Mr. George Melrose, Licensed surveyor, died at his residence, at Ashfield, early on Tuesday morning, in his 74th year, and his remains were interred yesterday
(Wednesday) in St John's Church of England Cemetery, Ashfield, in the presence of his sons, Messrs. John, George, Thomas, and Reginald Melrose, and other members of his family, also Mr. H. Deane, Engineer-in-Chief; Mr C. O. Burge, Principal Assisting Engineer; Mr. Hutchinson, Inspecting Engineer; Mr. D. C. Simpson, Divisional Engineer; Mr. C. Wilkin, Interlocking Engineer; and numerous friends, including a large number of officers of the the Works Department. Mr. Melrose, together with the late Messrs. H. Quodling, A.Francis, G. Jamieson, and several others, came from England in 1853 with Captain Hawkins, to make land surveys in Tasmania, on the completion of which in 1856, Captain Hawkins and his staff, including Mr. Melrose, were transferred, at the request of Governor Denison, to the service of the Imperial Government in this State; to make surveys of the projected extensions of the then existing railway to Parramatta, which had only been opened in the previous September.
At various times he was engaged on the surveys of all main trunk lines of railway and their branches, including the difficult portion of the Great Western Railway across the Blue Mountains, embracing the Lapstone-hill and Great Zig-Zag, the former of which has been superseded by a tunnel.
Mr. Melrose was thus one of the pioneer railway surveyors, and closely identified with the growth of the railway system in New South Wales.
George Melrose (centre) & his survey team on the site of the Old Devonshire Street Cemetery, Sydney in 1903 which was moved to the now Eastern Suburbs Memorial Gardens, Botany.
Devonshire Street is the site of the now Central Railway Station in Sydney, NSW, Aus.
If you would like to learn more about Devonshire St Cemetery and the move go to:
Old Burial Grounds of Sydney (link invalid 23/5/2010).
Check here for new links
http://www.dixie9.com/2010/05/old-sydney-burial-ground.html
This is a photo of the Zig Zag Railway Line over the Blue Mountains, NSW, Aus and is one of George Melrose's survey masterpieces.
Photo from "Illustrated London News - 1874
These photo's are courtesy of a very generous Tim Carter
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Well, it was really an informative post about George Melrose surveyor and I would say that surveys of all main trunk lines of railway and their branches, including the difficult portion of the Great Western Railway across the Blue Mountains.
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