Henry Trigg
TRIGG, Henry (1791-1882)
Henry Trigg was born on 30 June 1791 in Gloucester, England. He practised the trade of house carpenter and builder in his home county until in 1829 he decided to emigrate to the new colony of Western Australia. Arriving on the ship Lotus in October 1829 with some £200 in capital, he applied successfully for a land grant of 2,986 acres (1208 ha) comprising the current suburb of Churchlands. His skill as a builder was in great demand and he built the first Barracks, the Perth Goal, the Commissariat Store and the Guard House.
In October 1838 he was appointed Clerk of Public Works and then in December 1839, Superintendent of Public Works, succeeding Henry Reveley. Trigg was responsible for the erection of many of the early government buildings in Perth and the outlying districts. Between 1838 and 1840 he supervised the repairs to the Preston Point Jetty, the construction of the canal near Burswood, the construction of Perth waterside road and the construction of the first Causeway Bridge.
He began constructing the first lighthouse on Rottnest in 1842 and completed this and the lighthouse at Arthur’s Head, Fremantle in 1851. He supervised the reconstruction of the Perth Jetty in 1852.
In 1846 he designed the first Canning Bridge and supervised its construction by Solomon Cook in 1849.
A deeply religious man of moderately Calvinistic views, he and other Dissenters worshipped with the Methodists, but when a Wesleyan minister arrived in 1840, he became dissatisfied and in 1843 began meetings in his own home that developed into a church based on Congregational principles. The first chapel was designed and built by Trigg in 1846. He was its lay leader for seven years and in April 1851 resigned from his government position to become full time pastor. He devoted much time to caring for the spiritual and moral welfare of the prisoners in the local road gangs and gaols. His fervent though unbigoted views on social and moral principles were firmly expressed in pulpit and in print. He died in Perth on 15 February 1882.
In 1813 he had married Amelia Ralph and they had six sons and four daughters. Henry, the eldest son, was his father's partner in the building trade. The Perth beachside suburb of Trigg and adjoining island were named after Henry Trigg.
References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography adb.anu.edu.au/biography/trigg henry 2745
Engineers Australia, Nomination of Perth’s Causeway Bridges for an Engineering Heritage Award, August 2012
Engineering Heritage Panel, Swan and Canning Rivers Bridges, Australian Engineering Week Tour 2012
John Le Page, Building a State, Water Authority of Western Australia, 1986
