From the incorporation of Melbourne (1842), until after the end of these sketches, there were only three T o w n or City Surveyors, viz., H o w e , Laing, and Blackburn. T h efirstand second resigned the office, and the third died in harness. O n Laing's arrival, seeing what a small opening there was for architectural ability, he very prudently pocketed his profession for a while, and accepted the position of manager to a Butchering Company, which owned a small shop in Bourke Street, subsequently pulled d o w n to make way for the Coffee Palace near the Theatre Royal. There were half-a-dozen professed Civil Engineers, and most of them had a pet hobby exercising their minds. Of the four most notable, J. A . Manton projected bridges never to be built; N . L. Kentish devised baths never to succeed ; L. Rosson dreamed of a water-supply from the Yarra at Studley Park never to be utilized ; and J. Blackburn's name will be for all time associated with the Y a n Yean Reservoir. Rattenbury had been superseded at the Public Works Department by Mr. Henry Ginn, who, after Separation, held the office of Chief Architect. A meeting was held on the 12th May, 1851, at which was inaugurated the "Association of Architects." A resolution was passed inviting the Superintendent (Mr. Latrobe) to accept the office of Patron, and Mr. Henry Ginn (the Colonial Architect), was elected thefirstPresident. But ere the year had been rung out the Architects had more important "fishto fry" midst the astounding changes wrought by the gold discoveries. A. J. SKENE, for many years the official head of our Survey Department, arrived in Port Phillip as far back as 1839, and if I have been correctly informed, he obtained his first Government employment from M r . Robert Russell. In 1842 he was located at Geelong, and in 1868, he was appointed Surveyor-General vice Mr. C. W . Ligar, the successor of Mr. Robert Hoddle.
MR.
arrived in Melbourne at the beginning of 1844, and he is still (1885) in business in Melbourne. Mr. Wharton soon found that there was little or no scope for the exercise of whatever abilities he possessed as an architect. T h e streets were unformed, the buildings mostly weatherboard cottages and shops. A three-storey building was looked upon as a giant. John Hodgson's house, also in Flinders Street, where the Port Phillip Club Hotel n o w stands, though only a two-storey building, was nicknamed " Hodgson's Folly." Under these circumstances he gave up the idea of following his profession. H e purchased an interest in a sheep-station where the town of Daylesford n o w stands. In the meantime the Melbourne Corporation began to form the streets, and appointed Mr. Charles Laing (an Architect known to Wharton in Manchester) as T o w n Surveyor. Laing was allowed to practice privately, and requested Wharton to assist him, which he did, and so was accidentally brought back to his proper avocation. T h efirstbuilding he was engaged upon was St. Peter's Church, for which he m a d e most of the drawings. About this time Mr. Wharton prepared a Plan of the City of Melbourne, showing all the houses then erected. This Plan should be in existence n o w in either Laing's or the Corporation papers, and would be an object of much interest. H e also prepared another Plan of Melbourne for the Mayor (Dr. Palmer) indicating the division into four Wards to carry out a scheme of the Mayor's to let the Wards at a rental to milkmen to depasture their cows. H e also completed Plans of a scheme to supply Melbourne with water, by connecting with pipes two bends of the river Yarra at Studley Park. Wharton also assisted Laing in making designs for a new theatre and hotel built in 1845, m Queen Street (still in existence) for the late J. T. Smith. This was a great step in advance of the dingy, tumble-down old theatre close by the Bull and Mouth, in Bourke Street. T h e late Samuel R a m s d e n came out in the same ship with Wharton as a stonemason, and his partners, Charles and Henry Brown, and the late James W e b b . O n e of the oldest of " O l d Colonists" has favoured m e with the following m e m o : —
MR. GEORGE WHARTON
" T h e first Land Surveyors to arrive in Port Phillip, doubtless were the Wedges. They were not Government Surveyors, but came on a special mission. Mr. John Helder W e d g e prepared a plan, showing the land proposed to be purchased by the V a n Diemen's Land Company, from the natives, a copy of which is still to be had. This was, however, no survey, but simply a field sketch, which was all that was wanted. Mr. William W e d g e Darke, a near relation of the Wedges, came down with Mr. Robert Russell in the Government service from Sydney in 1836; also Mr. Fred Robert Darcy, at which period thefirstsurvey was made by Russell, a copy of w h i c h — n o w very scarce—I a m
