Victor Munt
MUNT, Victor Cranston, BE BA ME MIEAust (1903-1953)
Victor Munt was born at his parent’s house in Claremont on July 6, 1903. His father, Charles Arthur Munt, was then an accountant at the Public Works Department but would later become a long serving Under Secretary for Works from 1912 to 1937. His mother was Ethel Isabella Munt nee Angell.
The eldest son of Charles and Ethel, he attended Perth High School (later known as Hale School) and then studied engineering at the University of Western Australia, graduating in May 1926. He also graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in April 1928.
In 1925 Munt had joined the Public Works Department and worked on the construction of Churchman’s Brook Dam under the Resident Engineer, Russell Dumas. Churchman’s Brook Dam was an earthen dam and this type of design required close monitoring of both the materials and construction. By December 1930, he was Resident Engineer on another earthen dam, Drakesbrook Dam. The next project was as Resident Engineer on the concrete Wellington Dam from 1931 to 1934.
On January 23, 1932, at Claremont, Munt married Marguerite Mary Taunton Pearse. After Marguerite’s death in 1942, he married the divorcee, Ivy Albiston Emery (née Menzies).
Munt was the Resident Engineer on the concrete Canning Dam from 1934 to 1938, and in 1937 had travelled at his own expense to Europe and the USA to assess dam design and construction.
The University of Western Australia conferred Munt with the degree of Master of Engineering in 1941.
In 1945 he compiled “The Making and Placing of Concrete, Standard Practice”, published in 1945 by the WA Government Printer for the Public Works Department. He also had a consultant role in the design and construction of both Stirling Dam and Samson Dam. In 1947, Munt was awarded a Gledden Fellowship and again travelled to the USA.
In March 1950 he was appointed Hydraulic Engineer for the Public Works Department and was highly regarded as the pre-eminent engineer for concrete and earthen dam construction and design. He designed the raising of Mundaring Weir by 32 feet and had oversight of its construction, with the work being completed in 1951.
Munt died in his sleep on Rottnest Island on January 9, 1953 at the age of 49, in stark contrast to his surviving motor vehicle and horse riding accidents, including one on Rottnest in 1931.
He was jointly awarded the R W Chapman Medal for 1936, with Russell Dumas, for a paper on construction of the Canning Dam, see JIEA 8, 1936, p1. He also published many other papers, including:
- “Design for raising of Mundaring Weir” JIEA 20, 1948, p161; and
- “The use of East Perth Power Station fly ash as a pozzolan” JIEA 22, 1950, p207.
References:
John Le Page, "Building a State", Water Authority of western Australia, Leederville, 1986;
West Australian, 12.1.1953, p2;
Harold Hunt, "Perth’s Early Water Supplies", WA Division, Institution of Engineers, Perth.
