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Adding Category:Companions_of_the_Order_of_St_Michael_and_St_George using Cat-a-lot

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{{Short description|Canadian engineer and irrigation planner}}
{{for|the Australian farmer and NSW politician (1915–1987)|Bill Chaffey}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}
[[File:WilliamChaffey.jpg|thumb|upright|William Chaffey]]
[[File:RioVistaMildura.jpg|thumb|Rio Vista, former home of W.B. Chaffey and his family in [[Mildura, Victoria]], Australia.]]

'''William Benjamin Chaffey''' [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George|CMG]] (21 October 1856 – 4 June 1926) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] engineer and irrigation planner who with his older brother [[George Chaffey]] developed what became the [[California]]n cities of [[Etiwanda, California|Etiwanda]], [[Ontario, California|Ontario]], and [[Upland, California|Upland]] in the [[United States of America]], as well as the [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]]n city of [[Mildura, Victoria|Mildura]] and the [[South Australia]]n town of [[Renmark, South Australia|Renmark]] in Australia.<ref name=adb>
{{cite web|last=Westcott|first=Peter|authorlink=|year=1979|url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070687b.htm|title=Chaffey, William Benjamin (1876 - 1937)|work=[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]|publisher=Australian National University / Melbourne University Press|accessdate=2010-04-22}}
</ref>

==Life==
Chaffey was born in [[Brockville, Ontario]], Canada, the third son<ref name=dab>
{{Dictionary of Australian Biography
|First=William Benjamin|Last=Chaffey
|shortlink=0-dict-biogCa-Ch.html#chaffey2
|accessdate=2010-04-22}}
</ref> of George and his wife Anne ''née'' Legoe.<ref name=adb/>
The Chaffey brothers developed irrigation colonies, named by them Etiwanda and Ontario, on the [[Cucamonga Plain]] in the early 1880s.<ref name=adb/> The brothers had bought land and water-rights at a low price and resold 10 acre (4 ha) blocks to settlers; a non-profit mutual irrigation company distributed water.<ref name=adb/>

[[Alfred Deakin]], then a minister in the [[Victoria (Australia)|Victorian]] government and chairman of a royal commission on water supply, visited the irrigation areas of California in 1885 where he met George and William Chaffey.<ref name=adb/>
George Chaffey visited Victoria in February 1886 and excited by the prospects for irrigation in the [[Murray River]] valley, cabled William to sell their interests in California. The quick asset sale resulted in the brothers realising less than true value, but George soon arrived in Victoria.

After some discussions in the Victorian parliament, the Chaffey brothers commenced development on 250,000 acres (101,170 ha) of land near Mildura. They also began works on {{convert|250000|acre|km2}} around [[Renmark, South Australia]] after an offer by the premier of South Australia, Sir [[John Downer]]. William remained in Mildura and the Renmark area was managed by a younger brother, Charles F. Chaffey, who came from California. Although the new towns were well planned, there was some settler dissatisfaction about the loss of water from seepage. Disputes about the Chaffey's practices were discussed in the Victorian parliament. A collapse of the Melbourne land boom also contributed to problems faced by the Chaffeys. After a government report, the Mildura Irrigation Trust took over from the Mildura Irrigation Co. in September 1895.<ref name=adb/>

On 10 December 1895, their Australian projects went [[bankrupt]] and George returned to the United States. Charles, whose home "Olivewood" still stands in Renmark, also returned to America before settling in [[Vancouver|Vancouver, British Columbia]], Canada.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166325219 |title=A Pioneer Irrigationist |newspaper=[[The Observer (Adelaide)|The Observer]] |location=Adelaide |date=12 June 1926 |accessdate=18 February 2016 |page=52 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> William Benjamin Chaffey (known as W.B.) remained in Mildura, bringing his 200-acre (81 ha) orchard into production and establishing the Mildura (later Mildara) Winery Pty Ltd.<ref name=adb/>
Active from 1895 in the development of marketing procedures for local fruit, Chaffey was a leading member of both the Mildura and the Australian Dried Fruits associations, president of the latter for many years.<ref name=adb/>
William Chaffey was elected president of the Mildura Shire Council in 1903 and became mayor in 1920. The residents of Mildura presented Chaffey with a Ford motor car in December 1911 in appreciation of the ''"ability and determination"'' shown by him in ''"aiding the development of the area and in proving conclusively the value of irrigated horticulture"''.<ref name=adb/> Chaffey eventually paid off his liabilities to the government and private creditors; he was appointed C.M.G. in 1924.<ref name=dab/>
Chaffey died at age 69 on 4 June 1926 in Mildura, survived by his second wife and their two daughters and a son; two sons and a daughter of the first marriage also survived him.<ref name=adb/>
A statue of Chaffey by [[Paul Montford]] stands in Mildura, another stands in Renmark.<ref name=adb/>

==References==
{{reflist}}
*[http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume5/172-175.htm Canadian government digital collections]
*[http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi594.htm University of Houston]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaffey, William}}
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Brockville]]
[[Category:People from Mildura]]
[[Category:Mayors of places in Victoria (state)]]
[[Category:Canadian engineers]]
[[Category:Irrigation engineers]]
[[Category:Settlers of South Australia]]
[[Category:20th-century mayors of places in Australia]]
[[Category:Companions_of_the_Order_of_St_Michael_and_St_George]]

William Chaffey - Revision history

imported>Julipero: Adding Category:Companions_of_the_Order_of_St_Michael_and_St_George using Cat-a-lot