Thursday, December 28, 2023

Carlo and the Happy Valley Lake

On January 23, 1914 Carlo Catani and another Public Works Department engineer, Mr Dewar, arrived in Castlemaine (1). Their assignment was to inspect and survey the site for a lake, just outside of the town, at Happy Valley or Moonlight Flat, the newspaper reports use both terms as the location. The lake had a two-fold purpose - Forest Creek flood mitigation and recreation.


Happy Valley and Moonlight Flat, 1948.
Detail of Castlemaine, County of Talbot, 1948. Department of Crown Lands and Survey.
State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/92909

The flooding on Forest Creek was an on-going problem, in fact 25 years previously in 1889, Public Works Department engineer, William Thwaites (2), also visited Castlemaine for the purpose of inspecting the flood damages, and also to confer with the Borough Surveyor [Mr Cornish] as to what is requisite to be done in connection therewith.  Accompanied by Mr Cornish, Mr Thwaites inspected Forest and Barkers Creeks, and was astonished to observe their silted condition. He expressed an opinion that, in order to avoid a similar disaster to that which occurred on New Year's Day, both creeks must be cleared and kept free of debris. It is to be regretted that this had not been done some time ago, when the Borough Council, consequent upon a report furnished by their Surveyor, brought the matter under the cognisance of the Government, and also pointed out the immense damage that would be wrought by a flood; with the creeks (particularly Forest Creek) in such a silted-up condition. When the channels have been cleared, the only plan that can be adopted to keep them free of silt is by the Government compelling sluicers to stack their tailings instead of allowing them to be deposited in the creeks. This evil should also have been remedied years ago. Mr Thwaites visited Moloney's Bridge, and the site of Butterworth's and the Telegraph bridges, and likewise inspected the course of the creek towards Moonlight Flat. At Happy Valley, the Mayor and Borough Surveyor pointed out to the Government engineer a spot where it has been suggested to construct a weir.  (3)

If, as reported, William Thwaites did produce a report on the flooding, siltation, the sluicers and a possible weir it was not acted upon as Carlo had to deal with the same issues on his visit. 

The Happy Valley Lake was the subject of newspaper reports and letters to the editors on occasions, and there seemed to be much community interest in the lake. The Mount Alexander Times reported -
Castlemaine will never be a pleasure resort, no matter how we try to boom it, without a large sheet of water, and that fact is being already realised. The construction of a lake at Happy Valley would cause that locality to be thickly settled in a few years besides being a leading attraction of the town. (4)

Seemingly the construction of the lake would be a simple job due to the natural formation of the country, a small embankment at the rocky formations on each side of Forest Creek, near Patterson's bridge, would form a lake of great dimensions. (5) To further this objective of Castlemaine becoming a pleasure resort, the Borough of Castlemaine invited Carlo to visit in January 1914, because Mr Catani was greatly interested in schemes such as that for Happy Valley, and his assistance would be of the greatest possible benefit. (6)

Carlo was in Castlemaine for a few days, with Mr Dewar staying longer to do a  complete contour survey of the site. The plans for the lake were finished in May, and at the start of June, the Mount Alexander Mail reported that three costings were out-lined in the report, each with different levels of flood protection -  £7675 (providing for a lake of 29 acres), £5010 (a lake of 41 acres), and £13, 238 (a lake of 16 acres), with full provision of flood diversion.... But the cost of the schemes appeared to the council to be almost prohibitive and, although the matter was referred to committee, the impression left on the public mind was that the council was not very optimistic. (7) It seems that the project was put in abeyance for the rest of the year and no doubt the start of the War meant that the townsfolk had other priorities.

However in January 1915, the lake was back in the news and it was suggested that the construction of the lake would provide work for the rising number of the unemployed. The original plans were revisited and a new scheme was presented with a costing of a more manageable £3,500. In June 1915, Carlo was back in the town to survey the site and present the revised scheme to the Castlemaine Borough Council. We turn again to the Mount Alexander Mail -
A smiling Happy Valley, with its desolated heaps and hollows sheeted over by a charming lake; its edges bordered by attractive shrubbery and rustic bowers, reached by pleasant tree-lined paths; white-winged yachts that glided peacefully over a wide expanse of rippling water dotted by innumerable pleasure boats, with here and there oarmen in racing skiffs, and occasionally ardent anglers indulging in patient sport.  It was an altogether delightful vision that Mr Catani, Chief Public Works Engineer, inspired when relating to the Borough Councillors on Thursday night, his scheme for the prospective lake at Happy Valley. By means of this sheet of water, flooding will be prevented, and incidentally a magnificent asset to the town will be created. The comparison was very apt when the Mayor (Cr. Sheridan) in opening the subject, referred to Lake Wendouree, at Ballarat. What was previously a dismal swamp had been transformed into a beauty spot, which would always associate Ballarat with the aesthetic. (8)

The scheme involved the construction of a weir, the depth of which would be 20 feet high, and a lake which would have three to four feet of water. On the issue of siltation, a plan which had been prepared by Carlo's associate, Mr A. T. Clark, was presented by Carlo who -
explained that the flood waters being retarded at the junction with the lake waters would there deposit the silt. Then in the summer-time the water of the lake could be lowered through the valve at the weir until the deposit of silt would be left "high and dry." At a moderate cost, it could be banked up, planted with trees, etc., and ornamental plots arranged. When subsequent floods deposited silt further down, similar methods would be adopted, until, in the course of time - and floods - a diaphragm or bank would be "naturally" constructed. This would take the place of the cosily artificial bank at first proposed, and at the same time would allow for a separate flood channel between it and the hills around which the creek should ordinarily flow. The cost of the maintenance indicated would amount, he said, to only about £50 or £60 per year, for a few years. These sums were not of course, reckoned in the estimate. The reduction of the scheme was merely to bring it within the bounds of possibility (9)

This amended scheme was based on the premise that all sluicing and dredging in Forest Creek and Moonlight Flat would have to stop, as this caused a silt and sediment build-up. The following exchange was reported - 
Cr. Cornish : That scheme is based on the proposal that dredging must stop?
Mr Catani : That is so. If you keep on beating up the stuff, you will always have a certain amount of it coming down.
Cr. Cornish : We have no control at all over the land. It (the creek) runs through country that has been dredged back five miles.
Mr Catani pointed out that the Council could get the Mines Department to excise the bed of the creek -to say above Chewton - from occupation by mining leases. The gold was the property of the Crown, and the Crown had control over the land, and could forbid the seeking for gold. Mr Brown (the Minister) was very strong now about stopping these dredges.
(10)

The report also noted that Carlo gave information about the material that should be used in constructing the weir - whether granite, slate, or massed concrete - which is to be thrown across the narrow neck at the western end of Happy Valley, through which the Forest Creek flood waters pour. In conclusion, Mr Catani told of what had been done with lakes at Albert Park and other places, and advised as to the best trees to plant in the silt deposits, when they are banked up as suggested. (11)
The Mount Alexander Mail concluded that During the conversational discussion Councillors appeared to be favorably impressed, but gave no assurance that they would accept the proposition. (12)

Miner sluicing in a creek, Castlemaine district, c.1894. 
Photographer: M. Law.

The proposal to end sluicing was not popular and locals said the scheme was unworkable - the following letter to the editor of the Mount Alexander Mail from Mr J.P. Livingstone, summarises the opposition to the scheme -
I take it that this scheme is intended as a lake site, and for the prevention of floods. As a lake site, where is the person who will admire a lake of discoloured water? Mr Catani told us some time back that no lake would be worth looking at unless it were of clear water. He said he would have to turn the storm waters to one side, and keep the lake filled with clear water. How does he make storm water clear now? 
It seems to me that the originators of this scheme have not taken into consideration that great fall that there is in both Moonlight and Forest creeks, the number of barren hills without grass on them to stop the denudation of the loams and clays and the thousands of tons of gravel heaps in the creeks of this watershed. Stop sluicing when you like, and storm waters will still bring gravel, silt and slum; even light showers will bring some sediment into the basin. The retaining bank as it nears the centre of the basin, will shoot silt chains past, where it enters the water, and I contend that within ten year you will have instead of a lake only a dredge tailing heap on a large scale. What Forest Creek does not fill up, Moonlight will from the other side.
As regards the retaining bank, I will say that after 14 years' experience, that I have not seen it proved that anything but a concrete or stone wall is reliable for a storm channel bank. If grasses or trees could be grown in a few weeks, they would help the bank; but to grow them strong enough to be of use in that time is impossible. During ordinary years this creek carries off big volumes of water, about 4 or 5 times, so that not much time could be allowed for grass or trees to grow. Further, retaining banks often suffer worse from small streams than big ones. Logs, stones, or rubbish may heap up in the waterway, and turn the water diagonally into the bank, with the result that the bank is cut away in a few minutes.
As a remedy for unemployment the idea is ridiculous. For more money will be earned in the creeks and gullies than will be spent in men's wages on this scheme. During ordinary times some 70 or 80 men make a living in this area. (13)
Other letters were also published in a similar vein, with one dismissing the comparison to Lake Wendouree and Albert Park Lake - there is a vast amount of difference between the lakes at Albert Park and Ballarat, compared to this scheme, as they are natural depression lakes, and not a creek with close on 300 feet fall in five miles weired up (14).  A petition of 47 signatures of dredge sluicers and fossickers engaged on Forest Creek and Moonlight Flat (15) was also presented to the  Council pointing out the economic value of that industry to the area. 


Pennyweight and Moonlight Flats, Forest Creek in 1902. 
Detail of Plan of the Chewton-Castlemaine gold field: shewing anticlinal axial lines &c. 
Mines Department, Victoria, September 1902 
State Library of Victoria image http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/118077


Whether it was these local objections or the cost of the project or the necessary diversion of manpower and resources into the War effort, the Happy Valley Lake did not eventuate and Moonlight Flat never did become thickly settled. Even in 1972 when Raymond Bradfield wrote his history of Castlemaine he described Moonlight Flat thusly -
It is interesting to reflect on old Moonlight. All the way down the valley one sees signs of the vanished population. Halfway down is the site of the Robert Burns Hotel, well known as a lively pub. Nearby, the burn out remains of the last of the succession of houses used as the venue for the post office, as the population dwindled with a stone- built garage outbuilding near the charred ruins, looking rather incongruous, all on its own. And down at the foot of the valley, on the rise overlooking Pennyweight Flat, the children's cemetery, already mentioned, which somehow seems appropriate to the end the story of Moonlight. (16)  Who knows what might have been if Carlo's delightful vision of Happy Valley Lake had come to fruition.


Acknowledgement - I am indebted to my research colleague and fellow Carlo enthusiast, Isaac Hermann,  for alerting me to Carlo's involvement with the Happy Valley Lake project.

Trove list - I have created a short list of articles relating to Carlo Catani and his involvement with the Happy Valley Lake project, access it here.

Footnotes
(1) Mount Alexander Mail, January 22, 1914, see here; Bendigo Independent, April 2, 1914, see here.
(2) William Thwaites (1853 - 1907). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry here - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/thwaites-william-8811
(3) Mount Alexander Mail, March 1, 1889, see here.
(4) Mount Alexander Mail, May 11, 1914, see here.
(5) Bendigo Advertiser, January 19, 1914, see here.
(6) Mount Alexander Mail, January 19, 1914, see here.
(7) Mount Alexander Mail, June 1, 1914, see here.
(8) Mount Alexander Mail, June 5, 1915, see here.
(9) Ibid
(10) Ibid
(11) Ibid
(12) Ibid
(13) Mount Alexander Mail, June 10, 1915, see here.
(14) Ibid - letter from Creekite.
(15) Mount Alexander Mail June 11, 1915, see here.
(16) Bradfield, Raymond Castlemaine:  a Golden Harvest (Lowden Publishing, 1972) p. 64. As  a matter of interest, Happy Valley, des not appear in the index.

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