Showing posts with label Patterson River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patterson River. Show all posts

Friday, October 12, 2018

Carlo and the safety of the Patterson River bridge

In the Colony of Victoria, until 1884 all the military or defences forces were volunteers. This changed in 1884 with the introduction of the Victorian Military Forces. These men were paid, enlisted for a fixed period but were part time. Every so often they would attend training camps at various locations including the Langwarrin Military Reserve.  In 1894, this encampment lasted six days.

I came across this article, below, about the 1894 encampment - new field guns had to be transported to Langwarrin and had to cross the bridge on the Patterson River at Carrum. There were clearly worries about the strength of the bridge which might have caused a disastrous prelude to the Easter encampment if it was not strong enough to bear the weight of the guns and so Mr Davidson, the Inspector General of Public Works and Mr Catani, engineer of roads and bridges inspected the bridge. They recommended that the guns might be transported across the bridge in safety but that there was an undoubted risk and they would not take responsibility of advising that the route was safe one. This sounds like a typical public service report - a bit of  a bet each way - so credit could be taken if it was a success and no responsibility would be taken if it ended badly. In the end it was decided that the guns would be transported one at a time over the bridge and there was no disastrous prelude to the Easter encampment and Carlo's professional reputation remained intact!

The Argus March 24 1894

If you are interested in the Langwarrin Military Reserve then you might want to read Australia Aldershot: Langwarrin Military Reserve Victoria 1886-1980 by Winty Calder (Jimaringle Publications 1987)