Edwin Beaumont
BEAUMONT, Edwin Kerby, BCE MIMechE MAusIME MNSWEA (1869-1948)
Edwin was born on October 30, 1869 at Castlemaine in Victoria where his father storekeeper Amos Thomas Beaumont had been an early digger on the Forest Creek field and was operating a china, glass and earthenware depot. His mother was Eliza Sarah Beaumont (nee Kerby).
Edwin was educated at Castlemaine Grammar School and at Ormond College at Melbourne University from which he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. He worked as a surveyor in the Department of Lands, Mining and Survey, and then (commencing November 14, 1892) in the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. Here, he surveyed, designed, and supervised the construction of a sewerage reticulation scheme to serve the City of Carlton in 1894-1896.
In 1896, Edwin joined the staff of the Sulphide Corporation’s Central Mine at Broken Hill as Civil Engineer and Surveyor. In February 1898, he was promoted to Mine Manager. He subsequently gained his mine manager's certificate in 1901.
On April 8, 1901, Edwin married the daughter of the Mayor of Castlemaine, Frances Warren Greenhill, in the Wesley Church Castlemaine. They had one daughter Ray Elsie Eileen Beaumont, born 1909 at Kalgoorlie.
In November 1903, he moved to Western Australia to join Bewick Moreing and Company, for whom he worked as engineer and surveyor at the Oroya Brownhill Company mine until June 1, 1907, when he joined the Department of Mines as Inspector of Mines on the Mount Margaret Goldfield. He resigned this role on September 14, 1908.
In 1909, Edwin was working as a consultant mining engineer with an office in Perth, and later also one in Kalgoorlie. He was the local manager and representative of Unbehaun & Johnston and of Hoskins & Company between 1910 and 1925. He was also Consulting Engineer for Tindal’s Gold Mine, Coolgardie, Websters Find Gold Mines and the Orion Mine, Niagara. He regularly undertook inspections of mines such as Adelaide Bullfinch Gold Mine, Perseverance Gold Mine, Holmes Find, the Warrior and the Meteor on behalf of interstate and overseas investors. He also advertised as Edwin K Beaumont and Co, Architects and Surveyors.
He was chief draughtsman in the drawing office of the Western Australian section of the Trans Australian Railway from October 1912 to February 1914.
From 1914 to 1923, Edwin operated the Electrical Supplies Agency, a retailer of electrical goods in Kalgoorlie. He was named as the architect of a surgery and residence in 1909 in Kalgoorlie and a picture theatre in Boulder in 1917.
In 1919, he co-owned the New Year Gift Gold Mine, near Binduli, with Dr Vere Arkle. In 1920 he was appointed Director of the Red Hill Crown Link Company of Kanowna. By 1921 he was Manager and Attorney of the company.
In 1921, Edwin was appointed representative of SKF Bearings in Kalgoorlie.
From 1920 to 1924, Edwin was chief instructor in engineering and surveying for Stott's Business and Technical College, Perth.
In 1923 he was South Perth Road Board Engineer. In May 1925 he was appointed as Engineer and Building Surveyor for the Perth Roads Board.
Edwin moved to South Australia to become the District Engineer for the West Torrens Council, from 1926 to 1928. He was selected to be District Clerk and Overseer Stirling West District in 1929 but did not take up the appointment.
In the 1930’s and 1940’s he worked as a Consulting Civil and Mining Engineer in Melbourne. Work included being Engineer in Charge of excavation works at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, in 1932, and assessing Hunter’s Island gold, Tasmania, in 1933.
In 1939 he was appointed Mine Manager of Amalgamated Gold Estates NL developing tin mines on King Island. This transitioned to being appointed Manager King Island Tin Lodes NL in 1940.
In 1941, he returned to Western Australia for several weeks to inspect mining prospects on behalf of members of the Melbourne Stock Exchange.
On December 24, 1936, after the death of his first wife, Edwin married Frances Amelia Round (formerly Orwin) at the Methodist Church, Bentleigh, Victoria.
Edwin was elected a member of the NSW Engineering Association in 1897, a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers in 1899 and was returned as a member of the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council in 1912. His published papers include Silver lead ore mining and various systems of stoping and timbering employed in Broken Hill NSW, TAusIME 9 1 (1903), pp. 117-44.
Edwin died on April 2, 1948, aged 78 years, in Melbourne. He was survived by his second wife Frances and his daughter Ray.
References:
Evening News ( NSW), 12.3.1897
Barrier Miner, 12.2.1898, p2
Melbourne Age, 11.5.1901, p5
Barrier Miner 24.10.1903, p5
Kalgoorlie Miner, 15.10.1912, p4
Kalgoorlie Miner, 2.2.1914, p4
Western Argus, 7.8.1917, p16
West Australian,15.12.1920, p9
Melbourne Argus, 14.3.1937, p17
Denis A Cumming and Richard G Hartley, Westralian Founders of Twentieth Century Mining, Graphic Source Pty Ltd, 2014
J S Battye, Cyclopedia of Western Australia, 1912, Volume 2
Based on a biography in Westralian Founders of Twentieth Century Mining and augmented by Chris Fitzhardinge on November 27, 2024.
