21/09/2026
Bart “Boss” Jones didn’t set out to build a mining contractor. He was a Goldfields station man trying to survive a drought.
Jones grew up at Hampton Hill Station, around 30km east of Kalgoorlie, and knew the isolation, distances and hard economics of life in Western Australia’s interior.
In 1977, with drought hurting the family sheep operation, Boss and his brothers bought a Scania 111 and began transporting their own livestock.
Soon, they were carrying sheep for neighbouring stations as well.
That truck became the beginning of Hampton Transport Services.
Boss had a reputation for looking ahead. With trucks and station crews working across huge distances, he pushed early adoption of two-way radios and later embraced satellite phones and GPS as the technology became available.
By 1983, Hampton had opened an office in Kalgoorlie.
His wife Nellie became a crucial part of the operation, handling administration as the business expanded far beyond its station origins.
But Boss had created something that could grow with the Goldfields.
Transport moved into bulk haulage. Bulk haulage moved closer to mining.
His sons later helped accelerate that expansion, with Bart Jr concentrating heavily on mining and bulk transport while Dave developed the livestock side of the business.
In 2003, Hampton’s mining division was formally established.
Today, Hampton Mining & Civil handles open-pit mining, drill and blast, load and haul, crushing, earthworks and civil construction.
The company remains family owned, employs more than 400 people and now has three generations of the Jones family involved.
In 2026, Hampton was still working the country where Boss built the business, including mining activity at the Lady Herial gold operation near St Ives.
It’s a long way from one Scania hauling sheep through a drought.
But that first truck explains much of Hampton’s story.
Boss Jones saw a problem on a Goldfields station and built a business around solving it.
-
