Anketell, Richard
ANKETELL, Richard John AMIEAust (1862-1928)
Richard John Anketell was born in Melbourne, Victoria on June 5, 1862 the fifth son of John Anketell, an accountant with the Victorian Railways, and his wife Ellen Anketell, née O’Mullane. At age fifteen Anketell attended Melbourne Grammar School. After leaving school he entered the Engineering Branch of the Victorian Railways and by 1884 was Chainman (Foreman). Whilst working in a field gang he undertook a correspondence course in engineering and surveying and in 1887 was Field Assistant in Charge. Much of his survey work was in the agricultural areas east of Melbourne such as the railway from Maffra to Briagolong. It was at Briagolong that Anketell met the schoolteacher Annie Feely and married her in April 1889.
Anketell worked for the Engineer’s Branch of the Victorian Railways until 1891 when he took leave to work for the Emu Bay Railway Company to survey the railway from Waratah to Zeehan. In 1892 Anketell was back working with the Victorian Railways until April 1893 achieving the position of Field Assistant First Class. By 1894 Anketell had arrived in Western Australia to undertake the 103 mile Nannine to Peak Hill telegraph survey followed by the survey of a railway line from Marble Bar to Port Hedland. In 1895 Anketell was appointed Resident Engineer of the Southern Cross Coolgardie railway works with its successful construction being completed in March 1896. Work on surveying “Pipe Tracks” for the Goldfields Pipeline followed in 1896.
In 1897 Anketell returned to Tasmania to complete the survey he had commenced for the Emu Bay Railway Company through the rugged country and dense bush. The spanning of the Pieman River and the construction of the railway through some of the roughest terrain in the southern hemisphere was regarded as a great engineering and surveying feat. Anketell’s work in Tasmania was completed in June 1889.
His reputation was such that his expertise was then sought for surveying and constructing railways in Ceylon. After this work, Anketell returned to Western Australia to be part of a flying survey for determining the feasibility of the transcontinental railway line. The survey stretched 500 miles from Kalgoorlie to the South Australian border. The party set off in May 1901 with 16 camels from Kanowa successfully reaching Eucla then returning to Bulong in August 1901 having travelled 1,100 miles as measured by a pedometer attached to the leg of a camel.
In October 1901 Anketell was appointed to the Engineering Branch of the Public Works Division and by 1902 was supervising the construction of the Mount Charlotte reservoir at Kalgoorlie. In April 1904 he was given responsibility for a landmark project as Superintendent of the Rabbit Proof Fence. The first 465 miles of the fence had been completed under contract and was found to be substandard. Anketell brought this up to standard and also erected another 1,558 miles of fence terminating near Port Hedland. Initially 400 men were employed with numbers reducing to 130 as the project neared completion with an average of 20 miles of fence a month being completed. The project also involved developing secure water supplies and accommodation for the “boundary riders” that maintained the fence.
Select Bibliography
Judith Anketell, "Walker in the Wilderness", Hesperian Press (Carlisle WA 1998)
Argus, 5 Dec 1928 page 9
References:
Report on proposed railway line ... Marble Bar to Port Hedland, and Cossack to Marble Bar, V&P WA 1895, A20. MBEJ 7/5/1904 p. 18.
Trans continental railway, preliminary examination ... Kalgoorlie and Eucla, V&P WA 1901 2, 42. BB 1900, 1905.
Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta (Trans—Continental) Railway Survey, progress report, CA PP 1908 (19) pp1115—7.
RRC ... Peel and Bateman Estates, V&P WA 1924, 1.
Obit, TIEA 9, 1928, p. 262.
LPG pp. 347., etc.
G—SM 1, p. 16.
M.T. Morley, personal communication 1990.
Burke, David, Road through the wilderness, the story of the transcontinental railway, the first great work of Federation. Kensington NSW, New South Wales University Press, 1991, p. 68.
Karrakatta Cemetery, Historic Walk Trail 1998, p. 23.
