Marooned in Mallacoota and the Mallacoota Port Schemes

On Monday, March 3, 1913 the Minister of Public Works, William Edgar; the Honorary Minister, James Cameron; Carlo Catani, chief engineer of the Public Works Department and George Kermode, the assistant engineer, set off for East Gippsland in the State motorcar. They were destined for Mallacoota as -
For a considerable period there has been an agitation that the Department of Public Works should construct a permanent entrance to Mallacoota Inlet at an estimated cost of £60,000. Mr C. Catani, chief engineer for the Department, expressed the opinion that if a harbor were made at Gabo Island, and a connecting causeway constructed with the mainland, the same purpose would be served, while the cost of maintenance, through the liability to silting up of the Mallacoota Inlet would be considerably less. A departmental surveyor has been at work for some time surveying a tram route between Mallacoota and Gabo. Mr Edgar, Minister for Public Works; Mr Catani, and another Public Works official are leaving to-day for Mallacoota to make a complete inspection (1). 

The next day, Tuesday, they arrived in Orbost at 6.45pm. They inspected an island which had formed in the centre of the Snowy River, which impeded water flow,  and later that evening a deputation of councillors waited upon the Ministry at the municipal chambers with a view to getting a new bridge erected over the Snowy River at Orbost, also Bridges over Tonghi Creek and Delegate River and further road works on the Genoa-road (2).  The official party left Orbost on Wednesday for Mallacoota, a distance of 145 km.  The tour, however, was attended by several unexpected incidents which have interfered considerably with the programme of the trip (3). 

Unfortunately the car broke down at a way-back place called Cabbage Tree, as The Argus reported (4). They then continued on horseback to Mallacoota, about 120 km, which seems to me to be an extraordinary thing to do, but clearly at the time not beyond the endurance of Ministers of the Crown and Public Servants. 

A 1940's map of East Gippsland - Orbost, Cabbage Tree and Mallacoota 

are circled in green. Click on map to enlarge. 

The map shows the railway line was through to Orbost, but unfortunately for Carlo 

and his colleagues, the line from Bairnsdale to Orbost did not open until April 1916.

Tourist map Greater Gippsland, Victoria, Australia,  issued by the Victorian Railways Commissioners.

State Library of Victoria  http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/166067

Misfortune befell the party again when they reached Mallacoota where seven inches of rain (5) was reported to have fallen in two days and they were marooned there until the weather improved.

Headline from The Argus of March 10 1913

There was much interest in the papers about their situation and The Herald took a light-hearted view - 
Ministers complain of the stress of work, but excessive work is often brought about by want of thinking beforehand, and so a Minister is much occupied by undoing the work of his predecessor. Mr Edgar at Mallacoota has a fine opportunity for a quiet think, "on man, on nature, and on human life," including the public works of his department. It is rather a pity that Ministers do not get marooned regularly. There ought indeed to be an official island to which Ministers could go every year, for a month or so deprived of all official papers. Its library should consist of the Bible, Shakespeare, one or two more of  "the hundred best books." A stock of fowling pieces, fishing rods, axes, a boat or two, and something equivalent to Friday for a servant might be allowed.... If a man and a Minister could not be happy under such circumstances, then he should for ever hold his peace about the worry of work. He would have no deputations to nag at him, no unfulfillable promises to make, no press or other criticisms to annoy him. From his island home he could see life steadily and see it whole, and recover probably what men in cities so often lose, the power of original thinking. It is gratifying for Victorians, too, to learn that in their small country, sometimes sneered at as a cabbage garden, there is yet ample room and verge enough for isolation for from the madding crowd. Mr Edgar, with his two engineers, returning from the wilds clad in the skins of wallaby, and native bear, will be a concrete proof of this when they land at No. 8 Wharf by the steamer they may catch at Gabo (6). 

The last sentence about the steamer was part of the speculation on how the party would return to Melbourne. It was reported that a telegram has been forwarded by the ports and harbours branch to the lighthouse-keeper on Gabo Island instructing him to keep a look-out for a steamer to bring Mr Edgar and party back to Melbourne (7).

The Herald of March 13,  printed an article on how the official party occupied their time at Mallacoota and how they travelled back to Melbourne - 

To be marooned at Mallacoota, with ample funds in hand is a very pleasurable experience. Mr G Kermode, of the Public Works department, who returned to Melbourne yesterday afternoon, after being weather-bound at the lonely little East Gippsland town for some days, stated that he had never lived more luxuriously. [They] did not mind their "marooning" said Mr Kermode....Fish of many succulent varieties, wild ducks of surprising plumpness, tenderness, and flavour, were freely provided. Garden vegetables and fresh fruits from the orchard (including many tropical varieties) were sampled, and voted "excellent," and by way of dessert there is is always honey in the comb, and rich cream. 

As a set-off to the high living, the company had to endure heavy and continuous showers. In two days over 7in of rain fell. An inspection of the proposed tramway route between Mallacoota and Gabo was made in a "blinding storm," the Ministers and engineers endeavouring to take in the details of the survey whilst they frantically clung to their umbrellas, which showed a reprehensible desire to turn themselves inside out.

On Saturday Mr Cameron and Mr Kermode travelled by motor to Bruthen. "We had to ford numerous creeks and rivers that were swollen by the rains," said Mr. Kermode, and he had frequently to use the axe to clear a path along the tracks. Mr Cameron used the axe like the expert woodsman that he is. It was the intention of Mr. Edgar and Mr Catani to inspect Gabo Island as soon as the weather cleared up sufficiently, and then to return to Melbourne by launch, motor and rail. The launch will take them to Eden, and there they can get a motor-car to take them to Cooma." Mr Edgar is expected to reach Melbourne either late to-night or early tomorrow (8). The last part of the journey from Cooma to Melbourne was by train and the expected arrival of early tomorrow, was Friday March 14, eleven days after they had set off. 

From Mallacoota West looking towards Gabo, 1921. Photographer: John Henry Harvey.

State Library of Victoria Image H90.161/517

The purpose of this trip, which in the end turned into quite an adventure, was to open up this stagnant area, as it was called, by either constructing a permanent entrance to Mallacoota Inlet thus allowing all-year shipping access or else to construct a harbour on Gabo Island and connect the Island to the mainland  by a causeway and a tramline to the causeway. The Age reported in November 1913 under the headline - 

Mallacoota Port Schemes - Rival Engineering Projects - Extraordinary estimates of cost -

With a greater degree of enthusiasm than it usually displays, the Public Works department is developing its new scheme for the opening up of a harbor at Gabo island, to serve as an outlet for Mallacoota district. This has been put forward as a superior and more economical scheme than the old one, which aimed at the construction of a permanent channel at Mallacoota Inlet. The latter scheme has been in contemplation for some years, and has been made the subject of reports by three or four experts. The Gabo Island proposal, on the other hand, was not heard of until a few months ago, and has not yet been seriously investigated. Nevertheless, the Public Works department, from Minister downwards, seems to have jumped to the conclusion, on very meagre and inconclusive data, that the Gabo Island scheme is superior in respect of cost, permanent suitability and general effectiveness, and the project for the opening of the Inlet is in danger of being shoved aside. There is so far no justification for the abandonment of what has been recommended as a feasible and practical scheme in favor of one which at the present stage cannot reasonably be claimed to be anything more than a visionary project (9). 

The costs were indeed extraordinary and it is worth noting that the investigations into the Mallacoota port had started four years previously in 1909. The Age reported the details and costings of the various schemes for a port at Mallacoota- 

The Public Works department sent Mr. T. H. Smith, marine surveyor, to see what could be done. He reported in May, 1909, that to provide a permanent channel it would be necessary to construct two retaining walls. The project would be started with one wall, at an estimated cost of £25,000, made up of timber viaduct, £8750; rubble wall, £10,000; railway to quarries and contingencies, £6250. Concerning a local suggestion that an ocean jetty should be built in a sheltered spot 350 yards inside Bastion's Point at a cost of £5000, Mr. Smith expressed the opinion that it would not greatly assist the development of the country, as there would be no certainty of regular calls from trading vessels, owing to the reposed nature of the position, and that the frequent handling of freight would be inconvenient and expensive.

Following upon that report Mr. Catani, now Chief Engineer of the Public Works department, submitted for consideration a scheme involving the construction of two groynes and training walls, at an estimated cost of £42,240, to provide a depth of 9 feet at low water. To this Mr. Davidson, Inspector-General of Public Works, appended a note that, with the data available, he did not think a less expensive project was feasible, and it would require the expenditure of about £10,000 additional for wharfage and the deepening of the shipway thereto. At that stage the reports were pigeonholed. 

A year or so later the residents renewed their agitation, and in the early part of 1911 Mr. Kermode, another departmental engineer, was sent to investigate. He recommended the construction of two 500 feet piers to enclose the channel. This, he estimated, would cost £53,000, and provide a channel deep enough for vessels drawing a maximum of 10 feet. 

That report, too, was pigeonholed, and Mr. H. A. Blomfield, a harbor expert in the service of the New South Wales Government, was brought to Victoria at the end of the year to supply another report. The scheme propounded by Mr. Blomfield is much more ambitious, and consequently more expensive, than those of the Victorian engineers. The previous projects had aimed at strengthening the scour from the lake, but he apparently adopted the view that the main consideration should be to protect the entrance from the shallowing action of the sea. He advocated the construction of a breakwater almost

parallel with the line of Bastion Point, with the addition of two small training walls and the dredging of the channel to a depth of 10 feet at low water. The material for the breakwater would be red granite from Gabo Island, conveyed by a tramway which could be retained for the subsequent conveyance of timber to the harbor. His estimate of the cost was: - Breakwater, £71,662; northern training wall, £5337; southern training wall, £7700; dredging between the training walls, £3500; dredging inside the entrance to a depth of 9 feet, £3000; contingencies, £4560; total, £95,759. As a modification of the scheme, sufficient to start with, he suggested: - Breakwater, £61,267; northern training wall, £2450; southern training wall, £5070; dredging, £6500; total, £79,054. (10).

Dorran's jetty, Mallacoota, where the proposed tramway to the Gabo Island 

causeway would commence.

Dorran's jetty, Mallacoota, looking S.W.,  October 1921. Photographer: John Henry Harvey.

State Library of Victoria Image H2009.100/500

These were the costings for a port at Mallacoota, but as The Age had noted the Public Works Department seemed to be favouring a harbour on Gabo Island. This would require firstly the causeway and also for the freight to be brought in small boat to a landing known as Dorran's, situated on the eastern side of the lake (11) and a tramway, eight miles in length -

The estimated cost of the whole of this work - tramway, causeway, pier and breakwater - is £32,000, an estimate which on the face of it seems too good to be true. The tramway itself would for a distance of 6 miles traverse sound country, but the last 2 miles would be across a series of shifting sand hummocks, so unstable that telegraph poles are not infrequently buried underneath them. Mr. Catani claims that he sand could be easily and cheaply fixed and fortified through the planting of Marram grass, to protect the tramway. So easy a disposal of what in many places has proved a difficult and expensive drawback seems like a triumph of hope over experience (12). 

The Age added if four engineers were instructed to estimate successively the cost of the proposed harbor at Gabo and its accessories, the expenditure would quickly mount to something more than £100,000 and that also to be factored into the costing was the need to remove the wreck of the steamship Easby, which lies somewhere in the waterway (13). The Australasian reported on the fate of the Easby in April 1907 - 

Messrs. James Paterson's steamer Easby struck the Skerries Reef at 3 o'clock on the morning of April 7 [1907], and had her bottom seriously damaged, the water gaining in the vessel so rapidly that she had to be beached for safety in Gabo Harbour....The Easby is a steamer of 1,498 tons gross, and was built of iron at Stockton on-Tees in 1873 for Messrs. James Pater son and Co., her present owners. Her dimensions are: Length 250ft., beam 32ft., and depth 21ft. She has been in the habit of making one trip from Melbourne to Newcastle every fortnight, and bringing about 1.800 tons of coal on each visit... The Government steamer Lady Loch proceeded to Gabo Island, and brought the deck hands to Melbourne. The Easby is submerged from the stern to the bridge. She is lying about 150ft. from the jetty used by the Lady Loch for landing stores for the light housekeeper (14). 

It is perhaps then, no surprise that with the widely varying costings of either opening up the Mallacoota Inlet or constructing a harbour on Gabo Island with a connecting causeway and  tramline that this project was not proceeded with and no doubt the Great War starting in August 1914 delivered the coup de grace to the scheme. 

Trove List - I have created a list of articles on Trove on this topic, access it here.

Footnotes

(1) The Herald, March 3, 1913, see here.

(2) The Argus, March 7, 1913, see here.

(3) The Age, March 8, 1913, see here.

(4) The Argus, March 7 1913, see here.

(5) Some reports say only three inches of rain fell. 

(6) The Herald, March 10, 1913, see here.

(7) The Argus, March 8, 1913, see here.

(8) The Argus, March 13, 1913, see here.

(9) The Age, November 7, 1913, see here.

(10) Ibid

(11) Ibid

(12) Ibid

(13) Ibid

(14) The Australasian, April  20, 1907, see here. 

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.