Henry De Castilla
De CASTILLA, Henry Couper AMICE MWAIE (1863-1938)
Henry Couper de Castilla was born in 1863 in Shanghai. He was the son of Henry Mariano Ramos de Castilla, a sea captain who usually referred to himself as Henry Castilla; and his wife, Williamina (née Couper). Henry Mariano Ramos de Castilla died in 1868, when his son Henry Couper was barely five years old. Henry Couper trained as a civil engineer in Scotland, when apprenticed to John Willet, and was granted AMICE in 1891, by which time he was in Western Australia.
Henry Couper Castilla and his brother arrived in Fremantle on 29 June 1886 on the steamer Elderslie, and within a week of arriving in Perth Henry was appointed an engineering assistant in the WA Public Works Department. He worked as a surveyor in Bunbury, and for a time was manager and a director of the Bunbury Tin Mining Company (1889 90). He spent four years from 1893 as the City Surveyor (engineer) for the Perth City Council, and in 1894 he married Violet May Bussell in St Matthew's, in Guildford. They had seven children in all.
Henry returned to the WA Public Works Department in 1897. His first work for the government was on the Toodyay (Clackline Newcastle) Railway. He was then responsible for a survey of the Swan River at Fremantle for Sir John Coode, the results of which were used by C Y O'Connor in his plans for the Fremantle Harbour. He also reported on the stability of the Fremantle Road Bridge.
Later he was responsible for locating and establishing water bores for use by the Trans Continental Railway, and so he spent significant time in the area east of Norseman and Kalgoorlie. During his extensive pioneering work in this region he discovered the Madura Pass, which is now traversed by the National Highway between Western Australia and South Australia. Castilla's recollections of how the pass was discovered are set out in his letter (see below), and news reports concerning this discovery have also been included herewith.
In the reorganisation of WA government departments which took place in 1912, Henry Castilla joined the agricultural section of the Water Supply Department, where he took charge of soldier resettlements in 1919, in the aftermath of World War I. Henry Couper Castilla retired in 1926 after 40 years of service in WA. He died in Perth in 1938, survived by his wife, who passed away in 1961.
Henry Couper Castilla was a foundation member of the Western Australia Institution of Engineers. His published papers include Artesian boring, its inception and progress in Western Australia, PWAIE 2, 1911, pp. 26-39.
Acknowledgement:
Engineering Heritage Western Australia thanks Mr F W Atkins for providing historical material concerting Henry Castilla, upon which this biography is based.
References:
GG 1887 p393;1888 p281;1889 pp141, 325-6, 414; 1890 p. 211;1893 p. 1251
WAPD 1893 4, p. 110
SC 1896
North Fremantle Bridge, reports on condition, V&P WA 1896, A15
BB 1900, 1905
PSL 1910, 1915, 1922
Progress RRC...Agricultural Industries of WA, V&P WA 1917 8, p. 7
WAPD 1925, p. 693
Discovery of Madura Pass:
West Australian, Thursday 1 May 1941, p. 6
West Australian, Wednesday 7 May 1941, p. 12
West Australian, Wednesday 14 May 1941, p. 14
