Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson

Who is Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson?

Charles Anthony Corbett Wilson was an important figure in the history of engineering and bridge building in Victoria, Australia.

Wilson was born at Brompton Square, London, on 13 February 1827. His father was Charles Corbett Wilson, a solicitor of Gray's Inn, London. CAC Wilson was He was educated by private tutors and at the Western Grammar School, Brompton, and was articled in 1846 to a London engineering firm Messrs. Griffin and Downing, engineers, of Westminster. He arrived in Victoria on 10 August 1851 abord the Troubadour, attracted to the gold diggings at Golden Point, and although ultimately unsuccessful in this venture, he left Ballarat and practised as a surveyor in Geelong, and subsequently went on to have one of the longest careers of any engineer in Victoria, and was responsible for a number of important engineering works.

In the late 1850s, Wilson carried out the original survey for the Melbourne–Geelong Railway and then joined the Central Road Board as assistant engineer in the Western district, which appointment he held until 1860. He was employed in the construction of the original Iron Barwon Bridge at Geelong, the Shelford Bridge over the River Leigh and the first bridge on the present site at Cressy. He later expressed a debt to the training he received there under Charles Rowand. Wilson practised his profession for sixty-four years