William Wedge Darke

William Wedge Darke (1810–1890) was an Australian colonist and surveyor. Biography William Wedge Darke was the son of John Darke of Hereford and Elizabeth Darke, née Wedge, and younger brother of John Charles Darke and a nephew of John Helder Wedge from whom he learnt his profession. He arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1827 with his parents, younger brother Henry and sister Elizabeth. Surveying career In the early 1830s he was in private practice in Van Diemen's Land as a surveyor, then moved to New South Wales where he joined the survey department. In 1836 he was sent as an Assistant Surveyor under Robert Russell to survey the new settlement at Port Phillip.

At Port Phillip Darke carried out some of the first surveys of the new town of Melbourne and was instrumental in laying out the streets of the new town for sale at the first land auctions. The caravan, dubbed 'Darke's Ark', had two rooms and a piano, and was drawn by bullocks to locations convenient to his surveying duties around Port Phillip. The caravan was eventually left at the beach as a bathing house.

In 1843 he returned to New South Wales. In 1846 he was an Assistant Colonial Surveyor and lived with his wife and family in Pitt Street, Sydney.

In April 1860, notice was given that Darke had been appointed a licensed surveyor.

Many of his field notebooks are held in the Mitchell Library in Sydney.