A Labour of Love - the Public Works of Carlo Catani

 A new book on Carlo Catani has just been released A Labour of Love - the Public Works of Carlo Catani Victoria 1876-1918, written and researched by Isaac Douglas Hermann.

The cover of the book. 

It is, as the blurb says - A resource book - a companion - for anyone researching Carlo Catani, or the extraordinary  and generous influence this Italian-born engineer had on the landscapes of inner Melbourne and across Victoria...It is a compendium that befits the life and legacy of this brilliant son of Florence, who went on to become one of Victoria's most revered and beloved public servants - David Brand, Architect and former City of Port Phillip Councillor.

The book looks at the life and work of Carlo Catani, covering such themes as his Accomplishments in areas including Roadways, Bridges, Drainage works, Parks & Gardens; Recognition such as the locations and streets named after him; Historical praise and the Centennial Commemorations of his untimely death in 1918. The most important commemoration, I believe, was the erection of a headstone on the unmarked Catani family grave at the Brighton Cemetery. This project to honour Carlo and his family was led by Isaac - he instigated the process, raised the funds, negotiated the permissions and designed the lovely headstone. Carlo Catani and his family now have the fitting headstone that they deserve and it was, indeed, a labour of love and respect on Isaac's part. 

The Catani family headstone, unveiled December 11, 2018, 

designed by Isaac as a tribute to Carlo and his family.

You can read more about the unveiling ceremony, here.

This blog was inspired by Isaac's enthusiasm with Carlo and I am grateful to him for sharing his research, which was and still is, often the impetus for my stories. I was thrilled to be there today when the books arrived from the printers, and seriously, I could not have been more excited to see the books than if they were my own books!

Isaac holding copies of his new book - A Labour of Love

Congratulations, Isaac. It is a lovely book, the product of four years of research and your own labour of love.

The publication of this book was generously supported by the Middle Park History Group, the St Kilda Historical Society and the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society. The books will be available for sale through the St Kilda Historical Society and the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society and soon at local (St Kilda/Elwood) bookshops. 

Carlo Catani - Cyclopedia of Victoria, 1903

In the last post (see here) I looked at Ettore Checchi's entry from the Cyclopedia of Victoria, which  was published in three volumes from 1903 to 1905. The Cyclopedia was an attempt to present a comprehensive survey of the State in most of its multifarious aspects - political, social, religious, and educational, financial, commercial and industrial. In this post, I have transcribed Carlo Catani's entry, from volume 1 of the Cyclopedia.

Carlo Catani - Cyclopedia of Victoria, v. 1.

Carlo Catani

Photographer: Johnstone, O'Shannessy & Co. Image from Cyclopedia of Victoria, v. 3.

Mr Carlo Catani, Engineer for Roads and Bridges, was born at Florence, Italy, in 1852, and was educated in his native city, taking his diploma as a civil engineer at the Technical Institute, and in November, 1872, received his papers from the Minister for Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry. 

He, with Messrs. Baracchi and Checchi, came to Victoria in 1876, and entered the Lands Department. In 1882 Mr Catani was transferred to the Public Works Department, and in 1890 was Acting Engineer for Roads and Bridges, owing to the illness of his chief.  In 1892 he was appointed to that position. 

In Italy Mr Catani was employed on railway work. He qualified as a surveyor under the Land Act in 1880, a municipal surveyor in 1897, and is also a surveyor under the Transfer of Land Act. 

Between 1880 and 1890 Mr Catani was assistant engineer for harbour works, and he succeeded Mr Hynes as Engineer for Roads and Bridges, Harbour Works and Reclamation. It was under his supervision that the Yarra improvement, the Anderson Street bridge over the Yarra, works were carried out.

When was Carlo born?

We know Carlo was born in 1852 and all sources agree that he was born in April - but what date in April? His entry on the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB), written by Ronald McNicoll, says he was born on April 22. Read it here. 

Plaque under the bust of Carlo Catani on the Clock Tower memorial at St Kilda. You will notice the the date of birth is April 25.  There is more information on the memorial, here.  

Photo:  Isaac Hermann

The Clock Tower memorial, unveiled on August 22, 1932 on the Upper Esplanade at St Kilda has his birth date as April 25, 1852 (1). Carlo's daughter, Enid, was a guest at the unveiling - did she notice the date and if it was wrong did she comment? Or was it the correct birth date, so all was well?

 Prahran Telegraph of  August 19, 1916 - his date of birth is listed as April 28. 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74835180

The Prahran Telegraph of  August 19, 1916 had a lovely article (read it here) about Carlo, headlined  Mr Carlo Catani - Engineer and Artist: an appreciation. In this detailed article about his life and work it states that he was born April 28, 1852. Now this article was written when Carlo was still alive, so is this more likely to be correct than the ADB entry and the memorial plaque, both created posthumously? I had a look through the next issue to see if Carlo had written a letter about the date of birth, but there wasn't one - most likely he was far too busy to write letters to the editor about such frivolous matters, even if the birth date was incorrect. 

The Age April 30, 1917 - a report on Carlo's retirement on his 65th birthday on Saturday last, April 28.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154982878

We have another three sources that back up the April 28 date - the report, above, from The Age of April 30, where it says he reached 65 on Saturday last - April 28, which was the day he retired from the Victorian Public Service and the report from The Herald, below. Both these sources, like the Prahran Telegraph article were published, of course, when Carlo was still alive, which doesn't make it true, but I feel it gives the date some credibility.  However, April 28 was a Saturday in 1917 - why would you retire on a Saturday, if you had already turned 65 on previous Sunday (the 22nd) or the previous Wednesday (the 25th)?

The Herald, April 28, 1917 - lists his birthday as April 28.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242688547

Further proof of Carlo's birthday is his illuminated farewell address (2), presented to him on May 10, 1917 at the Lands Department by Sir Alexander Peacock, Premier of Victoria, as a token of our pleasant association with you. The address is dated April 28, 1917, which was the day of his retirement, his 65th birthday. 

Part of Carlo's illuminated farewell address presented to him on May 10, 1917 by the Premier of Victoria. The address was the work of Richard Fiddes Brown (1876 - 1936), of Messrs. Mason, Firth & McCutcheon, a printing and publishing firm. 

State Library of Victoria, Manuscripts collection. Image: Isaac Hermann.

The Statistical Register of the Colony of Victoria for 1890 has a full list of public servants, which includes their date of birth, date of commencement of employment and more. This lists Carlo's birth date as April 28, 1852 which gives great credence to that date as the correct date.

Carlo's date of birth from the Statistical Register of the Colony of Victoria for 1890

https://vgls.sdp.sirsidynix.net.au/client/search/asset/1286678 page 102

What other sources are there? I would have thought his birth date would be on his Naturalisation papers, but they only list his age (see here).  The only way to know for sure is to get his birth certificate from Florence - I will work on that, once I know how to go about it. In the meanwhile, due to overwhelming evidence, I believe April 28 is the correct date.

Footnotes

(1) Thanks to my research colleague, Isaac Hermann, for alerting me to this date discrepancy on the plaque on the Memorial Clock Tower. 

(2) Isaac also reminded me that the illuminated farewell address was dated April 28, 1917 - the day of Carlo's retirement on his 65th birthday.

Carlo Catani - a short biography

The town of Catani, in West Gippsland,  is named after Carlo Catani who was one of the Engineers in charge of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Drainage scheme. I thought it would be interesting to find out a bit about the man behind the name.

Carlo was born on April 28, 1852 in Florence in Italy. He was the son of Enrico Catani, who was a merchant, and Augusta Geri. He was educated as a Civil Engineer at the Technical Institute of Florence. Carlo and his two friends, Pietro Baracchi and Ettore Checchi, arrived in Melbourne, via New Zealand, in September 1876.

Carlo Catani

Image from the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

The trio were employed as draftsmen by the Department of Lands and Survey. In 1880, Catani was registered as a Surveyor and in 1882 he and Checchi joined the Public Works Department as Engineering draftsmen. By 1886, they were both assistant Engineers. Checchi (1853 - 1946) went on to become an Engineer with the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission when it was established in 1906. Baracchi (1851 - 1926)  became the Acting Government Astronomer for Victoria and later joined the Commonwealth Government as an Astrologist and Meteorologist.  Catani was promoted to the Head of his Section in 1892. In 1893, the Public Works Department resumed the control of the Swamp drainage works from private contractors and Catani was appointed as the Engineer. Catani implemented the Village Settlement Scheme. Under this Scheme, all workers had to be married, accept a 20 acre block and spend a fortnight working on the drains for wages and a fortnight improving their block and maintaining adjoining drains. The villages were Koo-Wee-Rup, Five Mile, Cora Lynn, Vervale, Iona and Yallock.

Catani was also responsible for the first mechanical equipment used on the Swamp. He had ordered the Lubecker Steam Bucket Dredge in 1912 and it arrived in 1913 at a cost of £4,700. It weighed 80 tons and had a capacity of 61 cubic metres per hour. A labourer at the time dug about 8 cubic metres per day. It was used on the Lang Lang River, then on the Main Drain, Cardinia Creek and Yallock Drain.

Catani’s other work with the Public Works Department included flood mitigation works on the Yarra River. He was responsible for planting the elms, oaks and poplars along Alexandra Avenue. He designed the Morell bridge. The laying out and planting of the Alexandra Gardens was also carried out under Catani’s direction. His last major project was the reclamation of the St Kilda foreshore. The gardens he designed at the end of Fitzroy Street were named after him as was the Catani arch bridge on the St Kilda foreshore. There is a bronze bust of Carlo Catani on the Clock tower on the St Kilda esplanade. Contemporaries of Catani said that he 'saw possibilities to which others were blind' and that he had 'unfailing courtesy and a kindly nature.'

Carlo was naturalised in 1892. He married Catherine Hanley of Port Fairy on May 18 1886 at the Free Church of England in Fitzroy, by the Reverend Nathaniel Kinsman,  They had six children, Edoardo or Edward (b.1886 and d.1887), Elvira May (1888-1947), Enrico Ferdinando (b.1891-killed in Action in France in 1916), Ettore Luigi (1893-1967), Eugenia Anastasia (1895-1915) and Enid Marguerite (1899-1950). Catani died July 20,  1918 at the age of 66 and is buried at the Brighton cemetery. Catherine died in 1925, aged 68. None of the children married.

I looked at Enrico's Military Record at the National Archives of Australia and found that he was Killed in Action on July 29 1916. Enrico was a Second Lieutenant, had served at Gallipoli before serving in France. He was buried at Cemetery Post Station, near Pozieres. However in a interesting and poignant twist, in 1932 the body of an 'unknown' soldier was exhumed from another location and this was identified through the identification disc and other personal effects to be Enrico Catani. There are a series of letters in Enrico's Military file between the Australian War Graves Service and Enid Catani regarding this discovery. In the end Enrico was buried again in the Serre Road Cemetery near Beaumont Hamel, in France. The body of the Officer, who was initially thought to be Enrico, now has a headstone stating that he is an 'unknown Australian Lieutenant'. In one of the letters Enid sent to the Government regarding the discovery of her brother's body, Enid said that her surviving brother, Ettore, had never recovered from the shock of Enrico's death and is under the care of the Master-in Equity of the Supreme Court. The Master-in-Equity looked after people who did not have the legal capacity to care for themselves. It sad to think that effectively, the family lost two sons to the First World War.

Most of this information comes from the article on Carlo Catani, written by Ronald McNicoll, in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, access it here.


I originally wrote this post for the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society newsletter and it also appears on my  'work' blog http://caseycardinialinkstoourpast.blogspot.com