Charles O'Connor (engineer)
Charles Yelverton O'Connor (born January 11, 1843 in Gravelmount, Castletown, County Meath in Ireland ; † March 10, 1902 at Robbs Jetty in Western Australia ) was an Irish engineer, a "legendary figure of early engineering in Australia" . He is known in Australia for the construction of the port of Fremantle and the Golden Pipeline , one of the longest freshwater pipelines in the world with a length of 530 kilometers.
biography
Early life
O'Connor was homeschooled by his aunt before joining Waterford Endowed School (also known as Bishop Foy's School ). In 1859 he was trained as a railroad engineer by J. Chaloner Smith. At the age of 21, he immigrated to New Zealand , where he was appointed railroad engineer in Canterbury Province on September 6th. In 1873 he married the Scottish born Susan Letitia Ness with whom he had seven children, four girls and three boys.
Career
After holding several positions, O'Connor was appointed Inspection Engineer in the Central South Island of New Zealand and in 1883 was appointed Undersecretary of the New Zealand Public Works and in 1890 was appointed Marine Engineer of that colony.
Around 1891 O'Connor was planning the construction of port and dock facilities when he became chief engineer of Western Australia in April of that year and the contract to build the Fremantle Port and the Golden Pipeline , which deliver drinking water to the Eastern Goldfields in Kalgoorlie should received.
Fremantle Harbor
The construction of Fremantle Port was possibly O'Connor's greatest achievement. According to experts, his plan to build this port on the Swan River was not ideal because it would require permanent dredging of the fairway. Work began in 1892 and, after removing the sandstone barrier and the sand shoals in the mouth of the Swan River, it was successfully completed in 1903.
On May 4, 1897, the first overseas passenger ship, the Sultan , docked at the Queen Victoria quay, which was named after Queen Victoria , who celebrated her diamond jubilee that same year. At the age of 54, O'Connor traveled to London and was honored with the Order of St. Michael and St. George as a Companion.
Golden pipeline
O'Connor's most famous work is the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme , also known as the Golden Pipeline . This pipeline is possibly the world's longest water supply with a length of 530 kilometers from Perth to Kalgoorlie-Boulder .
A gold rush in the Yilgarn region near Southern Cross in 1887, one at Coolgardie in 1892, and another in 1893 near Kalgoorlie caused a population explosion in the deserted and arid desert, just like in the towns of Cunderdin and Merredin .
On July 16, 1896, John Forrest proposed to the West Australian Parliament to authorize him to build a pipeline for 2.5 million pounds that would carry 23,000 m³ of water daily into the gold fields from the dam on the Helena River near Mundaring near Perth over eight pumping stations 530 km in a 760 mm diameter tube to the Mount Charlotte Reservoir in Kalgoorlie. The water would then be distributed in a network to various gold rush centers.
O'Connor has faced sustained criticism from the press and from many members of the Western Australian Parliament over the undertaking. Forrest, who always supported him, left the politics of Western Australia and became State Secretary of Defense. He was subject to defamatory press attacks and this hurt him.
Evan describes how political machinations and individual greed as well as many defamatory magazine articles about the Golden Pipeline project and O'Connor gnawed at it. An article from February 9, 1902 in The Sunday Times accusing O'Connor of corruption is said to be the trigger for his suicide:
And apart from any distinct charge of corruption this man has exhibited such gross blundering or something worse, in his management of great public works it is no exaggeration to say that he has robbed the taxpayer of this state of many millions of money ... This crocodile imposter has been backed up in all his reckless extravagant juggling with public funds, in all his nefarious machinations behind the scenes by the kindred-souled editor of the "The West Australian". - (Evans 2001, p. 219)
The government opened an investigation into this project and found no basis for allegations of corruption or mismanagement by O'Connor.
suicide
O'Connor died of suicide less than a year before Forrester officially turned over the Golden Pipeline. He shot himself on March 10, 1902 while riding his horse through the water on Fremantle's south beach.
Commemoration
- The beach where O'Connor died was named after him and a statue by Tony Jones was also placed in the water there.
- The lake created by Mundaring Weir is known as Lake CYO'Connor and contains drinking water for the towns along the Golden Pipeline to Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.
- Robert Drewe's novella The Drowner contains aspects of O'Connor and the construction of the pipeline.
- His daughter Eva married Sir George Julius, who was the first chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) , which was later renamed CSIRO .
- The CY O'Connor College of TAFE in Western Australia bears his name.
- The Division of O'Connor , named after O'Connor, is an Australian Electoral Division of the state of Western Australia. It circles the area of Perth and leads to the Indian Ocean to the Southern Ocean coast. The division includes the cities of Geraldton and Albany , large parts of the Midlands, Wheatbelt and Great Southern region of Western Australia.
- A bronze statue of O'Connor by Pietro Porcelli stands in front of the Fremantle Port Authority building to commemorate his achievement.
literature
- Cyril Ayris: CY O'Connor. A brief biography. Cyril Ayris Freelance, West Perth, WA 2004, ISBN 0-9578853-4-2 .
- Robert Drewe: The drowner. Picador, Sydney 1997, ISBN 0-330-36012-4 .
- AG Evans: CY O'Connor. His life and legacy. University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, WA 2001, ISBN 1-876268-62-X .
- Alexandra Hasluck: CY O'Connor. Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1965.
- Merab Tauman: The chief: CY O'Connor. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands 1978, ISBN 0-85564-123-1 .
- Martyn J. Webb: Death of a hero. The strange suicide of Charles Yelverton O'Connor. In: Early days. Vol. 11, Part 1, 1995, pp. 81-111.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Evans, AG CY O'Connor: his life and legacy . P. 13, Crawley, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 2001. ISBN 1-876268-62-X
- ↑ Short review on www.articlearchives.com ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 1, 2009
- ↑ Evans 2001, p. 39.
- ↑ PW Davis: A Glimpse of One of the Giants Who Built Our Nation , based on the book Merab Tauman: CY O'Connor, the Chief. Heritage Quarterly Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
- ↑ Evans 2001, p. 53.
- ^ Western Australia. Public Works Dept. Fremantle Harbor works plan National Library of Australia. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
- ↑ Evans 2001, p. 179
- ↑ George Negus Tonight ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Transcript of broadcast 6:30 pm on October 18, 2004. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
- ↑ Tauman, Merab Harris: O'Connor, Charles Yelverton (1843-1902) . In: Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 . Melbourne University Press. Pp. 51-54. 1988. Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- ↑ CY O'Connor Centenary ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) www.fremantleports.com.au. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
- ^ Julius, Sir George Alfred (1873-1946). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | O'Connor, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | O'Connor, Charles Yelverton (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish-Australian engineer, builder of the Port of Fremantle and the Golden Pipeline |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 11, 1843 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gravelmount, Castletown, County Meath , Ireland |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 10, 1902 |
| Place of death | Robbs Jetty in Kwinana, Western Australia |