William Corin
CORIN, William, MIEAust (1867-1929)
William Corin spent three years studying in the Engineering Department at University College, London. He worked for Dubs & Co., Glasgow (locomotive builders), then with James Cleminson & Sons, Civil Engineers. He then joined the staff of the Metropolitan Electric Supply Co., London where he remained for four and a half years.
In November 1895 he was appointed Electrical Engineer to the Municipality of Launceston, Tasmania, and was in charge of the Council’s Electricity Department just when the Duck Reach hydro-electric power scheme was being commissioned. There he was responsible for the distribution of direct current for arc lights and alternating current for incandescent street lights and motors.
From 1904 to 1907 he changed the electricity supply of Launceston to the three-phase, four-wire system. This very safe system was among the first installation of the kind in the British Empire. He left Launceston in 1907 but some years later he prepared a report for the Council on the enlargement of the Duck Reach power scheme.
After twelve months in private practice in Melbourne, he joined the Department of Public Works, NSW in 1908. His main responsibility was the generation of thermal electricity for local distribution. He initiated the bulk supply of electricity by the Department of Public Works. Beginning with the Port Kembla Power Station in 1915, he saw this plant increase its generating capacity tenfold.
Appointed Chief Electrical Engineer in 1913, he visited Europe and America on behalf of the New South Wales Government to study the progress which had been made in electrical engineering and in 1915 he prepared an important paper on the Power Requirements and Resources of New South Wales.
His enthusiasm for hydro-electricity was renewed and he began a series of reports on the Snowy Scheme. During his lifetime however the only schemes completed in NSW were comparatively small ones at Burrinjuck, Mullumbimby, Dorrigo and Nymboida.
At the request of the Queensland Government, he prepared two reports, one in 1906 and the other in 1923, on the hydro-electric development of the Barron Falls. He advised the British and French governments respectively on hydro-electricity in Fiji in 1906 and Caledonia in 1920. He also reported to the New Zealand government on the Lake Coleridge Scheme.
To continue his consulting work which he found more congenial, he resigned in 1923. While with the Department of Public Works, and subsequently, as a consulting engineer, he designed and carried out the electricity undertakings of many country towns of NSW including Albury, Wagga Wagga, Wollongong, Orange, Dorrigo, Cowra and Mullumbimby.
A member from 1909 and President in 1917 of the NSW section of the Electrical Association of Australia, he became a foundation Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia in 1919, transferring to full Member in 1920. He was also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, being awarded the Telford Premium by that body for a paper on The Water Power of Tasmania in 1911, and a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London.
In 1920 he estimated the cost of the Snowy River Scheme at £2 million, and in 1927-28 he suggested to local councillors that they might install a small hydro-electric plant to meet shire needs. In his writings he advocated afforestation and the arrest of soil erosion to conserve all rainfall for the development of the hydro-electric potential.
His many contributions have had community recognition through the naming of the street leading to Duck Reach power station as Corin Street, another street in the ACT, as well Corin Dam, an important storage for Canberra’s water supply.
A practical engineer, he was of distinguished appearance, possessing a great sense of humour, much personal charm but outspoken about dishonest practice. He died at his residence, Chatswood, NSW on the 2nd March 1929.
References:
Arthur Corbett, 'Corin, William (1867–1929)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed online 11 April 2022.
NOMINATION OF DUCK REACH POWER STATION AS A HISTORIC ENGINEERING MARKER, VOLUME 2 - APPENDICES
Biography prepared 15 Feb 2019
