A Kiss by Lake Catani by Johnny Wade and his Hawaiians

We were lucky to come across this recording by Johnny Wade and his Hawaiians of A Kiss by Lake Catani. I already had the sheet music - the song was written by Reg Hudson - read about him and see the lyrics, here - but this is even more exciting!    We have made a digital recording of the record, you can access it by clicking on this link, here.

         

So what do we know about Johnny Wade? Not a lot, but I came across this book The Strat in the Attic 2: more thrilling stories of guitar archaeology by Deke Dickerson (Voyage Press 2014) There is a chapter on the book written by Steve Lees, The first Australian Startocaster, about the first Fender Stratocaster guitar in Australia, which was owned by Johnny Wade.  Johnny Wade was a cousin of Steve's dad, who was also a guitar player. Steve tracked down Johnny (real name Charlie Wade) who still had the guitar which he got in about 1956 from an American friend. (Fenders were not imported into Australia until the early 1960s), which eventually Steve bought from him. Amongst other things Steve also had this information about Johnny Wade - a major Hawaiian music star in Australia in the 1950s with over 70 albums to his name....in the late 1950s or early 1960s Johnny Wade played guitar at  the Brighton Hotel where he had  a residency. 

I put his name into Trove to see what I could find out about him - he started getting noticed in 1939, where a paper described him as a 'Sydney singer.' The Cumberland Argus of May 24, 1939 described him as a young vocalist whose voice is said to bear a remarkable resemblance to Bing Crosby. The first mention I can find of  Johnny Wade and his Hawaiians is in December 1947 - in this advertisement from the Melbourne Herald where the band is listed as recording for Regal Zonophone along with three other Hawaiian bands including the Hawaiian Club Quartet. See the original advertisement here.

 The  Darwin newspaper, The Northern Standard, of  February 3 1955 has this short biography of Johnny -

Although he likes to specialise in Hawaiian music, Johnny Wade is well-known as a straight singer. He has sung in many A.B.C. shows - he made his radio debut at the age of 9 as a boy soprano in the A.B.C. Children's Session-and sang and played in the band at the Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney, for many years. 

With various groups, he has recorded numerous Hawaiian numbers. His present group was formed six months ago specially for a new series of recordings and for these broadcasts. Members are Django Kahn and Neville Kahn (steel guitars), Johnny Wade (Spanish guitar), Noel Gilmore (vibraphone) and Wally Wickham (bass) 

The Kahn brothers and Johnny Wade have been associated with Hawaiian music for many years they met at Sydney's Hawaiian Club which Johnny joined to learn the guitar after his voice broke.

In 1949, Johnny visited the home of Hawaiian music-Honolulu-on his way to America. He sang at the famous Royal Hawaiian Hotel with Bill Akamohou's orchestra, and at Don the Beachcomber's, a Waikiki night club. He intends to send some of his new recordings, to be released here in February, to the hotel and hopes to get an engagement for his group.

There is a  photo of the band on the National Film and Sound Archive website of  Johnny and the band  and they list the band  members as Eric Kahn, bass; Norm Scott, ukulele; Neville Kahn, steel guitar; Johnny Wade, Spanish guitar and vocals. The band is labelled as the Hawaiian Club Quartet - even though as we have seen in the advertisement from 1947, above, this was a separate band to Johnny Wade and his Hawaiians - so is the photo incorrectly labelled? or  did Johnny have two bands? I don't know.

Left to right Eric Kahn, Norm Scott,  Neville Kahn  and Johnny Wade. They have the photo dated as 1939,  I don't believe this date is correct, photo looks later than that, either way - click on this link here https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/hawaiian-music-australia# and you can hear the band play Aloha Oe.

I don't have any information about when and if Johnny Wade was married or when or where he died.

This is the record cover, I believe the record was recorded in 1949, as it is advertised as a 'latest popular song hit' in the October, see ad here, however we know that it was written in at least 1947.  Listen to the digital recording we had made of this record, here.

I have created a list of newspaper articles on Johnny Wade on Trove, you can access them here.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Issac Hermann for getting the digital recording of this record and Paul Caine for finding the photo of the band on the NFSA.

The Gorge Road to Beechworth Falls

On October 19, 1908 The Argus reported that Mr. Catani, chief engineer of the Board of Works, recently inspected the Beechworth Falls, which include "The Gorge" and "Sphinx." The Government has agreed to a survey for a Road, and to subsidise the project to the extent of £200 conditionally upon the Beechworth Shire Council subscribing £100. The Ovens and Murray Advertiser of October 17, 1908  reported on  the willingness of the Government to send Mr. Catani, Chief Engineer of the
Board of Works, to survey the road to the Beechworth Falls, so whether Carlo just inspected the Falls or surveyed the road is unclear by the newspaper reports, but it is likely that he actually did both - inspected the area and surveyed the road.

The Sphinx, Beechworth - one of the attractions of the Beechworth area that could be viewed with the new tourist road to the Beechworth Falls.

State Library of Victoria Image H87.206/76

At first, the Beechworth Council did agree to provide the £100  The question therefore arose as to who was to provide the £100 - the West Riding, in which the road occurs, or the entire shire, which may indirectly benefit by it? It was a nice question. The council, after some discussion, and not without emphatic dissent from the members of the South Riding ultimately decided that the expense should be borne by the entire municipality, on the ground that the work was " national," rather than local in character. (Ovens & Murray Advertiser, November 7, 1908)

However a report in a later paper said that the Council had not availed themselves of the offer The offer had not been availed of by the council, some of whose members were averse to the spending of municipal funds upon such an object. (Ovens & Murray Advertiser, November 20, 1908). Perhaps to try to get some local enthusiasm going to fund the road at a joint meeting of the Beechworth Shire and the Progress Association held on June 30, 1911 the Shire President reminded the meeting that when Mr. Catani visited Beechworth he was greatly in favor of a road along the Gorge. It appears that this meeting may have borne fruit as from further reports in the paper it seems that the road must have been started around 1911, because the Ovens and Murray Advertiser of June 8, 1912 said that the plans and specifications for Stage 2 of the Gorge road had been approved by the Public Works Department.

The Gorge, Beechworth

State Library of Victoria Image H90.140/530

Two years later the council had another government grant - this time £175 to complete the Gorge Road. They just needed £75 to add to the grant. The Beechworth Progress Association was right behind this proposal and planned to run a series of picture shows in Queen Victoria Park in order to raise the sum of £75 (Chiltern & Howlong Times February 13, 1914) Once again, the Shire Engineer prepared plans for the road and a bridge across Reid creek. Was the road completed then? I don't believe so as in 1916, there was a public meeting, this time to raise  £50 in order to claim the Government grant of £100 towards the completion of the Gorge Road. Was the road completed then? No, you can understand, of course, that the First World War would have taken the Government and community focus off tourist roads and onto other issues, so it wasn't until 1923 that work seemed to have recommenced. In 1923, the Tourist Committee, a Government body that had £50,000 to spend for beautification purposes....This time the Council was given £1000 towards the completion of the Gorge Road as long as the Council could raise £600. (Benalla Standard, August 24 1923)

The Gorge, Beechworth. Victorian Railways photographer.

State Library of Victoria Image H91.50/743

Tenders were called for the completion of the road in February 1924, which was described thus -  for a road that when completed, will open up some of the finest scenery in the district. (Albury Banner February 29, 1924). The Gorge Road was finally opened by the Minister of Public Works, Mr G. Goudie, on May 26, 1926 - 18 years after Carlo first surveyed the road.

I have created a list of newspaper articles on Trove about the construction of the Gorge Road, you can access it here.

Carlo creates an underground grotto of palms and ferns for 'Ye Olde Englishe Faire'

Ye Olde Englishe Faire was held at the Melbourne Town Hall to raise money for the Red Cross on June 1st, June 2nd and June 4th (the King's Birthday) in 1917. The Faire was opened by the Governor, Sir Arthur Stanley, who was accompanied by Lady Stanley, the President of the Victorian Division of the British Red Cross. The Town Hall was set up as a (fairly ornate, see the photo below) English Village and various Community groups had a stall, housed in a typical English building such Bishop Sparrow's House, Ann Hathaway's Cottage and Chequers Inn. It is Chequers Inn that we are interested in. Read on and you will find out why -

'The Chequers Inn', partly in possession of the Lyceum Club, presented a most attractive appearance. Pickles, jams, tried recipes, and many other household wants were purveyed by the learned members at reasonable prices, also many dainties. Lady Spencer presided, and was assisted by Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Webb, and Misses Allan, Viv. Byrne, Marjorie Rollason, Doris Madden and L. Slaweska.

A corner of  'Chequer's Inn', or rather an enclosure off it, was given the Flowers and Plant Stall, designed by Mr. Catani and Mr. Cooper. These clever landscape gardeners had converted the enclosure into one of the most artistic bits in the Fair. It was like an underground grotto of palms and ferns, whose outstretching fronds were hung with myriads of pale pink and mauve petalled poppies, each fairy like bloom centred with a globule of electric light. Branches of orange tree, on which grew the tiny Tangye fruit, and branches of heather and heath formed arched outlines that framed the entrance and show windows. Within were grouped beautiful blooms, including some very rare roses. 

Mrs. W. W. Cabena and Mrs. G. F. Holder were in charge, and were assisted by Mesdames F. Gabriel, J. Giles, W. Edward, J. W. Swanson, H. Taite, and the Misses Queenie Preston, D. Holden, Jago, Barr, M. Pearce, R. Tomlins, F. Revel, G. Kerr, D. M'Kenzie, D. Ludbrook, Bonnie Gill, M. Hewison, Bloomfield, Len. Andrews and her sister, and Miss R. C. Ballantyne.
(Punch, June 7, 1917)

Yes, even though Carlo was a busy man concerned with all the matters the Public Works Department was involved in, he still found time to create a wonderful garden for a stall for a Red Cross fund raiser. I wonder why he was involved with this function? Did he have a connection to Mrs W.W. Cabena? This was Mrs William Whyte Cabena. William was a City of Melbourne Councillor for twenty years and was Lord Mayor in 1918/1919. According to his obituary in The Age of December 12, 1928 he was the grandson of Guiseppe Cabena, who left Italy owing to Papal persecution and settled in Ulster. his birthplace was Londonderry.  He died at the age of 75, thus born around 1853 which makes him the same age as Carlo. Mrs Cabena was born Mary Ann Raisbeck. So was it the Italian connection or was he connected to one of the others? I don't know.

Photos of the Faire - they are very elaborate stalls.

Weekly Times June 9, 1917

See the original here - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/121118994?

I have created a short list of articles on 'Ye Olde Englishe Faire' on Trove, access it here.

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.