OBITUARIES. 39

South Australia.—One gunboat, one small torpedo boat, both over zo years old.

Western Australia.—Nil. Tasmania.—Nil. The torpedo boats mentioned are not large enough to take part

in an action at sea. The only naval defence maintained by the Commonwealth for our 8000 miles of coastline, consists of two small gunboats in Queensland, and one gunboat in South Aus-tralia.

The Lecturer illustrated his subject by many lantern views of the various types of vessels, their structure and use, and by plans of ports, harbours, etc. Unfortunately these illustrations cannot be reproduced. The directing gyroscope was also exhibited and explained.

OBITUARIES.

PROFESSOR W. C. KERNOT, M.A.,M.C.E., PAST PRESIDENT V. I.E.

Born 1815, died 1909.

40 VICTORIAN INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERS :

In introducing the motion recorded in the minutes the President said that of ter a twenty-five years' knowledge of the late Pro-fessor Kernot he felt deeply, and was sure all members would feel deeply, the loss the Institute and the community had sustained.

The Institute had had no more worthy supporter than Professor Kernot. From the very first there had been no important question on which his counsel had not been given, no meeting at which he could have been present and from which he had been absent. It was not easy to realise the gap that had been left—a gap which it would be hard to fill.

In public life it would be difficult to say with what engineering function, with what important engineering movement in Victoria, Professor Kernot had not been identified. But his chief work—his life's work—was associated with his University duties.

At the Engineering School of the Melbourne University for some forty years, the time, the man, the functions had been cor-related in a way that might never occur again. The colony then required men to pioneer settlement, to conduct surveys, to build the first roads, the first bridges. Professor Kernot recognised that, and trained the men for that, and their work and in it his work was written over the whole face of the State. That was the outcome of the technical training the students received. But they received more than technical training; Professor Kernot's genial, kindly nature invited confidence, and his advice left a life-long impression on them. But above all he was so absolutely an upright man that every day the example he set of what an honour-able member of an honourable profession should strive to attain was above price to his students.

EPITOME OF CAREER. The late Professor William Charles Kernot, M.A., M.C.E.,

was born at Rochford, Essex, England, on the 16th June, 1845, and arrived with his father in Australia in 1851. He received his primary education at the Geelong National Grammar School, and matriculated in 1861 at the Melbourne University, where he passed with distinction through the Arts, and subsequently the Engineer-ing courses, his name appearing seven times on the honours list ; three exhibitions and one scholarship being also awarded to him.

His acquirement of engineering practice began on the Geelong Water Works, and was continued on the Coliban. Water Works and in the Railways and Mines Departments. In 1869 his con-nection—in the capacity of lecturer—with the staff of the Mel-bourne University began. In 1883 he was appointed Professor of Engineering, a position which he filled, and with which he was identified, until the date of his death. In 1888 he also fulfilled the functions appertaining to the chair of Natural Philosophy.

In 1883 Professor Kernot entered this Institute—then the Vic-torian Association of Engineers—as a Foundation Member, and continued uninterruptedly on the Council until his death. He was six times President—in 1886, 18go, 1897, 1888, 1906, and

OBITUARIES. 41

1907. He was also a Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers of London, of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors. He was a Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England, and he was for many years President of the Royal Society of Victoria, and was a Past Presi-dent of the Engineering Section of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science.

Amongst the very numerous public and advisatory positions filled at various times by Professor Kernot may be cited :—Mem-bership of the Municipal Surveyors Board for forty years—thirty as chairman—membership of the old Board of Public Health, mem-bership of the 188o-i Exhibition Committee, Chairmanship of Juries during the 1888 Exhibition. He was Member of Council and one of the Trustees of the Melbourne Working Men's College, of which School he was also President from 1889 to 1899, and of the following boards, etc.—Railway Enquiries and Commissions, New South Wales Bridge Commission, Royal Commission on the Stability of Railway Bridges, Board of Visitors to the Melbourne Observatory, Yarra Floods Board, Telegraph and Tele-phone Tunnel Board (1886), Melbourne Drainage Commission (1889), Board of Examiners for Water Supply Engineers, Direc-torate of the first Australian Electric Light Company, Trustee of the Royal Park, and in addition numerous other offices.

Professor Kernot made three trips to Europe and America, and was in South Africa—at the seat of war—during the progress of the Boer trouble.

Many donations to public purposes were made by Professor Kernot, amongst others liberal benefactions to the Working Men's College, the sum of £, i,000 to found a Scholarship in Metallurgy, and a sum of £,2,200 to establish a Scholarship in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at the Melbourne University.

Professor Kernot died on the i4th of March, 1909.

MR. W. W. CULCHETH.

In announcing the death of Mr. W. W. Culcheth, the Presi-dent said that the Institute had lost another of its senior members. Mr. Culcheth's specialty had been irrigation engineering, and sev-eral of his papers on that subject were in the "Proceedings" of some zo years ago. Some of those papers were of much value ; they had been penned in the light of •a long Indian irrigation ex-perience. The views then advanced were not in accord with the policies then in fashion here, and did not, therefore, receive the attention they merited, but the lines then laid down by Mr. Cul-cheth were those adopted in the modern practice in Victoria now.

EPITOME OF CAREER. The late Mr. W. W. Culcheth was born at Ashford, Kent,

England, on February i4th, 1839. He was educated at Bristol

42. VICTORIAN INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERS:

and was afterwards articled as a pupil to Messrs. Law and Blount, Civil Engineers, of London.

In 1859 he entered, by examination, the Public Works Depart-ment of India. At Calcutta he completed—as a "Probationer"—his technical education at the Government College, and in the succeeding year was appointed an assistant engineer on the Robu-lend railway survey. For twenty years Mr. Culcheth was in the Indian service carrying out engineering and administrative works, chiefly in the branches of road construction and irrigation.

In 188o he arrived in Australia, where he afterwards practised as a consulting engineer. In 1884 he was awarded a £300 prize for designs for new harbour works at Napier, New Zealand, and spent about a year in New Zealand in connection with that work. In Victoria Mr. Culcheth was frequently consulted by the Govern-ment in relation to irrigation works, and was retained in connec-tion with the design of the Tragowell Plains scheme, which was duly carried out, about 1886.

Mr. Culcheth was elected a Member of the Victorian Institute of Engineers in 1886, and afterwards became a Life Member. fie was also a Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, London, and was a Member, and for ten years was Hon. Treasurer, of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors.

Mr. Culcheth died on March 31st, 1909.

Library Digitised Collections

Title:Obituaries (Kernot, William Charles & Culcheth, W. W.)

Date:1910

Persistent Link:http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24439