Robert Wotherspoon
WOTHERSPOON, Robert (1856-1903)
Robert Wotherspoon was born in Scotland circa 1856, and later studied at Glasgow University. He claimed civil engineering as his qualification (see advertisement he placed in the Kalgoorlie Miner, below).
Wotherspoon worked on the Caledonian Railway in England as a civil engineer before travelling to Australia. An early project was the construction of the Aldgate, Mount Barker and Nairne Railway, in South Australia, where he was the contractor’s engineer from around 1881 through to completion. The line, constructed by Baillie, Davies and Wishart, opened in November 1883.
In December 1896, Wotherspoon joined the Harbour and Works division of the WA Public Works Department and was engaged as Resident Engineer on the construction of the Bunbury Harbour groyne, using stone from the Roelands Quarry.
On April 1, 1898, he was appointed Site Engineer on the Mundaring Weir under T C Hodgson. Hodgson and Wotherspoon did not get on, and Wotherspoon was suspended only three months later, on July 6, 1898, for failing to follow Hodgson’s orders. It is curious as to why C Y O’Connor placed Wotherspoon, a rail engineer, in charge of the Mundaring Weir project when Hodgson was very competent in this area. It is possible that O'Connor saw the initial phase of the work at the Weir as similar to the quarrying and transport required for the Bunbury Harbour groyne, which Wotherspoon had managed very successfully.
Wotherspoon left public service and moved to the Goldfields at the height of the gold rush, where he worked as a surveyor and also completed prospecting work for international syndicates.
Wotherspoon had had periods of being seriously unwell whilst working, both at Bunbury and at Mundaring Weir. His health finally failed him, and he died, aged 47, on May 31, 1903.
He was a keen inventor, and lodged patents for devices such as spark arrestors.
References:
Richard G Hartley, River of Steel, Access Press, Bassendean, WA, 2007
Bunbury Herald, 15.2.1898, p3
West Australian, 26.6.1898, p3
Coolgardie Miner, 8.8.1898
West Australian, 2.6.1903, p1
