Talk:C. Y. O'Connor

earlier comments

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)

Certainly I have always known him as C.Y.O'Connor (as I today searched in Wiki) I was educated in state schools within 8 kilometers of the Capital Perth GPO, we were so taught to know him as C.Y.O'Connor as I am sure his statues and memorials all do. As for a statue in the warer at Fremantle where he died, I never heard of that, if there is one I suggest someone add that photo. I did think I have seen C.Y.O'Connor statues in Fremantle Town and possibly elsewhere, but forget locations now, so if such exist it would be a good idea to mention and even include.--Robbygay (talk) 00:45, 25 September 2010 (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)

---

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...User:SatuSuro 13:46, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

---

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. User:Hesperian 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. -- User:Moondyne ≡ 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

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)

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)

Mount Burgess

This art has mount burgess - shouldnt that be mount charlotte ? SatuSuro 11:34, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

NO wiki instructions regarding biography

I havent identified who put them in the article - but they provide no help to the maintenance of the article - it only complicates the inevitable vndlsm removl business SatuSuro 03:36, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Deletion of unreferenced edit and subsequent restoration

The following is Mattwashdc's request for assistance to Rebecca regarding an article about MacLean

"Request Assistance"

"Could you please review Norbert Basil MacLean III article with respect to Australian portions of the BLP. The BLP was a good article and stable for about a year and half. The same week a U.S. Congressional Report was issued concerning work that MacLean (who is known in Australia by his Australian surname of Keough) has done on equal access for the military to America's high court an editor started to complain that the article is not neutral and complained that the family section including MacLean's Australian heritage should be removed. This editor then started to remove MacLean from any reference to other articles that have an Australian connection. Since you are within the Wiki Australian Project I'm asking for your thoughts on this issue. It's my opinion that his Australian heritage should remain in the article. But an impartial reviewer with an Australian perspective would be most helpful. Thanks (Mattwashdc (talk) 23:58, 9 August 2010 (UTC))"

This request to Rebecca was made AFTER Mattwashdc restored the deleted section of the O'Connor article (at 18:15, 9 August 2010). In response to the request for assistance, Rebecca said the O'Connor reference in the MacLean article was "quite a stretch".

As the connection between O'Connor and MacLean is one of "great-great-great grandson/parent" AND did not have verification, I have again deleted the material.--S. Rich 19:07, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:C. Y. O'Connor/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

There are many books on the subject, I can see room for expansion. Start class - maybe better.

Last edited at 12:34, 9 April 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 10:38, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on C. Y. O'Connor. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120331072742/http://www.drivewa.com/item/184/c-y-o-connor-tragic-brilliant-misunderstood-genius.html to http://www.drivewa.com/item/184/c-y-o-connor-tragic-brilliant-misunderstood-genius.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 14:44, 9 December 2017 (UTC)