}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26242621 |title=Municipal Elections |newspaper=The West Australian |date=18 November 1909 |access-date=26 January 2023 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> after being nominated by the retiring mayor, Oscar Bernard.{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=16}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26240949 |title=Personal |newspaper=The West Australian |date=29 October 1909 |access-date=26 January 2023 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Colebatch oversaw the [[Sealed road|sealing]] of Northam's roads for the first time as well as the development of the [[Avon River (Western Australia)|Avon River]] with weirs and embankments to enhance the surroundings and prevent flooding, an initiative started by Bernard.{{sfnm|Colebatch|2004|1p=46|De Garis|1962|2p=16}} Colebatch managed to secure several large grants from the state government for these works.{{sfn|De Garis|1962|p=16}}