Bateman Hardware was the earliest hardware shop established in Western Australia (and the second-oldest commercial enterprise of any sort),[1] and until its demise in the 1980s was the longest-running.
The business was founded by John Bateman in 1834 on property that he bought in the second round of land sales in the nascent Swan River Colony.
Initially it was a shipping and warehousing business (including lighterage and river transport), and 1840 is given (in a 1951 company prospectus) as the "early start of trading, with the help of his young sons, John and Walter".
[1] The first item had been sold in 1834, a grindstone possibly belonging to "the implements valued at £55" that Bateman brought to the colony on board Medina.
It was designed by local architect Herbert Nathaniel Davis.