Hugh McColl (pioneer)

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Hugh McColl (22 January 1819 – 2 April 1885) was a Scottish-born irrigation pioneer in Australia.

McColl was born in Glasgow and worked for fifteen years as a bookseller. Marrying in 1843, the family decided to emigrate to Victoria; McColl's wife died on 2 January 1853 as they approached Melbourne.

After work as a printer, commercial traveller and legal manager, in 1874 McColl became secretary of the Grand Victorian North West Canal, Irrigation, Traffic and Motive Power Co. Ltd. The plan to provide vast canals for inland Australia eventually faded away except for McColl's vision for canals which later became the basis of the Goulburn irrigation system.

In 1880, McColl was elected member for the Mandurang in the Victorian parliament and advanced water conservation.

[edit] References

• Valerie Yule, 'McColl, Hugh (1819 - 1885)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, MUP, 1974, pp 131-132.
• Serle, Percival (1949). "McColl, Hugh". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.