George Christian Darbyshire

George Christian Darbyshire (1820 – 5 June 1898

However, Darbyshire may also have trained as a surveyor in England, being initially employed by his father in the firm of George Darbyshire and Sons, then with his brother in the partnership John and George C Darbyshire and were responsible for a number of surveys for Tithe maps in around 1839–41.

Migration to Australia Darbyshire travelled to Australia with his wife Maria on the Richard arriving in Melbourne on 7 July 1853 and became Engineer of Construction, and District Surveyor under the Victorian Government at Williamstown in 1854. He was also appointed deputy surveyor general of Victoria on 9 April 1857, to the Board of Science on 4 June 1858, and Territorial Magistrate for Wyndham on 7 April 1865.

The Victorian Government Railway Department was established in 1856 as part of the Board of Land and Works. Among Darbyshire's first responsibilities was supervising the design and construction of the line to Sandhurst (Bendigo) and Echuca.

Darbyshire saw himself as an engineer, and was recruited to the Survey Department by the Surveyor General Andrew Clarke, as an engineer. In response to a request to describe an engineer when appearing before the Select Committee upon the Railways on 4 May 1860, he stated: A man who has actually been employed for some years, having actual experience in the working and construction is a civil engineer, as compared with the man who has no experience in works of construction.

Darbyshire was well experienced in railway work when he came to Victoria, and was highly skilled in surveying and designing a rail line. A small but significant example is that the lines were set out with the section in the stations above the general grade and at a flatter grade than the line. That produced a situation in which the trains approached the platform on an up grade that aided braking, and departed on a down grade that aided starting. Higinbotham was not aware of that detail and changed some station locations after he took over, to the detriment of efficient running. The proposed station at Chewton had to be abandoned because trains to Castlemaine could not stop on the grade at the point where Higinbotham had sited the station, and trains to Melbourne were unable to start up the grade if they stopped there.

Surveying and later career In the 1860s and 1870s, Darbyshire was a licensed surveyor undertaking township and rural surveys for Government and private practice. He may also have won a tender for surveying part of the Victoria/South Australia Border, and was responsible for the Town Plan of Lorne in 1871.

Darbyshire had risen to District Surveyor at Williamstown, the most senior position in the Department under the Deputy Surveyor General, when Clarke directed him to carry out surveys for country rail lines.

Contemporary photograph –