George Christian Darbyshire

George Christian Darbyshire
George Christian Darbyshire
Born	1820 Derby
Died	5 June 1898(1898-06-05) (aged 77) Hawthorn, Victoria
Nationality	English
Engineering career
Discipline	civil engineer
Projects	Bendigo railway line, Victoria

George Christian Darbyshire (1820 – 5 June 1898) was an English and Australian civil engineer. He was the second son of George Darbyshire, also a surveyor and railway engineer.

Darbyshire was born at sea in 1820 and spent his early life in Derby, England. His father, George was a civil engineer who worked for George Stephenson. His mother was Elizabeth Darbyshire, née Smith. Later Darbyshire worked under Robert Stephenson and was involved on the various lines in the north engineered by Robert Stephenson. He married his wife Maria Wragg in 1846 when he was aged 21. Maria was the daughter of Samuel Wragg, an engineer who also worked for George Stephenson, and the widow of a man called Stafford who was killed in an accident.

Darbyshire in evidence to the Select Committee on the Chewton Railway Station given on 12 June 1863 related that his whole railway experience in Britain had been on the Midland Railway. Robert Stephenson was engineer for the Midland Railway on which construction began in February 1837. The Midland Railway, under Hudson became an extensive system through construction and acquisitions. Darbyshire's brother, John Darbyshire who also came out to Victoria, became Mining surveyor and later Inspector of Mines with the Victorian government Mines department.

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.

Darbyshire travelled to Australia with his wife Maria on the Pemambuco arriving in Melbourne on 7 July 1853 and became Engineer of Construction, and District Surveyor under 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.

Darbyshire's migration to Victoria coincides with the end of what is now termed the 'railway mania'. The drop off in competing proposals and line construction saw many men who had entered the new profession of civil engineer become unemployed. The obituaries of a number of these early members of the profession published by the ICE refer to the member being forced to retreat to the family property to be supported through the downturn, or for those from less well established families to find employment overseas.