William ChaffeyPrint Page

The memorial commemorates William Chaffey who was one of the pioneers and founders of Renmark.

William Benjamin Chaffey, CMG (1856 – 1926) was a Canadian engineer and irrigation planner who with his older brother George Chaffey developed what became the cities of Etiwanda, California, Ontario, California, and Upland, California in the United States of America, as well as the cities of Mildura, Victoria and the town of Renmark, South Australia, in Australia.

Renmark did not acquire any importance until 1887 when George and William Chaffey signed an agreement with the South Australian government which led to the creation of an irrigation scheme which was to turn the entire area into one of the most productive in the country.

The scheme to water the entire area was greeted enthusiastically with the Assistant Director of Kew Gardens in London declaring `from these sunny lands where our sons and daughters have made their homes, we shall draw our future supply of fruit`. By 1892 the Chaffey experiment had collapsed. The following year the Renmark Irrigation Trust came into existence.

The ceremonies of the unveiling of the Sturt and Chaffey memorials on 15 January were attended by a large and interested crowd, including many children. The town band was in attendance. The Sturt memorial is on an ideal site on a slope facing the river. It is a well designed sandstone pyramid, surmounted by a tall column, and carrying a light. The Chaffey memorial is erected opposite the post-office. It is of cement, with an ornamental base, surmounted by a high column with a beacon, and inscribed — 'To W. B. Chaffey, one of the pioneers and founders of the settlement.'
Chronicle (Adelaide), 23 January 1930.

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