Edward Macartney
MACARTNEY, Edward Hussey Burgh, BA BCE FISWA MIMS MAustIMM (1867-1930)
Edward Hussey Burgh Macartney was born on December 25, 1867, at “Morocco”, Moonee Ponds, Victoria, the eldest son of pastoralist, Edward Hardman Macartney, and his wife Georgina Henrietta Macartney, née Moore. Edward Macartney was the grandson of the Rev Hussey Burgh Macartney, who was the Dean of Melbourne for 42 years.
Macartney matriculated in 1885 and enrolled at the Melbourne University in 1887. He completed a four year Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree with second class honours in 1891 (as did John Monash). His formal graduation was in March 1892. He also completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Edward Macartney travelled to Western Australia in 1894, working as a contract surveyor in the mining industry. He based himself in a survey camp at Bulong, east of Kalgoorlie. He became a Licensed Surveyor in Western Australia in January 1895.
In July 1896, Macartney formed a partnership with Robert Neil Smith and in November Horace Patrick Robertson was added to the partnership. By December 1896 he had become the first Mayor of Bulong. In June 1898, Horace Robertson withdrew from the partnership with Edward Macartney and Neil Smith. By 1900 Bulong had a population of 620, with an estimated 1,000 prospectors camped in areas around the town. Apart from extensive mining surveying, Macartney also undertook townsite subdivision work, including surveys of Boulder subdivisions in 1907.
Macartney was a consulting engineer to all of the wood line companies around Kalgoorlie, and laid the tramline to the White Hope Mine, on the Hampton Plains Estate, south of Kalgoorlie.
On February 25, 1904 he married Jean Alexandra McNab at Balaclava, Victoria and they had a daughter, Jean, before his wife’s death in 1909.
On May 21, 1910, at Midland Junction, his second marriage was to Constance Mary Griffith and they had two daughters and a son. In 1914 he became a Foundation Member of the Institute of Mining Surveyors, Western Australia.
Macartney was also the surveyor for Hampton Properties Limited and its associated companies from 1918 to 1920. On September 16, 1919, Hampton Plains Estate, which was the only land in the Goldfields to have rights to minerals included in land ownership titles, reported that it had issued 300 gold mining licences and that E H B Macartney was surveying leases at the rate of three per day. Several mines were opened on the Hampton Estate in 1920 and 1921 but by 1923 almost all mining activity had been abandoned.
In 1920 he had 30 men under him undertaking the survey of the Kendenup Estate. Macartney was then based at the AMP Buildings in Perth. He continued his surveying practice until he died of pleurisy, contracted whilst working in the Goldfields. He died on September 8, 1930, aged 62, being survived by his second wife and his four children.
In 1930 he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Surveyors, Western Australia.
References:
Denis A Cumming and Richard G Hartley, Westralian Founders of Twentieth Century Mining, Richard G Hartley, 2014;
Argus, 25.3.1891, p7;
The Age, 21.3.1892, p7;
Kalgoorlie Miner, 17.7.1896, p2;
Truth, 8.8.1908, p4;
The Australian, 12.11.1920, p1;
West Australian, 1.5.1930, p14;
Daily News, 9.9.1.
