Claude Crocker

CROCKER, Claude Edward, MIMechE MIEE MIEAust (1875-1929)

Born in the State of Wyoming in the USA, Claude Crocker was a foundation member of the Western Australian Institution of Engineers in 1910 and its tenth and last President in 1919-1920. He was Chairman of the Perth Division of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, in 1924-1925 and was President of the national body in 1926-27.

Crocker took his first engineering position in Australia in 1900 when he travelled from New York to be appointed engineer for the Deep Leads Electric Power Transmission Company of Victoria, a company formed to provide power to mines in the Loddon Valley and Moolort goldfields, 150 kilometres north west of Melbourne. These mines were being developed to extract gold from the gravels of underground rivers flowing below the basalt plains. The schemes were aborted, however, following the collapse of the financial empire of the London entrepreneur, Whittaker Wright, in December 1900, after he overcommitted himself on financing the construction of the Bakerloo Line. In 1901 Crocker was appointed acting engineer for the Kalgoorlie Electric, Power & Lighting Corporation Limited, a company registered in London in August 1899 with a capital of £225,000 and 6% preference shares for a further £150,000. George P. Doolette, the South Australian promoter, was one of its directors. Later in 1901 Crocker became the Corporation’s engineer, manager and attorney.

The Kalgoorlie Boulder mines at that time were building their first sulphide ore treatment plants as the more easily treated oxidised ores became less plentiful. With few exceptions the mines chose to drive their winders and stamp batteries by steam. Three of the largest mines also generated their own electric power. Otherwise the Power Corporation provided almost all the mines on the Golden Mile with electric power for their treatment plants and lighting and also supplied power for the private Kalgoorlie tramways company. The station’s initial three generators had a capacity of 1.5 MW. Additional units were added during the 1900s and by 1909 the station’s capacity was 3.1 MW, the largest of any power station in the state.

Claude Crocker married Margaret Charlotte Mary Marmion at Fremantle in 1904. Margaret was the daughter of Bill Marmion’s great grandfather, William Edward Marmion. Like Claude, Bill has also been an active member of Engineers Australia and followed in his great grandfather’s footsteps by being elected to the Western Australian Parliament.

In 1915 Crocker was appointed manager of the City of Perth Electricity and Gas Department after the position had been advertised nationwide. At that time the State Government was building East Perth Power Station which was to provide power for the Government’s tramways system and to the City of Perth for on sale to customers within the PCC’s jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of Perth was rapidly expanding having absorbed the municipalities of North Perth and Leederville in 1915 and Victoria Park in 1917. The City of Perth obtained very favourable terms under a long period agreement. Crocker’s department was responsible for electricity transmission, distribution and customer service within its area and also for the manufacture of town gas and its reticulation to customers in the central and eastern parts of the metropolitan area. Electricity supplies from East Perth Power Station commenced in August 1916.

Crocker became a member of the Western Australian Institution of Engineers Council in 1916-17, was Vice President from 1917-18 to 1918 -19 and the tenth and last President in 1919-20. Crocker was the only Western Australian to be elected President of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, during the Institution’s first twenty years. He was also active in other areas of industry and the community. In 1918 he was appointed to the Western Australian Council for Industrial Development and was also involved in developing national standards for the electrical generation and transmission industry. He was a founder director of Norman Brearley’s Western Australian Airways in 1921 and of WA Woollen Mills (Albany) in 1923. In 1927 he was one of the four members of the Australian Royal Commission on Wireless. Crocker was a member of the foundation committee of the Lake Karinyup Country Club in 1928. He died in Perth in 1929.

His published papers include:

‘The Kalgoorlie Electric, Power & Lighting Corporation Limited: description of plant’, Monthly Journal of the Chamber of Mines of Western Australia (MJCMWA) 1 (1902): 64 65;
‘The elimination of oil from return feed water’ (Kalgoorlie Electricity, Power & Lighting Corp), MJCMWA 10 (1911): 176-78;
‘Electric power of the Kalgoorlie Mining Field’, Proceedings of the Western Australian Institution of Engineers (ProcWAIE) 9 (1918-19): 35 46;
WAIE Presidential Address (electricity supply), ProcWAIE 10 (1919-20): 1 10; and
IEAust Presidential Address 1926-27.

References:
1880 US Census - accessed through http://www.ancestry.com.au;
Mng Jnl Nov.09 pp.282 84;
‘RpRC Customs & Excise. Tariff Div. VI’ CA PP 1906 V (58) p.1;
‘RpSC…Roads Bill’ V&P WA 1910 11, A3;
‘RSC Electricity Supply’ V&P WA 1922 23, A2;
WWhA 1927 28, p.63; ’Obit’ TIEA 1 (1929) p.342;
Ferkins HCI p.64;
Argus (Melbourne) 26.6.1918 p 8, 19.9.1918 p 6, 8.2.1927 p 16, 26.2.1927 p 36, 4.3.1927 p15, 5.3.1929 p 7 - available through http://www.nla.gov.au;
State Records Office WA items 1915/0427, 1918/014;
Mr Bill Marmion MLA Inaugural Speech 12.10.2008 - available through http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au.