Ernest Fenton
FENTON, Ernest Alexander, MWAIE MISWA (1865-1954)
Ernest Fenton was born at Ballarat on June 25, 1865. He was the only son of gold mine manager John Larkey Fenton and his wife Margaret Fenton nee Wallace. He served a four year engineering pupillage under Warrnambool civil engineer and surveyor, Andrew Kerr. Ernest then gained hydraulic engineering experience, first under the Korong civil engineer, John Gardiner Starr, and then with the Chaffey Brothers. In 1888 he was granted a certificate of competency as a land surveyor for Victoria.
Ernest is recorded as working in the private sector in surveying in the 1890s, being a successful tenderer for a “block survey” in Central Melbourne in 1893, and being an authorised surveyor in Tasmania in 1894.
Ernest Fenton arrived in Western Australia on the “Adelaide” on July 16, 1896, joining the Public Works Department as a supervisor that month. Ernest's father and mother, as well as his four sisters, Maggie, Lizzie, Fanny and Agnes also relocated to Western Australia. On November 3, 1896 Ernest was promoted to Assistant Engineer. Almost immediately he was involved in preparatory work for the Goldfields Water Supply. In June 1898 he was undertaking survey work on excavations at Mundaring Weir where he was working as an Assistant Engineer. By 1900 he was the Assistant Resident Engineer.
After the death of C Y O’Connor in March 1902, Ernest took over the role of Resident Engineer, Mundaring Weir when the incumbent William Leslie was moved to managing the Fremantle Harbour works.
In 1905 Ernest married teacher Clare Carroll in Perth.
Around 1905, Ernest left the Public Works Department and went to Toodyay to work as a Licensed Surveyor and Consulting Engineer. In 1905 he was involved in cadastral surveys in the Lake Ninan area and also proposed a water conservation scheme for this freshwater lake. He was an advocate for the Goomalling Wongan Hills rail extension, and participated in the 1908 inspection by the Minister for Agriculture that resulted in the line being funded.
Ernest had a house built in Gordon Street, Northam in 1910, and in December 1910 he completed the survey for the newly proclaimed townsite of Wongan Hills. He also held 1,200 acres of farming land near Mocardy, just east of Wongan Hills.
By 1911 Fenton was working as a Licensed Surveyor and Consulting Engineer in Northam, then in Harvey in 1916, Bridgetown in 1917 and Denmark in 1918. In October 1922 he was prospecting for coal in the Denmark area when he applied an oil exploration permit which was granted as permit 415H in 1923. He sold the permit for £300. In the early 1920’s he worked as a temporary employee for both the Lands and Surveys Department as a surveyor and the Public Works Department as an engineer. In 1923 he was working as the District Engineer, Group Settlement, Busselton.
Fenton was still involved in business activity in 1931, when he was part of a partnership treating gold tailings. In 1943 he was living with his wife at Mandogalup and gave his occupation as dairy farmer. He died on September 18, 1954 at Fremantle, survived by his wife Claire.
Fenton Street in Mundaring and Fenton Street in Wongan Hills are named after him.
In 1909, Ernest became a foundation member of the WA Institution of Engineers. Ernest was also a supporter of the creation of a surveying institute in Western Australia and was a member of the provisional council established to draft a constitution in 1910. He subsequently became a member of the Institute of Surveyors of Western Australia.
References:
P W H Thiel and Co, Twentieth Century Impressions of Western Australia, Perth, 1901
Richard G Hartley, River of Steel, Access Press, 2007
The Australasian, 2.6.1888, p. 35.
Hansard, Legislative Assembly, 2.8.1899, pp. 650-651.
Newcastle Herald and Toodyay District Chronicle, 11.4.1908, p. 2.
Western Mail, 18.7.1908, p. 3.
West Australian, 6.1.1910, p. 5.
Northam Advertiser, 11.6.1910, p. 3.
Sunday Times, 30.7.1911, p. 23.
West Australian, 10.10.1922, p. 2.
Bunbury Herald and Blackwood Express, 9.3.1923, p. 4.
Public Service List 1923, 1924
Greenward Consulting, Heritage Assessment of Gordon Street, Northam, 2015
