Percy O'Brien
O’BRIEN, Percy Vincent MICE MIEAust (1865-1950)
Percy Vincent O’Brien was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on October 9, 1865, the son of John Joseph O’Brien and his wife Elizabeth Mary O’Brien (nee Conor). He was educated at Auckland College and then at St Ignatius College, Sydney. In his final year at St Ignatius College he won an award for mechanical and engineering drawing.
In 1884, at the age of 18, O'Brien undertook a cadetship with the civil engineering firm of Messrs Boylan and Lundon in Auckland. In 1886 he became assistant engineer on the Porotoran Tunnel Trunk Line in New Zealand. He then arrived in Australia to work on the West Wallsend Railway in New South Wales and later on the Coburg to Somerton Rail Line in Victoria. In 1890 he was appointed as an assistant engineer in the Victorian Railways Department, engaged on constructing three sections of railways in the Western District of Victoria. In 1892 he undertook surveys for irrigation at Renmark in South Australia.
In 1893 O'Brien travelled to Western Australia to work with the Jarrahdale Timber Company as an engineer on construction and survey of light railways in the Darling Range. He also completed a survey of the four hundred square mile timber concession near Jarrahdale.
O’Brien joined the Public Works Department in June 1894 as an assistant engineer and was engaged on water supply works in the Eastern Goldfields from 1896 to 1899. During this time, he had over 500 men employed under him constructing reservoirs, operating condensers, erecting telegraph lines and clearing roads. In 1903 he was appointed District Engineer in Charge of the Eastern Goldfields.
On January 31, 1899 he married Louisa Henrietta Nobili at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Perth. She was the sister of engineer Oreste Nobili who, while working as an assistant to O’Brien in 1897, caught typhoid fever and died at Broad Arrow.
When responsibility for interior water supplies came under the control of the Minister for Mines in 1903, Percy O’Brien was appointed Chief Engineer of Mines Water Supply. He returned to the Public Works Department in 1913 as Engineer Goldfields Area and in 1916 was appointed as Principal Engineer Water Supply, Irrigation and Drainage.
O’Brien was present at the formation meeting of the WA Institution of Engineers in 1909 and was a foundation member and a member of its inaugural council in 1910. He was Vice President in 1918-19 and a foundation member of the Institution of Engineers Australia. In 1917 he and John Parr submitted a paper on the maintenance and operation of the Goldfields Water Supply to the Institution of Civil Engineers in London and were awarded the George Stephenson Gold Medal and the Telford Premium.
In 1919 O’Brien was appointed Engineer for the Goldfields and Agricultural Water Supply. He ceased work in the public service in July 1930, taking long service leave until his formal retirement date of March 31, 1931.
O'Brien participated in many company floats as a director, including Wings Limited (1930), Hill 50 South Gold Mining Company NL (1938), Electweld Gas Producer and Charcoal Company Limited (1940), Manxman Gold NL (1946), and Evanston Gold NL (1947). In 1935 he tendered to design a sewerage scheme for Kalgoorlie in partnership with Melbourne engineers Leith and Garlick.
O'Brien died on June 11, 1950 at Perth. His wife, Louisa, had predeceased him in 1912. His only son Frank had died in a car accident in 1931. He was survived by his daughter Eileen.
Percy O’Brien was amongst a group of engineers and surveyors that worked in very harsh country to support the expansion of mining in Western Australia. He was of wiry build and travelled long distances in his work. In 1894 he averaged 40 miles a day on a horse or camel for eight months. On one occasion travelled 120 miles in one day on his riding camel “Rajah”. He was described as a blunt outspoken Irishman, a man of initiative, and infinitely resourceful.
References:
J. S. Battye (ed), Cyclopedia of Western Australia, vol 1 (Adel, 1912)
Daily News, 19.7.1930, p6
Merab Tauman, The Chief C Y O’Connor, UWA Press, 1978
Richard G Hartley, River of Steel, Access Press, 2007
