# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/O'Connor, Charles Yelverton

​O'CONNOR, CHARLES YELVERTON (1843–1902), civil engineer, son of John O'Connor of Ardlonan and Gravelmount, co. Meath, was born at Gravelmount on 14 Jan. 1843. He was educated at the Waterford endowed school, was articled at the age of seventeen to John Challoner Smith, and after three years' experience on railway work in Ireland emigrated to New Zealand in 1865. There he was employed as an assistant engineer on the construction of the coach road from Christchurch to the Hokitika goldfields. Gradually promoted, he was appointed in 1870 engineer of the western portion of the province of Canterbury. From 1874 to 1880 he was district engineer for the combined Westland and Nelson districts, and from 1880 to 1883 inspecting engineer for the whole of the Middle Island. In 1883 he was appointed under secretary for public works for New Zealand, and he held that position until May 1890, when he was made marine engineer for the colony.
In April 1891 O'Connor was appointed engineer-in-chief to the state of Western Australia; the office carried with it the acting general managership of the railways, but of this he was relieved at his own request in December 1896, in order that he might devote all his time to engineering work. He remained engineer-in-chief until his death, and in that capacity was responsible for all new railway work. He was a strong advocate of constructing railways quite cheaply in new countries.
The discovery of the Coolgardie goldfield in 1892 led to an extraordinary and rapid development of the state of Western Australia, and in that development O'Connor, as engineer-in-chief, played a part probably second only to that of the premier, Sir John Forrest. In the short period of eleven years he undertook two works of the utmost importance to the colony, namely Fremantle harbour: and the Coolgardie water-supply, besides constructing all new railways. He also executed a large number of smaller works, such as bridges, harbours, and jetties, and improvements in the permanent way, aligmnent, and gradients of the railways.
The Fremantle harbour works, carried out from 1892 to 1902, at a cost of 1,459,000l., made Fremantle, instead of Albany, the first or last calling-place in Australia for liners outward or homeward bound. A safe and commodious harbour, capable of receiving and berthing the largest ocean steamships at all states of the tide and in all weather, was formed by constructing north and south moles of limestone rock and rubble; while an inner harbour with wharves and jetties was provided by dredging the mouth of the Swan river. The Coolgardie water scheme, carried out between 1898 and 1903 at a cost of 2,660,000l., was designed to afford a supply of water to the principal goldfields of the colony. The source is the Helena river, on which, about twenty-three miles from Perth, a reservoir was constructed whence five million gallons of water could be pumped daily through a steel main thirty inches in diameter to Coolgardie, ​a distance of 328 miles. O'Connor visited England in 1897 on business connected with this and other work for the colony, and while at home he was made a C.M.G. The execution of works of this magnitude threw on O'Connor heavy labour and responsibility for which his professional ability and high principle well fitted him, but conflicting influences in the administration and polity of the new colony caused him at the same time anxieties and worries, which ultimately destroyed his mental balance. On 10 March 1902 he shot himself through the head on the beach at Robb's Jetty, Fremantle. He married in 1875 a daughter of William Ness of Christchurch, New Zealand. She survived him, with seven children.
O'Connor was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers 6 April 1880. He wrote numerous reports on engineering matters in the colony, among which may be mentioned two on the Coolgardie water-supply scheme (Perth, 1896) and the projected Australian trans- continental railway (Perth, 1901). The Fremantle harbour works and the Coolgardie water-supply were described in the 'Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers' (clxxxiv. 157 and clxii. 50) by O'Connor's successor, Mr. C. S. R. Pahner.
A bronze statue of O'Connor by Pietro Porcelli was erected at Fremantle in 1911.
[Minutes of Proceedings, Inst. Civ. Eng., cl. 444; Engineer, 18 April 1902.]
W. F. S.