Henry Hargrave
HENRY WILLIAM HARGRAVE MICE (1858-1925)
Henry Hargrave was born on October 8, 1858 at Norwood, South Australia, the third son of engineer Charles Townshend Hargrave and his wife Clara Hannah Hargrave née Osbourne. He attended St Peters College Adelaide (1868 – 1874), before joining the Engineer in Chief Department, headed up by his father.
In 1882 Henry went into private practice as a Licensed Surveyor and Civil Engineer. One of his first projects was the survey of a 29 mile rail alignment from Parachilna to Blinman through the Flinders Ranges. He undertook a variety of surveying, road works and water works for local governments across South Australia operating from Morialta Chambers in Adelaide. In December 1882 he was appointed Engineer for the Keswick and South Road Tramway Company in Adelaide.
In November 1884 he applied for MICE which was granted in March 1886.
Hargrave worked between Tasmania and South Australia between 1884 and 1888. In Tasmania he worked on rail projects including the Derwent Valley and Scotsdale railways. In 1888 he established his own consulting business in Melbourne and also worked as a contract engineer for Arthur Thomas Robb on the construction of the Victoria Dock.
In 1891 Hargrave applied for a patent for an appliance for spreading or levelling material on embankments which ultimately bankrupted him in 1893 when he sued a contractor, Arthur Thomas Robb, for £3,000 for use of his device and was unsuccessful. The contractor claimed that the device had been jointly developed on the project by himself and Henry Hargrave. Later in 1893 the bankruptcy was resolved.
In 1896 Hargrave moved to Western Australia, being appointed an engineer on water supply in the Goldfields. In 1897 he became Resident Engineer for the Mullewa – Cue Railway. In January 1900 he returned to the Goldfields as Resident Engineer Water Supply at Coolgardie. In August 1900 he was retrenched from that position as work for a person of his experience and skill was not available. Following his retrenchment, Henry set up as a consultant offering services as a licensed surveyor, civil engineer and municipal engineer.
By 1902 Hargrave had become a member of the Metropolitan Waterworks Board under the chairmanship of the remarkable William Traylen who had careers as a Wesleyan minister, printer, science advocate and member of Parliament.
Hargrave married Victorian born Clara Hannah Osbourne at St Albans, Perth, on August 3, 1897 and by 1902 they had three children. After his wife died in 1905, Hargrave married his wife's sister, Edith Emily Osbourne.
In 1905, Hargrave tendered to build a narrow gauge railway in the Pilbara from Nullagine to Port Sampson. In 1906, he drew up the plans for the 1,000 foot Como Jetty and called tenders. The jetty was completed on June 1, 1907.
From 1907 to 1909, Hargrave was a councillor at the South Perth Municipal Council. He was also engineer for the Perth Roads Board for twenty years, and for the Lake Monger Board. In 1910 he was an inaugural member of the Western Australian Institution of Engineers and served on its committee for its first six years.
In 1910 Hargrave proposed a rail connection on the southern bank of the Swan River. The contractor that he had taken legal action in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Arthur Thomas Robb, was the son of the builder of the Fremantle to Guildford rail line, completed in 1881.
Hargrave lived in South Perth from 1900 to his death in 1925. Initially he lived in Melville Parade (1900), moved to Lyall Street (1903) and then Suburban Road (Mill Point Road) (1905).
In 1915 Hargrave won 25 guineas as second prize in a competition to lay out the new university campus at Crawley. In 1916 he became a member of the newly created Town Planning Association of WA. In 1917 the Senate approved his admission to the convocation of the University of Western Australia. He was at the time a lecturer in the Engineering Faculty for railway engineering. In 1919 he was Resident Engineer for the Fremantle Freezing Works for the WA Meat Exports Company.
Henry William Hargrave died at his home in 158 Suburban Road, South Perth, on June 3, 1925 aged 66.
The Hargrave family
His second eldest son, Jack, trained as both an architect and engineer and went on to become a prominent Perth architect. The third son, Edeson, took up farming at Gidgegannup and the youngest child, Jill, started a kindergarten at 158 Suburban Road and then the school “Raith” at the Mends Street Hall that became “St Ann’s College” (Mends Street Hall and Angelo Street). Jill’s private school later transitioned into Methodist Ladies College, and then Penrhos.
References:
Cumming Papers Water the Abiding Challenge, Su Jane Hunt, 1980
Peninsula City, Cecil C Florey, 1995
Perth’s Early Water Supplies, H E Hunt
www.nla.gov.au
Joseph Webster via www.ancestry.com.au
