Carlo and the Pental Island levee banks

Pental Island, near Swan Hill, is surrounded by the Murray River, the Little Murray/Marraboor River and the Lodden River, so as you can imagine, is quite prone to flooding. There had been a dispute between Victoria and New South Wales as to who 'owned' Pental Island and this was settled in 1872, when the issue came before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England and they declared it to be part of the Colony of Victoria. (1)  

Pental Island

Detail of Victoria fire map, 1:100 000 map series. Swan Hill  / published by the Department of Crown Lands and Survey Victoria for the Country Fire Authority, 1960s.

State Library of Victoria https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4309598

In 1885, Pental Island came under the control of the Council of Agricultural Education, which was established in 1884 under the Agricultural Colleges Act. (2) The Weekly Times reported that its central principle is the reservation of specified areas of Crown lands as sources of endowment for agricultural colleges and experimental farms. This would allow the Council of Agricultural Education to implement a scheme of scientific and experimental training for agriculturists (3).  

By the early 1900s, the Government wanted to take back control of Pental Island and to subdivide it into smaller blocks. It was at this time that Carlo Catani had some involvement with Pental Island, as The Age reported in March 1902 -

Pental Island. The question of control. Now that the Council of Agricultural Education, in defiance of the general demand that the control of Pental Island should be vested in a more competent authority, has decided to subdivide and lease the area without regard to the question of effecting necessary improvements, the Minister of Lands has at last resolved to step in. He sent a letter to the council yesterday making a definite offer in cash in order to induce the council to give up its control of the island. In doing this, the Minister states that he has been fortified with a report from Mr. Catani, the engineer of the Public Works department, which was originally prepared on behalf of the Council of Agricultural Education. There are in all some 16,140 acres in the island. In order to make virtually the whole of this suitable for settlement, levees will have to be constructed, which Mr. Catani estimates will run into a matter of some £8000 at £200 a mile for 40 miles of embankment, 4 feet 6 inches wide at the top. In addition, a bridge will have to be constructed over the Little Murray, and other incidental works will bring the cost of putting the island into a fit condition for settlement probably very near £10,000, according to the departmental estimate. This is an expenditure the Agricultural College Council could not undertake, and its proposal for escaping interference by pretending to make the Pental Island available for settlement is therefore farcical in the extreme. It is thought possible by the Minister of Lands however, that he can induce the council to part with the island for a consideration. At present it returns that body about £750 a year in rentals. Mr. Duggan is offering what he considers to be sufficient to compensate the council for a fair proportion of this. Whether it will be deemed enough to compensate the members for depriving them of one of their chief playthings remains to be seen. If that body is agreeable to his proposal, Mr. Duggan will as speedily as possible have Pental Island adapted for purposes of closer settlement. He has been given to understand that the suggested levee works will be the means of protecting the island permanently against inundations. (4)

Another report had the dimensions of Carlo's levee banks as -  4 feet 6 inches high and 4 feet 6 inches wide at the top, with a batter of 2 feet to 1 and a further report has this information -  the average height of the banks is about 11 feet above summer level, and that the highest flood mark is about 14 feet above the summer level. This would leave the island at flood time about 3 feet under water. Mr Catani estimates that a bank about 4 feet 6 inches high would be necessary to keep the flood waters off the land. (5) 

It does not appear that the Minister for Lands was successful in wrestling control of Pental Island from the Council of Agricultural Education, and in August 1902 it was reported that -
The outcome of the conference was a meeting of the Premier and the Minister for Agriculture yesterday, and it was subsequently announced that it had been determined to agree to the issue of the leases for the full term of 14 years, and at the rentals specified in the conditions laid down by the council. These rentals average 2/5¾ per acre. A modification, subject to ratification by the trustees, was made, however, to the effect that the leases will be liable to resumption by act of Parliament at any time after three years, provided that at least 12 months' notice of intention to resume is given to the lessees; the lessees to be entitled to compensation for any improvements that may then be in existence, based on their value at the time of resumption. (6)   

Carlo's levee banks were  not built at the time and even in 1914, the opinion of the Kerang New Times was that each new lease on Pental Island will probably contain a clause making it compulsory on the lessee to construct a levee bank to prevent flooding. (7)  In 1916, Pental Island was flooded although the settlers had been hard at work building up embankments against the flood waters. (8)

Levee banks of some description were in place in the 1920s - but these caused another problem, as reported in The Australasian -

on the Victorian side, particularly along Pental Island, levee banks have been built by the settlers, and they fear that the level of the river will be dangerously raised if banks are erected opposite their own, thus controlling the river in a narrow channel. This belief is so strongly held that cases are frequently quoted where settlers on the opposite banks have cut through the levees to relieve their on inundation. (9)

A flood occurred in 1931, when Pental Island was part of Dookie Agricultural College, even though it is protected from flooding by levee banks, which in flood time have frequently been found broken. (10).  Twenty years later, in 1951, there was another flood, the highest Murray River flood since the 1931 floods, when the flood waters were lapping perilously near the top of the levees desperately raised by the island’s farmers, working waist-deep in water. (11)

This is a very sad state of affairs for the farmers and 1951 wasn't the last flood they suffered.  We don't know if Pental Island could have been safe from floods if Carlo's proposed levee banks were constructed in 1902;  but, not for the first time, his recommendations and plans were ignored by the Government of the day.

Footnotes
(1) Geelong Advertiser, September 21, 1872, see here. 
(2) The Age, October 28, 1885, see here 

(3) The Weekly Times, November 8, 1884, see here.
(4) The Age, March 19, 1902, see here.

(5) The Age, August 28, 1902, see here; Ballarat Star, March 20, 1902, see here.

(6) The Australasian, August 23, 1902, see here.
(7) Kerang New Times, March 24, 1914, see here.
(8) The Age, October 5, 1916, see here.
(9) The Australasian, May 31, 1924, see here.
(10) The Argus, August 6, 1931, see here. 

(11) Sun News-Pictorial, August 7, 1951, see here. This, and the 1931 flood, are not an exhaustive list of Pental Island floods, just two examples which refer to the levee banks.