Henry Willey Reveley

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Henry Willey Reveley (1788–1875) was a civil engineer responsible for the earliest public works at the Swan River Colony, the foundation of the state of Western Australia.

Life

Reveley was the son of

Pisa, Italy, where he graduated as a civil engineer at the University of Pisa.

The Round House

On 20 January 1824, Henry Reveley married Cleobulina (b. 1790, also known as Amelia), the sister of Copley Fielding. He worked in London before being appointed the first Colonial Civil Engineer at the Cape Colony, where he arrived in January 1826. One of his principal tasks was to improve Table Bay Harbour. His best-known building is St Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Somerset Road, Cape Town.[3][4] In May 1828 he was dismissed as incompetent by the Governor, Richard Bourke.[5]

When

Perth, Reveley was to become the engineer responsible for all public works. These buildings included barracks for the military, the first Government House, and other official buildings of the Swan River Colony. His design for a twelve-sided gaol at Fremantle, known as the Round House, remains largely intact and is preserved as a heritage site that overlooks the west end of the High Street
.

Plaque attached to Old Perth Technical School in 1932

Reveley's other works include Perth's

Swan River near the Causeway, and plans for a harbour and breakwater at Fremantle. He also executed a Tuscan design for a water-mill, a first for Stirling's colony, on his holding which became the grounds of the Old Perth Boys School and the Old Perth Technical School.[6] His style has been described by Western Australian architect and historian Ray Oldham as "simplified Georgian".[2]

Old Court House, Supreme Court Gardens, Perth

In 1837 Reveley built a breakwater and a 57-metre-long (187 ft) tunnel for the local whaling company that linked their Bathers Beach Whaling Station to Fremantle's High Street. Five months' digging was completed in January 1838. Rapid progress was possible because the rock under Arthur's Head, although load-bearing and sound, was capable of being mined with a pick axe.[7]

Disappointed with his prospects, Reveley left the colony in November 1838, returning with his wife to England, where he lectured on arts and science and published two articles on Western Australia, one on timbers, the other on immigration policy. In 1844, he also urged investigation of a

kaolin-like resource found in the Swan Valley as stock for ceramic manufacture.[8]

Reveley died at Reading, the town of his birth, in 1875.[2]

References

  1. ^ Stephen, Leslie (1890). "Gisborne, Maria". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 21. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 401. citing: Dowden's Shelley, ii. 206, 228, 275, 319, 331; Paul's Godwin, i. 81, 135, 162, 239, 362, ii. 314; Bentham's Works, x. 154, 251.
  2. ^ a b c Oldham, Ray (1967). 'Reveley, Henry Willey (1788–1875)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 20 May 2020.
  3. ^ St Andrews Presbyterian Church at Mapmyway, Cape Town. Retrieved 20 May 2020
  4. ^ St Andrews Church at "Cape Town History: a tourist guide". Retrieved 20 May 2020
  5. ^ Walker, Joanna et al. (c.1985) Reveley, Henry Willey at artefacts.co.za. Retrieved 20 May 2020
  6. ^ Reveleys Mill Site, 137-139 St Georges Tce, Perth, WA, Australia at the Australian Heritage Database
  7. ^ McIlroy, Jack (1986). "Bathers Bay Whaling Station, Fremantle, Wester Australia" (PDF). Australian Historical Archaeology. 4. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  8. ^ Reveley H. W. The China Clay of Swan River. Letter in The Swan River News, No. 1, 1 January 1844, p.5
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