Carlo is on the panel to select the design of a Yarra River bridge from Burnley Street to Williams Road

In 1892, the City of Richmond and the City of Prahran held a series of conferences,  the objective of which was to have a bridge erected over the Yarra River to join Burnley Street, Richmond and Williams Road, Prahran.  A design competition was held - the conditions being that the bridge was not to cost more than £9,000, that it had a clear length of waterway of 300 feet, and a width of roadway of 24 feet.

There were 23 entries and an expert panel was organised to select the top five entries. The panel consisted of Carlo Catani and Mr. Clayton, surveyor, of Richmond, and Mr. Smith, surveyor of Prahran. The Prahran Telegraph, of May 11, 1892 (read full report, here) had a description of the five bridges -
"Cantilever, No. 2," a very handsome, longspan plate iron girder bridge, with the roadway on top, crossing the river at a great angle.
"Stet" another longspan top deck bridge, designed for erection on either of two routes, making a lesser angle. This is also a handsome bridge, although the iron columns carrying the centre span of 140 feet and two side spans of about 90 feet are only 2 feet 6 inches in diameter, and appear to be too small.
"Sub Rosa" is a four-span bridge, the two centre spans having arched lattice girders, standing above the roadway like those of the Cremorne railway bridge, and have footpaths outside of them. This bridge is designed for a sight at right angles to the river.

This is the Toolamba Railway bridge over the Goulburn River - the bridge design "Lever" was described as a copy of this bridge (see below)

Toolamba 1893 H 2331 GLSB/W. 

Public Records Office of Victoria: Photographic Collection: Railway Negatives: Alpha-numeric Systems (VPRS12800)

"Lever" is a three-span single system open lattice girder bridge, with a top deck. The girders are in fact copies of the successful railway bridge over the Goulburn at Toolamba. Like "Cantilever" and "Stet," its side girders are cantilevered over the piers, and the intervening space is filled in with a girder of same design, resting on single pins 6 inches in diameter, flattened to 4 inches thick, to act as expansion joints in the middle of the depth of the truss. In the others the centre girders are carried on plates rivetted on the cantilevers and form expansion joints like those in the Flinders-street viaduct.
All these bridges have iron decks covered with concrete and wood blocks, cast iron cornices and hand rails, stone or brick abutments, some of them of an ornate character, and all have their decks at a great height above the river.
"Rivet" is a bridge of more modest pretensions. It has no brick or stone abutments, iron deck, wood blocking, or iron parapet. The abutments are the sloping ends of low embankments faced with stone, a macadamised roadway carried on wooden planks, resting on rolled iron joists, which in turn are carried by 12 plate steel girders 60 feet long by 5 feet deep, supported by wrought and cast iron columns filled with concrete of the usual river pattern, but ornamented with moulded capitals and bases. This bridge has a graceful camber from end to end, the under side of the girder being 2 feet above high flood lines at the ends and 4 feet in the centre. It is full of economies, and it may be safely put down as the least expensive of any of the designs sent in. It is of the same class as the Swan-street bridge, with spans nearly twice as long, and the metal disposed of to greater advantage. A pretty adaptation to circumstance is noticeable in the end girders, which are carried on cast iron columns in the embankments, and have their ends formed as cantilevers, with the lower sides sloping parallel to the embankment, thus reducing, as far as possible, the amount of timber abutment required for expansion and retaining the metal on the roadway. 

The Burnley Street/Williams Road bridge turned out to be saga. The bridge was not built at the time and in 1894 the newspapers had a flurry of reports about a renewed push by the councils  to have the bridge built, however by then the Prahran Council said that finances would not allow the council to proceed with the work (The Argus, October 2 1894)

The matter was back on the agenda in 1900 when the Councils had a meeting with the Minister for Public Works and the suggestion was made to move a redundant iron footbridge  to the site and enlarge and strengthen it. However, Mr. Fink, M L A., who was at the meeting said it would be better to wait and erect a Monier bridge, which would be a cheap structure. This idea was accepted and the councils and Mr Davidson, Inspector General of Works, would confer with the council as to the cost of  Monier Bridge. (Prahran Telegraph, March 17, 1900)  I do no have any proof but I would assume that Carlo would have been involved in this process as he had already worked with the Monier reinforced concrete method of bridge construction with the Anderson Street bridge.

In 1927, there was another attempt to have the bridge constructed when A letter from the Richmond Council to the Board of Works asking the board to consider the advisability of erecting a bridge in Burnley street, Richmond and Williams road Prahran to enable motorists living east of Chapel street to pass through Richmond from the city on their way home, thus relieving congestion at Princes' Bridge, and at Church street bridge was unfavorably received. (The Herald, July 5, 1927) ' 'Unfavorably received' the proposal may have been by the Board of Works, but that didn't stop the Councils in their quest to get their bridge. There are few reports in the papers in the 1930s for renewed attempts to have the bridge erected, but the hopes of the two Councils were finally crushed by Sir Macpherson Robertson.

Sir Macpherson Robertson (1859 - 1945), businessman and entrepreneur and established the MacRobertson Steam Confectionery Works, who made the  Freddo Frog, Cherry Ripe and Old Gold Chocolate, amongst other products. To celebrate Victoria's centenary, Robertson provided £100,000 for public works. MacRobertson Girls' High School was one of the projects and another was for the Centenary bridge across the Yarra. The Government decided that the bridge should be at Grange Road. A meeting was held in August 1933 of nine councils -  Brighton, Caulfield, Hawthorn, Heidelberg, Kew, Prahran, Richmond, Sandringham and St Kilda and they were largely against the proposal that the bridge be located at Grange Road, they preferred Burnley Street/Williams Road. Their protestations were to  no avail and the Centenary Bridge was built at Grange Road and officially opened on November 5, 1934.

With the construction of the Centenary Bridge so close to the Burnley Street/ Williams Road potential crossing, this bridge was never going to be constructed, so Carlo's efforts in selecting the five best designs in 1892, were wasted, but perhaps they may have been used for other bridges somewhere else,  I do not know. Next time I am at the Public Records Office, I will see if the bridge designs still exist.

These are two photos of the construction of the  MacRobertson Centenary Bridge from the Public Records Office of Victoria.

 Construction of the  MacRobertson Centenary Bridge at Grange Road, which ended all hope of a bridge connecting Burnley Street, Richmond to Williams Road, Prahran.

Grange Road MacRobertsons Bridge Construction c. 1930'S GLS bridge. C 0903.

Public Records Office of Victoria: Photographic Collection: Railway Negatives: Alpha-numeric Systems (VPRS12800)

 Construction of the  MacRobertson Centenary Bridge at Grange Road, which ended all hope of a bridge connecting Burnley Street, Richmond to Williams Road, Prahran.
Grange Road MacRobertsons Bridge Construction c. 1930'S GLS bridge. C 0907.

Public Records Office of Victoria: Photographic Collection: Railway Negatives: Alpha-numeric Systems (VPRS12800)

Yarra River flood of July 1891

The Yarra River flood of July 12, 1891, left 1,000 people homeless. The Age of July 13, 1891 had a full report of the damage the flood caused (read it here) but here are a few stories- a house in Cremorne Street, Richmond had water to within a few feet of the roof, in Dover street, the water was  within a foot of the top of the some of the street lamps..... The Johnston Street bridge.... as a rule is considerably over 50 feet clear of the flood level, but last night the water was within 14 feet of the decking.  The flood also submerged 207 houses in South Yarra - the worst streets being  Clara, River, Tivoli and Karlsberg (The Australasian July 18, 1891, read full report here)

Great flood of July 1891 -  Looking east from Princes Bridge

State Library of Victoria Image H12675

A Board of Inquiry into the Yarra River flood of  July 1891 was established.  The Inquiry was investigating  (1) the causes and extent of river floods in and about Melbourne, and the extent to which they are contributed to, or intensified by, artificial or preventable causes , and (2) the measures that might be adopted for controlling or mitigating the effects of such floods, and for preventing, future damage therefrom.

The Board members were Mr Clement Hodgkinson, chariman; Mr. W. Davidson, Inspector general of public works; Mr Stuart Murray, chief engineer Victorian Water Supply department; Mr A. C. Mountain, city surveyor of Melbourne; Mr William Thwaites, engineer in chief to the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works; Mr P. J. Nolan, city surveyor of South Melbourne; Mr H. Tolhurst, city surveyor of Collingwood; Mr A Clayton, C. E., city surveyor of Richmond; Mr H.T. Haynes, city engineer of Hawthorn; Mr William Calder, city surveyor of Footscray; Mr A. V. Heath, borough surveyor of Port Melbourne and Mr. T. B Muntz, C. E., engineer of the shire of Malvern. (The Argus, October 14, 1891)

The Great Flood of 1891 - Punt Road Richmond.

State Library of Victoria Image H12674

The Inquiry heard from a number of expert witnesses - Carlo Catani, being one and his friend, Ettore Checchi being another. Ettore, Carlo and their friend Pietro Baracchi,  had journey from Italy to New Zealand then onto their new life in Victoria in 1876. The other evidence that was given by the expert witnesses can be read in The Argus of October, 14 1891, here.

Carlo and Ettore's evidence was reported in The Argus of October 21 (see here) Ettore's evidence is interesting as it shows the huge volume of water that swept down the Yarra during this flood.

Mr Ettore Checchi of the Victorian Water Supply department, the first witness examined submitted a number of plans showing the levels of the floods at different points of the river. At Warrandyte the volume of flood water was 1,650, 000 cubic feet per minute ; and at Dights Falls he estimated the volume to be 2,290,300 cubic feet per minute. Other authorities had formed different estimates as to the volume at the last-named and a mean average of 2,167,600 cubic feet per minute was given. At Gardiners Creek the mean average as to the volume of the flood water was 2,206,200. At Prince's-bridge the discharge would be practically the same at at Gardiner's Creek. The discharge of water at the St Kilda road was 495,800 cubic feet per minute, with a volume of 147ft per minute. The mean volume of water at the Saltwater River was 1,188,600 cubic feet per minute. The total discharge of water at the junction of the Saltwater River was 2,899,000 cubic feet per minute, with allowance for diversion at Prince's-bridge only. The total discharge of water into the bay was 3,395,000 cubic feet per minute. (The Argus of October 21, see here)

Mr. Catani of the Public Works department,  said there was a discrepancy between the levels supplied by him and those furnished by the officers of the Harbour Trust as to the flood waters at the Queen's-bridge. Above and below the bridge the same level of water he found obtained, the abutments of the bridge offering no obstruction to the continuous flow of the water. The levels he had marked on his plans were in agreement with those obtained by the Railway department. From his own observation he had fixed the levels of the flood of 1891. (The Argus of October 21, see here)

One of the solutions to stop the Yarra River flooding was to widen the river and straighten it's course and this work, between the Princes Bridge and the Cremorne Railway Bridge, was undertaken by Carlo Catani and the Public Works Department in 1896 and 1897, you can read more about it here. This work also led to the creation of Alexandra Avenue and the Alexandra Gardens, two other projects of Carlo's.

Kelso Street, Richmond, July 1891 flood. Photographer: Paul and Gerald Turner.

State Library of Victoria Image H96.160/1996



Twenty nine houses were 'rendered uninhabitable' by the flood, and you can see why by this photo.
Clara Street, Hawksburn, 1891 flood. Photographer: Cyril Robert Stainer.
State Library of Victoria Image  H2002.130/6

There are many photos of the 1891 flood on the State Library of Victoria website, www.slv.vic.gov.au