Charles Babington
BABINGTON, Charles Henry, AMIEAust (1866-1947)
Charles Henry Babington was born in Waimate, New Zealand, on 24th July, 1866. He was the son of civil engineer George M Babington and his wife Ellen Jane Babington (nee Flaxman). In 1884 he matriculated from Caulfield Grammar, Melbourne and also passed the Civil Service examination.
Babington was headhunted from Victoria by the WA Inspector of Surveys, John Muir, in 1894 as part of a team to survey a route for a railway between Southern Cross and Menzies. Babington also had undertaken surveys for the Fremantle Harbour Leading Lights and the Menzies Leonora Railway. He accompanied John Muir (q.v.) on a survey of a route for the Trans Continental Railway in 1901 and surveyed a route from Kalgoorlie to Esperance and on to Eucla in 1903. In 1904 he took over surveying the Pilbara Railway from Richard Anketell.
Charles was appointed an Assistant Engineer on railway construction in 1907. He was Engineer in Charge of the Norseman to Salmon Gums rail extension in 1926 and was the engineer member of the WA Railways Advisory Board from 1926 to 1927.
Charles Babington was a founding associate member of the Western Australian Institution of Engineers in 1910 and of its successor the Institution of Engineers, Australia in 1919. (He had retired by 1928).
Charles died on 12th August, 1947 at his home at 12 Suburban Road, South Perth.
References:
Report on proposed railway from Southern Cross to Menzies, V&P WA 1896, A16.
Transcontinental Railway ... preliminary examination ... Kalgoorlie and Eucla, V&P WA 1901 2, 42.
MBEJ 7/3/1903, p7.
RSC ... deviation ... Wickepin to Merredin Railway, V&P WA1912, A9.
PSL 1911;
RSC … Pinjarra Dwarda Railway … Bill, V&P WA 1923 A2
WAPD 1925
Anketell, Judith, Walker in the Wilderness, Hesperian Press, 1998
