Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson

Wilson was born at Brompton Square, London, on 13 February 1827. His father was Charles Corbett
Wilson, a solicitor of Gray's Inn, London. CAC Wilson was educated by private tutors and at the
Western Grammar School, Brompton, and was articled in 1846 to the Westminster area engineering
firm of Messrs. Griffin and Downing. He arrived in Victoria, Australia on 10 August 1851 aboard
the Troubadour and did gold diggings at Golden Point until he decided that he could not be
successful at it. He left Ballarat and practised as a surveyor in Geelong, and subsequently went on
to have one of the longest careers of any engineer in Victoria; he was responsible for a number of
important engineering works.
In the late 1850s, Wilson carried out the original survey for the Melbourne–Geelong Railway and
then joined the Central Road Board as assistant engineer in the Western district, which appointment
he held until 1860. He was employed in the construction of the original Iron Barwon Bridge at
Geelong, the Shelford Bridge over the River Leigh and the first bridge on the present site at
Cressy.[1] He later expressed a debt to the training he received there under Charles Rowand. Wilson
practised his profession for sixty-four years (1846–1910, and was Engineer for the Shires of Leigh
(1863–1910) and Bannockburn. He was responsible for many iron, timber and concrete bridges in
western Victoria. He was succeeded by his eldest son Charles Corbett Powell Wilson as shire
engineer on his retirement.[2]
In 1860 he undertook took several large Government survey contracts in the Western district,
including Chatsworth, Grassdale and Murndal, Montajup and Dunkeld, and Mount William. In
October, 1863, he was appointed secretary, treasurer, and engineer to the Shelford District Road
Board which later became the Shire of Leigh,where he stayed until his retirement in October, 1917 -
a period of 54 years. He was a member of the Victorian Institute of Engineers and of the Victorian
Institute of Surveyors. In 1857 he married a daughter of Connor Powell, an old settler of the Waurn
Ponds; of 15 children, 7 sons and three daughters survived him.[3]
It is likely that the advanced truss designs of the McMillans Bridge,[4][5] and the Pitfield
Bridge,[6] indicate the engineering skill of C. A. C. Wilson. These bridges demonstrate Wilson's
professional interaction with the University of Melbourne Engineering Department, headed by
Professor William Charles Kernot.[7][8] At the same time that the Sydney University engineering
department was more concerned with improving designs of timber bridge, and in particular timber
truss bridges using superior Australian eucalypt timbers, Melbourne University's foundation
Professor of Engineering took a special interest in the analysis and design of wrought-iron bridges.
Wilson paid close attention to these developments and made practical application of the theory.
Most of Victoria's municipal engineers in the nineteenth century regarded themselves as 'practical
men', and were suspicious of too much theory, so Wilson can be seen as a radical and adventurous
municipal engineer who was willing to take advantage of the best engineering theory and testing
facilities available. At least two shires in the Western District—Leigh and Bannockburn—were also
adventurous enough to give the Shire engineer headway.[9]
Wilson died in Geelong on 7 October 1923.
References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Alsop, P. F. B., 1971, 'History of the Shelford iron bridge over the Leigh River,
Bannockburn–Rokewood Road, Shire of Leigh'
2. Jump up^ Gary Vines, Metal Bridges in Victoria, 2004
3. Jump up^ VETERAN ENGINEER'S DEATH, The Argus 11 Oct. 1923, p. 14. Retrieved April 3, 2013
4. Jump up^ Alsop, P. F. B., 1991, 'A History of McMillans Bridge on the Rokewood–Skipton Road, in
the Shires of Leigh and Grenville Victoria'
5. Jump up^ Chambers, D. & Churchward, M, 1999, McMillans Bridge, National Trust Classification
Report, National Trust of Australia (Victoria)
6. Jump up^ Heritage Victoria citation Pitfield bridge
7. Jump up^ S. Murray-Smith, 'Kernot, William Charles (1845 - 1909)', Australian Dictionary of
Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp 20-22. Retrieved 23 August 2009
8. Jump up^ Geelong Advertiser, 1889, 'Opening of the New Bridge in the Leigh Shire' 29 July
9. Jump up^ LEIGH SHIRE COUNCIL : CAC Wilson - Shire Engineer correspondence and photographs
1850 - 1884 1479 archived collections in the Geelong Record Series

 Griffith, Peter, 'Father and Son: Victorian Engineers Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson and
Charles Corbett Powell Wilson', Memo, vol. 67, August, 1986, pp. 30-31, 34-35