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See also: Moores Building, Woodside.

William Dalgety Moore

MCB (Ron Davidson):
W.D. Moore (1834-1910) was born in the colony in August 1835, to parents Samuel and Dora (nee Dalgety) who had arrived only the year before, in April 1834. Samuel's brother George Fletcher Moore had already arrived in 1830.
William Dalgety Moore was the eldest son of Samuel and Dora Moore. The couple arrived in the colony the same year William was born. As an adventurous lad of 15, Moore started work in the office of the Surveyor-General, John Septimus Roe. When he was 19 he ran a sheep and cattle station on the Irwin River and built up a good reputation for his dealings with the indigenous population.
In 1860 Moore married Susanna Monger, daughter of the York merchant, J.H. Monger. Susanna died in the year she had her 12th child. His second wife, Annie Gallop, had seven children.
Moore’s business career expanded rapidly, as did his building program in Henry Street. He also built the Phoenix Flour Mill in Nairn Street; engaged in large-scale pearling at Shark Bay; in timber-cutting in the South West; and farming at Gingin.
Moore earned a high standing in the community. He was elected to represent the town in the semi-elective Legislative Council; was the first Treasurer of the Fremantle Town Council (1871); and first president of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce (1873-95). In 1899 Moore arranged for several of his company buildings in Henry Street to be unified behind a handsome façade. This Fremantle landmark is now known as the Moores Building.

Hitchcock:
William Dalgety Moore was a nephew of George Fletcher Moore, who came to the colony in 1829, and whose interesting book Ten Years of the Early History of Western Australia [1884] afforded some fascinating glimpses of the colonial life in the remote past. Born at Middle Swan in 1835, he [WD] entered into business as a general merchant in 1862, and his name was identified with many large commercial enterprises in the colony. In 1870, when the semi-elective Legislative Council was reconstituted, [WD] Moore was chosen as one of the two elected members to represent Fremantle in that chamber, his colleague being Edward Newman. He was the first president of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, which was inaugurated in 1873, and continued to fill that office until 1895. Moore was always foremost in any project tending to the prosperity of his native State. (Hitchcock: 106.)

Samuel J. Fortescue Moore >

W.D. Moore owned the Woodside Estate which was the land between what are now Allen and Petra Sts.

Woodside is now the name of the SE ward of the Town of East Fremantle, and contains the former Woodside Hospital at 18 Dalgety Street (W.D. Moore's own house), and the East Fremantle Football Club.

Wise's postal directory for 1897 lists these people as living on the Woodside estate, which extended along Canning Road (now Highway) 'from Plympton to Richmond boundaries':
Moore William D. vigneron; Robinson Alf, gardener; Easton Mrs. W. vigneron; Williams William Fritz; Wearne Mrs. J; Roots Ernest; McQuire —, dairy; Robertson William, farmer; Evans N; Waddle David, nursery; McKimmie James; Harris John, orchardist; Murray William

The first William Moore family home, a stone cottage, was on the NE corner of Cliff and High Streets. It was incorporated into the northeastern corner of the Fremantle Hotel (Brown 1996: 159).

[[img/moorebros1.jpg|]] [[img/moorebros2.jpg|]][[img/moorebros3.jpg|]]

Photo of W.D. Moore, on the left, with his brother S.J.F. Moore, taken in 1973 when W.D. turned 39 - together with a snap of the back of the photo, indentifying photographer and date, and with the Battye Library list identifying the brothers in photo 26. Thanks to the Library – and to Heather Coventry for taking the second and third photos in March 2021.
The Cemeteries Board has put this photo near Bateman graves in Fremantle Cemetery, stating that it shows the brothers of that family. I informed them of the error, but they did not reply. Patricia Brown has the same photo in her 1996 book, but identifies the subjects correctly as William and Samuel.

Plaque at Moore's gravesite in Fremantle Cemetery: it's on their Heritage Trail.

Moore family gravestone in Fremantle Cemetery: WD is mentioned at the bottom.

References and Links

Many thanks to Robert Ward for an invaluable, comprehensive genealogy of the family of Samuel Moore.

The first photo above is from Wikipedia and other sources. The second shows W.D. Moore in the parliamentary members biographical register. The third photo shows Samuel J.F. Moore also in the parliamentary members biographical register.

Brown, Patricia M. 1996, The Merchant Princes of Fremantle: The Rise and Decline of a Colonial Elite 1870-1900, UWAP.

Hitchcock, JK 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council: 106.

Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, Heritage Trail of Fremantle Cemetery (text probably written by Ron Davidson).

Wikipedia article

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 17 January, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/moorewd.html (it was last updated on 14 March, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.