Carlo and the Sale Canal

As early as the 1870s there was agitation for a canal to link the town of Sale to the Thompson River (1). In 1885, Sir John Coode drew up plans for this canal and a swinging basin and William Thwaites carried out the survey work for the project (2). The canal was to be one and a quarter miles in length.

Sir John Coode's canal

Gippsland Times,  August 12, 1885 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61923851

You can read a description of the work to be undertaken, in the Gippsland Times of August 12, 1885, read it here.  The Tender for the first stage was let in 1886 and for the final stage in 1888 (3)

The Leader of November 3, 1888 had this report about the canal works  -
The tender of F. G. Mattinson, for the construction of the final section of the Sale canal, was accepted on Thursday by the Minister of Public Works. The amount of tender is £16,750, and £13,675 has already been expended upon the works, which are designed to enable vessels to navigate the Thompson river up to the town of Sale. The canal, when finished, will be one mile and a quarter in length, 85 foot wide at the top, with a basin 1200 feet by 200 feet. There will be 10 feet of water in the canal at low water (4) 

The work was finished around March or April 1890. I can't find a report of an official opening, but there surely would have been one - Politicians both Local and State have always loved those sort of events. A crane was approved for the wharf and a railway spur line from the main Gippsland line was also built, opening in  September 1890. (5)

It was in November 1890 that we have our first mention in the papers of Carlo Catani's involvement with the project. He visited Sale and it was decided that they would erect an eighty foot long wharf shed and extend the wharf another 200 feet. Another newspaper reported that Carlo said the Public Works Department will also lay gas and erect a lamp at the wharf. (6)

Plans to be drawn up to erect a wharf shed.

Gippsland Times November 14, 1890. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65299890

Two years after the canal was opened there were demands for it to be extended to the Thompson River to provide it with a continuous flow of  fresh water for 'sanitation purposes' - it was called a scour channel. Another report said that Flooding Creek, the creek that goes through Sale had been had a fresh running stream through Flooding Creek before the canal works stopped its course, and he thought they were entitled have a stream of fresh running water instead of the insanitary dead water of the canal basin. (7)

To extend the canal, land had to be purchased from landowners and negotiations were mainly successful on this front except with Mr Luke Murphy, who refused the offers. Carlo visited Sale on a number of occasions to help with the  negotiations but as a paper reported  The price demanded by Mr Murphy was considered altogether too exorbitant, and Mr Catani said it could not possibly be entertained. (8) In the end a new plan was drawn up that deviated around the Murphy property, but even these plans were not acted upon and the canal extension or scour channel never happened.

Steamer leaving Sale for Gippsland Lakes

Photographer: Hammond & Co. Studios.

State Library of Victoria Image H82.96/147

Another side effect of not having a scour channel was that the canal began silting up, as early as 1895 there were demands that the Public Works Department send up a dredge to clean out the canal.  There are various reports in the papers about Carlo visiting Sale to discuss the dredging requests. The dredge, Wombat,  worked on the canal in 1898-1899 to restore the official depth, which had been materially reduced entirely by the erosion of the banks. In carrying out the work the original slopes of 2 in 1 were practically obliterated, and the bottom width of the canal increased from 40ft to nearly 60ft. The Wombat was engaged hereat on this occasion for 16 months, at an outlay of £5,664. But the eroding and silting is not likely to be recurring on so extensive a scale, but some erosion will always be inevitable. (9) 

The erosion did continue and in 1910 the Council still had concerns with the erosion and the shape of the banks. Carlo wrote a report for the Council which said, inter alia,  the Sale canal, so far as this department is concerned, is not an improvement scheme designed with the object of pleasing the eye, but is merely an excavation made for navigation purposes, and so long as it answers that purpose it matters little what final shape the banks will assume. (10)  There were discussions about methods of controlling erosion in the Canal as early as 1896, when William Davidson, the Minister of Public Works suggested that - 

As to the erosion of the banks he suggested the planting of blackberry bushes, which would grow quickly, and would hold the ground together just as well as willows or other plants more difficult to cultivate. (11)  This advice may have been acted upon in 1896, but in May 1912, Carlo suggested the planting of willows on the Canal bank and in January 1913, it was reported that - Mr. Catani was pleased to learn that the willows were succeeding along the canal banks (12)

Sale Steamboat Company - SS Omeo, passing the swing bridge, near Sale, c. 1910

Museums Victoria https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/771127

The Swing bridge over the Latrobe River is about three miles from Sale. The bridge was opened in 1883, it was the first movable bridge built in Victoria. It was designed by John Harry Grainger (1854-1917) - the father of Percy Grainger, the pianist and musician. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage database, see the citation here. You can read more about the work of John Harry Grainger, here.

By 1913, there were reports that the canal was now only eight feet deep, and in 1914 Carlo reported that around seventy pounds had been spent on the Sale wharf but another 400 pounds was still needed to make the repairs permanent. (13)  

In December 1915 Carlo, along with the Minister of Public Works and various other official visited Sale  and the issue of dredging of the whole waterway between Sale and the Entrance was on the agenda  at summer level the depth of water in some portions was so low that even the small steamers of the Sale Steamboat Company bumped and dragged through mud. With the larger vessels - like the Queenscliffe - which regularly traded to Sale, the master had a very difficult matter to navigate through safely. (14)

Carlo, who was introduced as an an old friend of the borough [of Sale] is reported thus -   Mr Catani in acknowledging the complimentary references to himself said that it was 20 years since he was last in Sale, and he was very much surprised to see that that vital piece of work, the scour from the Thompson River above the pumping-station to the Sale Canal, still unfinished.  (15)

And that is how it remained - no scour channel and continual siltation issues. At its busiest more than sixty ships used the port of Sale (16) and I don't know when commercial traffic stopped plying the Sale Canal - there is a report in a 1935 paper that the wharf was in a dilapidated condition and it was demolished in 1952. (17)

Trove list - I have created a list of articles on Trove about the Sale Canal and the involvement of Carlo Catani, you can access it here. Nearly all of the information in this post comes from these newspaper articles.

Footnotes

(1) Gippsland Times, November 20, 1876, see here.

(2) Engineer to Marvellous Melbourne: the life and times of William Thwaites by Robert La Nauze (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2011) William Thwaites (1853-1907) later became the Engineer in Chief at the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. You can read his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here.

(3) Weekly Times, January 2, 1886, see here; Warragul Guardian, November 2, 1888, see here.

(4) The Leader, November 3, 1888, see here.

(5) Gippsland Times, September 1, 1890, see here.

(6) Gippsland Times, November 14, 1890, see here;  Gippsland Times, December 31, 1890, see here.

(7) Gippsland Times, January 13, 1896, see here.

(8) Gippsland Times, October 5, 1892, see here.

(9) Gippsland Times, June 10, 1909, see here.

(10) Gippsland Times, June 9, 1910, see here. 

(11) Gippsland Times, January 13, 1896, see here.

(12) Gippsland Times, May 9, 1912,  see here; Gippsland Times, January 23, 1913,  see here.

(13) Gippsland Times, January 23, 1913, see here; Gippsland Mercury, January 30, 1914, see here. 

(14) Gippsland Mercury, December 21, 1915, see here.

(15) Ibid.

(16) Sale: the early years and later by O.S. Green (Southern Newspapers, c. 1978)

(17) Gippsland Times, August 1, 1935,  see here;  Gippsland Times, January 28, 1952,  see here.

A kiss by Lake Catani composed by Reg Hudson

Very excited to find that there is a Carlo related song! A Kiss by Lake Catani was written by Reg Hudson around 1947*. Lake Catani, on Mt Buffalo, in Victoria,was named after Carlo in 1911 in recognition of the work he undertook to open up Mt Buffalo as a tourist resort.

The song sheet and music of A Kiss by Lake Catani, recorded by Johnny Wade and his Hawaiians, you can read about them and listen to the recording, here.

Here  are the lyrics -

Underneath the moon by Lake Catani
When the forest trees were all a-glow
There you said you'd be mine eternally
That is why I love you so

I thrilled to your caress
When we kissed by Lake Catani in the moonlight
I never knew that I could care
The way I do till I met you

I had to answer yes
To your plea by Lake Catani in the moonlight
The magic of your fond embrace
Will always be a memory

The lyrebirds were calling, sweet music filled the air
Moon beams were falling and love was everywhere
You brought me happiness
With  a kiss by Lake Catani in the moonlight

My heart forever holds the thrill of stars above
We two in love


This is what I now about Reg Hudson - He was born Reginald William Schuetze to Gottleib  Wilhelm Schuetze and Mary Anne Hudson, on April 25, 1904 and obviously changed his surname to that of his mothers. According to an article in Smith’s Weekly of April 17, 1926, his father  played the piano at the first picture show to open in South Australia, and he could not read music. Reg realised that he could also play by ear and formed an orchestra called Harmony Four and played at dances. An early song was Mypolonga Moon in which Reg wrote the lyrics and played the tune to a friend who did the orchestration.  The  article claimed he could be Australia's Irving Berlin. He later worked with Maurice Sheard, who collaborated with him on A Kiss by Lake Catani amongst other works (The Mail April 2, 1949)

Reg became an advertising executive, had four children, married Rose Louisa Langham in 1933 and died January 9, 1967.

His songwriting could be summed up by this quote - My great ambition in life is to wean Australians away from their fondness for songs about Kalamazoo, Idaho, Indiana, Alabama, and other American places. Surely we in Australia can develop our own popular music. (Evening Advocate March 17, 1949)

Here's an incomplete list of his works  - I'll add others as I find them. Reg is, as you can see, a master of the lococantio** - songs about places or have place names in the title.
Mypolonga Moon (a town on the Murray, north of Murray Bridge)
All for the love of you
Just how I need you
Is everybody happy?
It can not be true
I've set sail for Innisfail
The Jacaranda time (about Grafton)
A Kiss by Lake Catani
I long to be at the Victor (Victor Harbour)
Vintage Song (for a Barossa Valley wine festival)
In the Valley of the Sun (Murray Valley) is this the same song as Sunraysia Melody - which was also written about the Murray Valley?
Pack up a dream and head for Hayman Island
There's someone waiting somewhere for you
Your love and my love

 I have created a list of newspaper articles about Reg Hudson on Trove, click here to access the list. 

* The first date I can find the song mentioned is in February 1947, when the Adelaide News talks about the song being featured on the All Australian Hit Parade. See article, here.

** loco=place + cantio=song  - we made this word up just to describe the songs that Reg Hudson wrote - songs about places or have place names in the title. I claim some credit, but it was really my fellow Carlo enthusiast, Isaac Hermann, that coined this phrase. If it's good enough for William Shakespeare to invent words, then it's good enough for us!

In defence of Carlo's patriotism

I put up a previous post where Carlo's patriotism was being called into question, his views on an issue (pay rises for Public Servants) were dismissed on the grounds that he was a 'foreigner'.  Read the post, here.  I* came across another great article on the same issue in the Under the Clocks column in the Herald of July 28, 1916. The article is called Essay on Foreigners. The basic gist of the article, defending Carlo,  can be summed up with the last line - Fancy calling a bloke a foreigner when he has an Australian son what went to Grammar and answers to the name of Puss! - referring to Carlo's son Enrico  or Puss, who went to Melbourne Grammar and enlisted on April 28, 1915 and served in Gallipoli. Sadly, Puss was Killed in Action in France, only one day after this article was published.

The Herald July 28, 1916

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242381805

ESSAY ON FOREIGNERS
Foreigners, Pa says, was Invented by a judicious Providence for to make us realise how much better it is to be Britishers. Pa travelled about a good bit in his young days, and he could of got naturalised in most any country in Europe if he had wanted to. But he was a like a bloke in some poetry he is always saying over to hisself - "In spite of all temptations to belong to other nations, he remained an Englishman." In the days when, nothing was reckoned to be any good In Australia unless it come from Abroad, and women, who Pa says are born freetraders, didn't mind if a thing was made in Germany, so long as it was cheap, foreigner wasn't such a dirty Insult as it is now. There was a thing happened only last Tuesday, which shows how people feel about it. At a meeting of public servants one bloke spoke out of his turn. He says, Will this here blocking of our rises in screw help the sale of these here war loan bonds? Up jumps Mr Catani, who is chief engine-driver or something, and says. Put him out!  Pooh, you! says the bloke. You're only a foreigner, he says. This Mr Catani, he was born in Italy, whose motto is freedom or nothing. He is one of ourselves, Pa says, and his son is Puss Catani, one of the lads that made Australia proud of them when the Southland went down, and they didn't care 2d so long as they didn't crab their chances of getting to Gallipoli. He got there all right, and Pa reckons he will get to Berlin, too, some day. Well, when the bloke says Foreigner, everyone got the pip with him, and for a little while it looked as if there would be a brawl. So the moral is, that if you want to call a man a foreigner nowadays the only safe place to, do it is in a internment camp, where you are sure of your mark. Fancy calling a bloke a foreigner when he has a Australian son what went to Grammar and answers to the name of Puss!

* When I say, I came across it, in reality it was actually my fellow Carlo aficionado, Isaac Hermann,  who alerted me to this article.

Carlo has a plan to bring water to the Mallee

The Argus of September 2, 1902 interviewed Carlo about his proposal to irrigate around one million acres of Mallee land by using the water of Murray River.  I have transcribed it, below, or you can read here.  The interviewer describes Carlo as an enthusiast  who is once more breathing life into this almost dead project and Mr. Catani who, though an ltalian, has a marked capacity for expressing his views in clear and pregnant English. It's  a longish article, but well worth reading and shows Carlo's big picture vision, confidence in his own ability and professional role and the fact that he was not afraid to work on proposals not strictly related to his role as the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department.

Was his proposal ever acted upon? No. Would it have been successful if implemented?  I cannot answer that.

NEGLECTED RICHES. MALLEE IRRIGATION. FLOODING LOW LEVELS.
MR. CATANI INTERVIEWED.

Since 1897 the authorities in Victoria have been considering schemes for watering the Mallee country from the bounteous River Murray, which encircles that arid territory in a magnificent sweep of wasted waters. The question has been reported on and considered. and nothing has been done, in fact the scheme has been for some time almost abandoned. New South Wales commenced to consider the same scheme with respect to its territory adjoining the Murray in the year 1880, and already it has two channels cut, and by the time the next flood waters come will be ready to water 200 miles of country. Look at the latest reports of the Public Works committee of New South Wales and you will see that a scheme has been completed, with the exception of the regulators, to connect the Murray at Tooleybuc with Tuppal Creek and the Edwards River; and another scheme to connect the Murray at Barham with the Wakool River is also under way.

We are highly progressive people - it would be treason to dispute that - but how much more progressive must the New South Wales people be? They did not commence to think about the thing till two years after it had been mooted in Victoria, and already extensive works have been carried out, and we have done nothing but consider, and, were it not for one or two enthusiasts would have dropped the matter altogether.

Yet, unless surface levels taken by trained surveyors are false as dicers' oaths and hard-headed engineers are wild dreamers, we could water and irrigate an immense quantity of land, which is now almost unproductive at a cost comparatively trifling whilst no one who depends upon the River Murray for navigation or any other purposes would be one penny the worse, and, in some respects would be much better off.

Mallee dust storm, Manangatang, 1920.

Would Mallee dust storms have been a thing of the past if Carlo's scheme was implemented? Remember the one that hit Melbourne on Tuesday, February 8, 1983, the day before the tragic Ash Wednesday bushfires? 

Museums Victoria https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/772425

"Look here," says Mr. C. Catani, engineer for roads and bridges in the Public Works department. "Look here. Here is a plan which makes the scheme almost brutally clear." Then he displays a plan which looks exactly like one of those maps or plans which financiers publish to show the rise and fall of prices of an article over a series of years, so that the course of the market may be seen at a glance. "This plan," he continued, "shows the ridges and depressions over a wide space of the Mallee country. The levels have all been accurately taken by the surveyors of the Lands department, who have walked over country surveying it into blocks. Now this horizontal line shows the level of the Murray at the height of the proposed off-take - 4ft above summer level. You an see that that line is not only above all the depressions in this stretch of country, but it is actually considerably above all the ridges. It is no use saying that the water will not go through this country, for if it can find no way round the ridges it will flow over them "

Mr. Catani is the enthusiast  who is once more breathing life into this almost dead project. He has a long and honourable career in the Public Works department, and he is impelled merely by a sense of duty to ventilate the matter. It belongs properly to the Water Supply department, but Mr. Catani has facts in his possession which he thinks should be made known, and being fortified by the strong support of Mr. Williamson Wallace, the director of agriculture, he is doing all he can to bring it once more into into region of what is immediately practicable. Mr. W. Davidson inspector-general of public works, takes no responsibility for what Mr. Catani, is doing, but he states that he has gone carefully into the facts and figures submitted by that officer, and believes that he has made out a strong case.

"The policy I advocate," says Mr. Catani who, though an ltalian, has a marked capacity for expressing his views in clear and pregnant English - " the policy I advocate is water and no channels, against the disastrous policy of channels and no water."

"My scheme," he continues," is to irrigate for cultivation purposes the whole of the northern Mallee which still belongs to the Crown. To begin with, I suggest that the area bounded on the north by the Murray, on the south of the high land in the parallel of Lake Tyrrell, on the east by the Murray, and on the west by the Mildura railway line, be operated upon. This area is about 50 miles wide east and west, and 30 miles deep north and south. It contains about 1,500 square miles or 1,000,000 acres,
of Crown land."  [Lake Tyrrell is near Sea Lake - so the southern border is essentially Sea Lake to Ultima to Lake Boga to the border/ Murray River. Area would include the euphonicly named towns of  Manangatang, Chillingollah, Chinapook. Ouyen would be on the western border, Swan Hill on the eastern border]

Mary, Annie and Norrie Ryan at their farm in Chinkapook in 1926.
Photographer: Mrs Ryan. 

Would the farm have been a green oasis if Carlo's scheme was implemented? 

Image: Museums Victoria https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/766067

How do you get the water into that area? "By a cutting about five miles long, and on an average 12ft. deep"

And the cost? "That would be about £38,000. My first estimate was £15,000,but after consulting with Mr. Wallace as to the necessity of getting the water onto the land in early winter, and quickly, I found it necessary to increase the width of the inlet from 24ft wide to 90ft wide. The cost is doubled but the capacity of the channel is trebled."

The Railways Standing Committee reported doubtfully of your scheme? "Yes; but it is evident from their report that they did not understand it. They speak of it as a scheme to cut a channel into the centre of the northern Mallee, whereas my proposed cutting is only five miles long. After that the water finds its way through the natural depressions."

Mr. Stuart Murray, engineer-in-chief of water supply gave evidence criticising the scheme did he not? "I think the committee must have misunderstood his evidence also, for it makes him state that in a minimum year there would be 490 millions of cubic feet of water short of the 1,500 million cubic feet required for the scheme. Now, the gaugings taken at Albury, at Echuca, and at Mildura during 27 years show that not merely is the 1,500 million cubic feet available in a minimum year, but actually 80 times that amount is running to waste, and no less than 300 times that amount in a maximum
year."

"The railway committee," continued Mr. Catani, "partially condemned the scheme on the evidence that in a minimum year the supply would be 490 million cubic feet short, and there was no natural depression sufficient to store that quantity. They wanted, in fact, to store a paltry 490 million cubic feet of water from one year to another, when 400 times that quantity is yearly going to waste into the sea.

When Mr. Catani takes you into figures and displays his tables, the unmathematical brain simply reels amongst the billions. It would seem as if the ocean would have to be drained to supply the Mallee with an additional 6in. of water per annum. But if the figures as to demand are great, the figures as to supply are prodigious. The gist of them is this, that one-eighteenth of the annual discharge at Echuca in a minimum year would give all that is required, or 1-57th of a maximum year.

So, not in the least discouraged by the doubts of the Railway Standing Committee, Mr. Catani boldly asserts that a magnificent and extensive scheme of cheap irrigation is being neglected.

Then, what do you want now, Mr. Catani? "I want the Government first of all to to fill in some of the blanks in the surveys which were made for other purposes. Those will give data as to the levels between the lines of levels which we now have. The leases of these Mallee blocks, which will be affected fall in in 1903. We ought to know what is going to be done by that time, for the Government will then have an absolutely free hand with all this land. It can turn the water where it likes without compensation to anybody, and it can provide for its settlement on much more profitable basis that at present."

A few words with Mr. Wallace, the director of agriculture show that he is entirely in accord with the scheme, and a strong believer in its practicability. In the "Journal of the Department of Agriculture" he published a most interesting article, comparing what is done in Egypt with what is, in his opinion, possible in the Mallee, and this he has republished in a pamphlet. Mr. Catani is prepared to bring the water cheaply to the land, and Mr. Wallace to show how best to apply it when it is there. To say the least of it, a case has most certainly been made out for immediate further inquiry.

If you are interested in reading Mr Wallace's article of 'what is done in Egypt which would be possible in the Mallee', in the Journal of the Department of Agriculture, then it is on-line on the State Library of Victoria website - here.  It is in Volume 1, No. 7 from 1902 - his article starts on page 643 - but the section on irrigation is on page 651 to 657.

Carlo suggests Wonthaggi should be called Petria.

Here's an interesting article from the Geelong Advertiser of February 28, 1910 about names for the new coal town on the Powlett River - the Premier, John Murray, had suggested Peterloo or Peterhaven, whilst Carlo suggested the more poetic, Petria.  Peter McBride, mentioned in the article, was the Minister for Mines at the time. In the end Wonthaggi won the day! There is a McBride Avenue and a Murray Street in Wonthaggi, but nothing named for Carlo. I rather like the name Petria.

Geelong Advertiser  February 28, 1910

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150697524

NAME WANTED FOR COAL TOWN.

WHAT SHALL POWLETT BE

CHRISTENED

Dealing with the question of the naming of the township close to the State coal mine, Mr. McBride said that he was not anxious that it should be called after him. He had seen suggestions by the Premier to call it 'Peterloo' or 'Peterhaven', and Mr. Catani, Chief Engineer of Public Works, had proposed 'Petria', but he thought that the present name, Wonthaggi, was not inappropriate. was a native name, and the following was the full definition given in the text book relating to such names - "Borne, drag; to pull along; to get; to bring; to haul; to drag; lug; to procure; to fetch; to obtain; to convey." 
All those definitions, or most of them, he thought, applied to a place where the coal mining industry was carried on. He would therefore he satisfied with the name Wonthaggi, especially as it had now been put on the plan relating to the sale of the leaseholds. An avenue in the township was to be named after him, and streets after his colleagues.

Carlo and the Warrnambool harbour

In 1910, Carlo drew up plans for harbour improvements at Warrnambool.  The local community had been agitating for these improvements for many years  - in fact historian, Charles Sayers* has called the story of the Warrnambool Harbour one of dying hopes, dwindled trade, frustrated ambitions and futile expenditure.

We will start with a short history of the harbour, taken from Mr Sayer's book By these we flourish: a history of Warrnambool (Heinemann, 1969)

The first jetty in Lady Bay was built in 1849, but years later it was still unfinished and ricketty and broke up in 1862. A second jetty was built around 1857, known as the tramways jetty, although it was not completed until 1874 - Mr Sayers also describes this jetty as ricketty. As early as 1864 some considered the new jetty dangerous for horses and unsafe for for pedestrians. It was called the tramways jetty as it was connected to a tramway for the transportation of goods. From the start it seems that the locals thought that the harbour could be improved by a breakwater, the opening of the Merri River mouth and an extension of the jetty.

The Tramways jetty at Warrnambool, c. 1900-1920.  Photographer: T.J Rowan

State Library of Victoria Image H81.85/16

A breakwater of 600 yards in length and to cost 110,00 pounds was approved by the Victorian Government  in 1874. Preliminary work commenced, the first allocation of money had been expended, then the money stopped, there was a roller coast change of governments in Victoria over the next few years - so by 1879 the breakwater was just a thousand of tons of concrete blocks [that] had been thrown into the bay to make a foundation at a cost of 20,000 pounds.

In 1879, Sir John Coode, Melbourne Harbour Trust engineer drew new plans - a combined breakwater and wharf, 1,800 feet long, made of concrete blocks, to be constructed at a cost of 280,900 pounds. This massive amount of money was not favoured by the Government and his amended plan reduced the breakwater to 900 feet and the cost to 140,000 pounds and by removing the sheltering parapet the cost was reduced again to 134,000 pounds. In the end the contract price for the breakwater was just over 129,000 pounds and the contractor, Arthur Dobson, was to build a breakwater, 1033 feet long, which would allow for the loading of three vessels, each 200 feet long at one time in a depth of thirty to thirty five feet of water. It started around 1885 and was completed by 1890.

From the start there was unhappiness with the breakwater - it turned out to be only 900 feet long and the locals wanted in extended another 300 feet. But on February 4, 1890 the railway reached the town of Warnambool and the Government was not keen to spend more money on the port when there was an alternate form of transport. The other issue was that the breakwater caused siltation problems in the harbour and continuous dredging was needed to keep the harbour viable. By 1910, trade through the harbour had decreased to 4,000 tons, from a high of 40,000 tons.

Lady Bay, Warrnambool, 1907. Photographer: Joseph Jordan.

This photo was taken only three years before Carlo drew up his plans for harbour improvements.

State Library of Victoria Image H96.160/1405

This is where Carlo Catani comes in. In August 1910, Carlo proposed a plan for building a dock and for dredging work that increased the berthing capacity at the harbour. The dock was to be 3,000 feet long and 800 feet wide and allow ships up to 400 feet in length. The cost of the works was 180,000 pounds (or if timber was partly used instead if concrete, 130,000 pounds).

Instead of acting on Carlo's plans, in 1914, a contract was let to increase the breakwater 300 feet, an instalment of the Coode plan according to Mr Sayers.  This work was completed but not satisfactory, and there were allegations of corruption and that the specifications for the concrete blocks had not been met. A Royal Commission was appointed and it was found that the breakwater extension was built on sand, not rock and thus the extension collapsed and the 70,000 pounds that it had cost was mostly wasted.

Back to Carlo's plans - The Warrnambool Council were happy with Carlos' plans - there is a report in the the Colac Herald of July 8, 1912 where  a deputation from the Chamber of Commerce met with the Council to get much needed harbour improvements at the local port. The had this to say about the plans  They had a capital scheme drawn up by a competent Government Engineer (Mr Catani) and approved of by the Chief Engineer, (Mr Davidson) and yet according to Mr Murray's statement at the Farmers' Convention the Government was seeking for further advice in another state. This seemed ridiculous, and there was no reason why the scheme of Mr Catani should not be immediately gone on with.  The meeting ended with this motion That Mr Murray [John Murray, M.L.A] be urged to have £30,000 placed on this year's estimates, to commence, as soon as possible the harbor improvement scheme as drawn up by Cr Catani. See the full article, here.

The Victorian Government did not commit to Carlo's plans, then the First World War intervened and the work on the harbour was suspended and as Mr Sayers said, it remained that way. Even as late as 1944 the Warrnambool Shire still hoped to revive Carlo's plans as they urged that dredging and the building of a dock along the lines of the Catani plan of 1910 be commenced.  Nothing came of the effort, wrote Mr Sayers, so Carlo's plans for the Warrnambool harbour were never acted on. Mr Sayers says the Warrnambool harbour is now just a playground. 

The Breakwater, Warrnambool. (Rose Stereograph Co)

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/1720

According to Charles Sayers, commercial traffic in the port ended in March 1942 due to the depth of water, which in 1944 was reported to be just over seven feet at the harbour entrance, due to siltation. So this dates this photo to some time pre-1942.

* Charles Edward Sayers, known as C.E. Sayers, was born in Bendigo in 1901 and was a journalist with The Age, a writer of novels and a writer of history. He died in 1979, you can read about him, here, in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Carlo designs a garden for Korumburra State School

In  June 1913,  Carlo visited Korumburra with plans to design a new garden for the State School. The plans involved purchasing 2½ acres of land next to the school for the beautification of the school grounds and a play ground. 

Carlo and the beautification of the school grounds

The Argus June 4, 1913 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10788007

Korumburra - Mr Catani, of the Public Works department, visited Korumburra on Tuesday for the purpose of preparing a design for the beautification of the school ground. The director of Education (Mr Tate) has promised £50 towards the purchase of 2½ acres of land adjacent to the school for a playground for the children, provided the balance of £62 is raised in the district. An appeal will shortly be made to residents for funds. (1).

Korumburra State School. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

State Library of Victoria Image H2008.12/24

Was this playground and beautification project, in Carlo's design ever completed? I cannot tell you for sure  but there certainly appears to be some Carlo influence in this garden. Looking at the photos we have his trademark palm trees and in the photo above, you can see the use of what appear to be rock edgings - another Carlo feature used in a very much grander manner in the gardens that he designed and that bear his name in St Kilda - the Catani Gardens (2). 

Korumburra State School: postcard from A souvenir of beautiful Korumburra, c.1950.

State Library of Victoria Image H84.440/333

As a matter of interest, Korumburra State School, No. 3077,  opened in December 1890, and was eventually replaced by the building shown in the photos which was opened on March 6, 1913 (3).  An article in The Age,  had this to say about the opening The new brick State school at Korumburra was declared open on Thursday by Mr. Tate, Director of Education. Mr Tate stated that no country town in Victoria had such a fine school building as this one. There were not more than a dozen such schools in the State. The school cost about £6000. (4)

No wonder the townsfolk of Korumburra wanted a beautiful garden to go with their new school especially as, according to reports in the paper in 1911, the previous school building was so disgraceful that many parents seriously considered organising a strike (5). In May 1891 there were 40 students enrolled, in 1894 319 students, in 1900 - 491 students, 1910 - 480 students. The rapid growth in school numbers was due to coal - the first load of coal to be transported out of  the Coal Creek Mine at Korumburra took place on October 25, 1892. (6). 

Footnotes

(1) The Argus June 4, 1913, see here.  

(2) https://victoriancollections.net.au/stories/carlo-catani-an-engineering-star-over-victoria/st-kilda-foreshore-gardens

(3) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, edited by L.J. Blake. (Education Department of Victoria, 1973)

(4) The Age, March 7, 1913, see here

(5) The Age, November 15, 1911, see here.

(6) The history of the Shire of Korumburra by Joseph White (Shire of Korumburra, 1988)