# Florance Broadhurst

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Not to be confused with [Florence Broadhurst](/source/Florence_Broadhurst).

Florance C Broadhurst

**Florance Constantine Broadhurst** (1861–1909) was a 19th-century [Western Australian](/source/Western_Australia) businessman who is most notable for successfully taking over the management of a number of business ventures of his ill-fortuned, yet extremely creative and hard-working father, [Charles Edward Broadhurst](/source/Charles_Edward_Broadhurst), and turning a profit. The best known of these is the [guano](/source/Guano) mining venture in the [Houtman Abrolhos](/source/Houtman_Abrolhos). While his entrepreneur father had recognised the potential of the industry and began mining, eventually to obtain a monopoly on the extraction of the guano, he proved unsuccessful in managing the concern. This situation continued until Florance, who had a mercantile education, joined the concern and began managing the venture under the name Broadhurst MacNeil and Company. MacNeil was initially a backer and a partner, but he took no part in the management of the venture. With his accountancy training F. C. Broadhurst proved enormously successful exporting to Europe and winning a gold medal at the Paris Exposition.

While working the deposits on Gun Island, his labourers found a large number of artifacts that he believed to be relics of the 1629 *[Batavia](/source/Batavia_(1628_ship))* [shipwreck](/source/Shipwreck). He developed an interest in the wreck, and eventually obtained a copy of [Isaac Commelin](/source/Isaac_Commelin)'s 1647 *[Ongeluckige voyagie, van't schip Batavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ongeluckige_voyagie,_van%27t_schip_Batavia&action=edit&redlink=1)*, the Dutch publication that first popularised the *Batavia* incident. He commissioned [Willem Siebenhaar](/source/Willem_Siebenhaar) to translate it, and this resulted in what is still the only English translation, entitled *[The Abrolhos tragedy](/source/The_Abrolhos_tragedy)*. Broadhurst maintained a catalogue of his finds, which he donated to the state. These were eventually shown to be related not to the *Batavia*, but the [VOC](/source/Dutch_East_India_Company) ship *[Zeewijk](/source/Zeewijk)*, which was wrecked off [Gun Island](/source/Gun_Island) in 1727. A friend of his children, Henrietta Drake-Brockman, came to learn of the Dutch wrecks while around the family home, and she became an acknowledged force in the eventual location of the [Batavia](/source/Batavia_(1628_ship)) wreck and its survivors' campsite. Though a great success, in 1904 Broadhurst lost the monopoly to the guano industry.

## References

- McCarthy, Mike (1992). "Failure and success: The Broadhursts and the Abrolhos guano industry". *Private enterprise, government and society (Studies in Western Australian history XIII)*. Centre for Western Australian History, Department of History, University of Western Australia. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-86422-206-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-86422-206-8).

- Drake-Brockman, Henrietta (1995). *Voyage to disaster* (2nd ed.). Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-920694-72-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-920694-72-2).

Authority control databases: People Trove Australia

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Florance Broadhurst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florance_Broadhurst) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florance_Broadhurst?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.