Talk:C. Y. O'Connor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	C. Y. O'Connor is part of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
Article Grading: The article has not been rated for quality and/or importance yet. Please rate the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
WikiProject Australia To-do: edit Here are some tasks you can do to help with WikiProject Australia: The current Australian collaboration of the fortnight article is Torres Strait Islanders. Requests: Bicentennial Heritage Trail, Daintree Reef, George Adams, Insurance in Australia, Poppy Industries, Sports Rorts affair, State Orchestra of Victoria, Yarmirr v Northern Territory Attention: Aboriginal Protection Act, Australian Payments Clearing Association, Coral Sea Islands, Qantas, Peter Foster, Reg Ansett Expand: Barossa Valley, Coorong, South Australia, List of Australian military memorials, Palm Island, Queensland, Rossiter Bay Juanita Coco Stubs: Australian Racing Museum Australian women's cricket team, Barry McKenzie, Calgardup Bay, Western Australia, Mortein, Prospect Creek, Russian Jack, Yabbying, Younghusband, South Australia Images: Darwin beer-can regatta, Darwin International Airport, Dingo Fence, Driza-Bone, Eucalyptus coolabah, Esky, Four'N Twenty Pie Quality watch: 37 FA-Class Australia articles - 21 GA-Class Australia articles.

So, what is the appropriate name? is it Charles Yelverton O'Connor or C.Y. O'Connor? Obviously, C.Y O'Connor is not the appropriate name. -- Zoe

The general rule here is "whatever form is most commonly known". I had no clue, so I googled. The only hits I found had the full name, and for a rather obscure person such as this the full name seems warranted anyway, so that's where I moved it. If a dozen Aussies now come by and say "Hey, he's well known to everyone down here as "C. Y.", well then we'll move it there. LDC

He is not known by his full name at all. I had no idea what his full name was until I looked it up. He is known as C. Y. O'Connor, and is very well-known in Western Australia, if nowhere else. If necessary, I'll drum up another 11 Western Australians who'll vouch for his name. If not necessary, unless I hear from anyone to the contrary within the next week, I'll move it back to "C.Y. O'Connor". David Stewart

My experience is that he's known pretty much universally as "C. Y. O'Connor". —Paul A 06:43, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

This entry needs to be included in the "List of civil engineers" page. (IGB)

The second para apparently was copied from [1], so was deleted. See history. Martin 01:34, 18 Jan 2004 (UTC)

1 Western Australia Rail Network
2 The Drowner
3 Death
4 Image:FremantleHarbour 2004 SMC.jpg
5 Mount Burgess

[edit] Western Australia Rail Network

C.Y O'connor also organised the biggest expansion of the rail network in Western Australia. Part of the Expansion was standardising the track configuration to whats now referred to as narrow guage. The rail network was extended to Geraldton, Meekatharra, Kalgoorlie, Esprance by both construction and Government aquirement of private lines servicing mines.

Gnangarra 11:39, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

It gets even more complicated than that, he had such power as the 'chief' that when the limestone north and south moles were eroding away almost the years that they were put in, he more or less sent one of his men 'to the darling scarp with the instruction 'go find some hard rock'. the subsequent quarry - 'Fremantle harbour works quarry (then state quarries in the 30's - now mysteriously known as the hudman road quarry in boya) and siding were according to ian ellott' mundaring shire history book - were worked night and day to get the moles into shape... the plans for the quarry and siding have o'connors signature on them...vcxlor 13:46, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Drowner

The novel The Drowner, by Robert Drewe (Picador 1996) provides a fictionalised account of O'Connor and the building of the pipeline.

I removed this line as a fiction novel though based on the subject doesn't necessarliy comply with factual events. And therefore it's use as reference material about the subject would not necessarily be accurate. Gnangarra 04:44, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Whoever contributed it probably didn't intended it to be a reference. The fact that Robert Drewe has based a novel on C. Y. O'Connor is a fact that arguably belongs in the article. Snottygobble | Talk 04:52, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

"Ten years ago I was in Wiltshire and I just saw that there was an occupation that used to exist called 'drowning' and that sort of created a spark. I thought that it was interesting in a macabre sort of way." It was about this time that an interest in Drewe's own ancestry also sparked. "My old man's family came from central Wiltshire in the late 1840s to Australia, to Victoria incidentally, not to Western Australia." Robert Drewe was able to "track down the James Drewe who had migrated". He was a 23-year-old farm labourer. "I sort of fantasised that he might have been an apprentice to a drowner... and I married the two ideas in my mind... together with a school-boy hero of mine, the engineer-in-chief, C. Y. O'Connor who operated in the late 1890s till 1902.

A direct quote about the book "The Drowner" by its Author Robert Drewe it cant see how this has any relevance to the subject except that the author also admired the achievments of C Y O'Connor.

the other perspective is if the books sparks interest in CY O'Connor then by its very action it needs to acknowledged.

unfortunately i dont know whats right within the bounds of an encyclopedia

i will contact two different people and ask them to express a view as to its relevance and how to include if they think its should be there Gnangarra 07:40, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

It's appropriate for the above sentence to stay in the article as it reads. Noting that the articles subject has references in fiction broadens the encyclopædia. It's not intended to be a reference. -- Ian ≡ talk 08:51, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

I agree; the sentence is clear and true. The book's relevant, and the reference to it says that the account is fictionalised, so there doesn't seem to be a problem. --Phronima 13:31, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks all its backGnangarra

[edit] Death

He took his own life on 10 March 1902 by riding his horse into the surf south of Fremantle less than a year before Forrest turned on the water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The beach where O'Connor died was named after him.

From all accounts, O'Connor rode into the surf and then shot himself (Refs: [2] [3] [4] [5]). The above phrase makes it sound like he drowned. - Gobeirne 19:26, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image:FremantleHarbour 2004 SMC.jpg

I took this image off the article the reason being its of the fishing boat harbour which wasnt one of CY O'Connors projects, please correct me if I wrong. Gnangarra 13:10, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Fishing Harbour is a mid twentieth century project :) SatuSuro 11:34, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Seems so, this is interesting though to illustrate the point: http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.map-db104-e SeanMack 12:07, 7 August 2006 (UTC)