William Heron Steel
William Heron Steel (1830-1889) of Wharrie and Steel and the Public Works Office, Melbourne
1890 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM HERON STEEL was born in Glasgow on the 13th of March, 1830, and was educated at the High School of that city. In 1845 he began his training as an engineer under the late Mr. Andrew Macfarlane, one of the most exact professional men of his day. In 1853 he entered into partnership with a fellow pupil, Thomas Wharrie. He acted for some time as assistant to Joseph Cochran, engineer on the Monkland Railways, and towards the end of 1855 his medical advisers recommended a voyage to India or Australia, his health having temporarily suffered from undue exposure.
He arrived in Melbourne in February, 1856, and found the climate suited him so well that he resolved to remain in the colony much to the regret of his friends and professional brethren, all of whom looked forward to his taking a high position in their ranks. His subsequent career rapidly proved how just was their estimate. In three months after his arrival in Melbourne he became assistant to Mr. C. Hodgkinson, then consulting engineer to the newly-formed municipalities. On the 1st of August, 1857, he entered the Public Works Office, to undertake the engineering work in connection with the many piers, jetties, and harbours being commenced along the coast. In a year or two afterwards he had the entire charge of the engineering branch of the Public Works Department. Mr. Wardell was the inspector-general until the time known in Victorian Annals as “Black Wednesday,” when Mr. Steel was appointed. In that office he remained until his death.
With ready tact and great natural ability, he was an able administrator. A man of the highest integrity, he was able to hold the balance between the Government and its contractors, and to act as an arbitrator when any dispute arose. The strictly impartial justice which characterized his decisions was always recognized. Although in control of the public works, his special interest lay in maritime engineering and the construction and improvement of ports and harbours. He threw himself heartily into the execution of all important works, especially the bay and port fortifications. The clearness of his judgment in harbour works is borne witness to by the fact that his proposals, with but slight modifications, were approved of by Sir John Coode, President Inst. C.E. Appointed in January 1878 as Inspector-general of Public Works and Chief Engineer of the Melbourne water-supply, he for some years acted as Chief Engineer of Victorian water-supply, until a separate department was formed. Among the important public works he designed or superintended are the Alfred Graving Dock, Prince’s Bridge, Falls Bridge, Parliament House, the new Gippsland Lakes Entrance, the Belfast Harbour Improvements, the Warrnambool Breakwater, the Portland Breakwater. The defence works he took a great pride in, and the skilled military experts who have from time to time reported on them have been lavish in their compliments on the marvellously cheap and yet thoroughly effective methods he had adopted, particularly at the Heads and the South Channel Fort. The new cut at Fishermen’s Bend, and other harbour works were carried out under his auspices. Mr. Steel during his busy life - busy in the public interest - found time to act as a member of the board on whose recommendation the recent extensions of the Melbourne water-supply system were resolved upon - the Wallaby and Silvery Creeks and the Watts River Aqueduct. He also undertook the guidance of the deliberations of the Swamp Board appointed under the Land Act, 1884, to reclaim the Koweerup, Moe, and Condah swamps, which cover an area of 90,000 acres. As far as Condah Swamp is concerned the work is pretty well completed, and the others are being proceeded with on the lines suggested by Mr. Steel. He had collections of documents and newspaper cuttings in relation to the initiation of all the public works of the colony covering a period of the last twenty-five years. These documents were all carefully indexed and arranged, and were thus readily accessible. In the public service he was deservedly beloved, and the blank caused by his premature death will not be easily filled. Mr. Steel was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 5th of December, 1871, and was transferred to the class of members on the 12th of January, 1886. He died on Christmas Day 1889.
Since the Obituary notice appeared in Vol. C, Session 1889-90, Part 11, some additional information has come to hand relative to his professional career in the Colony of Victoria. It appears that Mr. Steel entered the Public Works Office of the Colony in Melbourne in a comparatively subordinate capacity; but he there displayed such marked ability, that the head of the Department, Mr. W. Wardell, Chief Inspector, soon caused him to be promoted, and to be entrusted with much more important work than had previously been committed to his charge. At Mr. Wardell’s instance, Mr. Steel was before long appointed that gentleman’s Chief Assistant, and so remained until he succeeded to the office of Inspector-General.