Milne, William Patrick
[Passenger list, "KOOMBANA" 37, compiled 02 April 1912, Adelaide Steamship Company. Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University, 0186/N46/634]
Fremantle-Derby Milne W.P. Public Works Department.
[Passenger list, "KOOMBANA" 37, compiled 04 June 1912, Adelaide Steamship Company. Broome Historical Society]
List of passengers known to have been bound for Derby.
From Fremantle [saloon]
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Milne, Wm. P. Boring Engineer at Derby for P.W.D. Wife
resides at Labouchere Road, South Perth.
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["Story of the Koombana", The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 31 March 1912, page 12]
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SOME OF THE PASSENGERS.
Now that it appears more than probable that the Koombana no longer exists, the personality of the passengers who most likely have shared her untimely fate will be of interest. Amongst them are several well-known people, and it is quite possible that some of them may have left the ship at an intermediate port.
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Mr. W. P. Milne, of the Public Works Department, was proceeding to Derby with a gang of five men - W. Davis, A. Baker, G. Martin, H. Hereford and E. Green - to carry out some works up north.
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["No News of the Koombana", The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 31 March 1912, page 1]
ITEMS OF INTEREST
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William Patrick Milne, who was bound for Derby on the Koombana, is a married man, his wife and children living in Perth. He was employed for a long time by the Government on boring work on one of the overland stock routes in the Far North. Mr. Milne is about 38 years old., and Mr. David Milne, who resides in Robert-street, Kalgoorlie, is his brother.
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["The Passengers", The West Australian, Wednesday 03 April 1912, page 7]
FOR DERBY.
Saloon.
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Mr. W. P. Milne.
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["Relatives On The Goldfields", The Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA), Tuesday 02 April 1912, page 32]
RELATIVES ON THE GOLDFIELDS
ANXIOUS INQUIRIES.
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One of the Koombana's passengers was Mr. William Patrick Milne, a married man, whose wife and children live in Perth. He was about 38 years of age. He has been for a very long time a member of a Government boring party, and did a lot of this particular class of work on one of the overlanid stock routes in the far north. It is understood here that he was on his way to Derby when the cyclone burst over the Nor'-West coast. Mr. W. P. Milne has a brother, Mr. David Milne, who resides in Robert street, Kalgoorlie.
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["Water Provision at West Kimberley", The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Saturday 06 January 1912, page 35]
WATER PROVISION AT WEST KIMBERLEY.
SATISFACTION OF DERBY RESIDENTS.
The splendid work carried out by the Public Works Department during the past two years in the West Kimberley district in putting down a series of deep bores to tap the artesian basin mapped out by the Geological Survey Department was recently fully acknowledged by a thoroughly representative gathering at Derby to bid farewell to Mr. William Milne, who has arrived in Perth by the s.s. Koombana. The gathering was a large one and it is seldom such expressions of satisfaction at a Government undertaking are heard.
Mr. Coleman, who presided, stated that the benefit to the district was simply incalculable, as the provision of water had reduced the risks aud delays in travelling and shipping cattle to such an extent as to practically bring about a new era in tho district, making the future of Derby an assured one, as the town would now be the principal stock shipping port in Western Australia, last year's figures of about 25,000 head of cattle and 50,000 sheep being possible now of great expansion. Mr. Milne's work in connection with the Mayhall's Well bore, where by his great promptitude a magnificent supply of splendid water had been obtained where most wanted had really saved a serious situation and the district was greatly beholden to Mr. Milne for his prompt action.
In returning thanks for his reception, Mr. Milne stated that he had bad sole charge of the work in West Kimberley and that the Department in Perth had given him every possible encouragement. The work done under him in that district comprised a bore at the 67 mile in the stock route to Hall's Creek, sunk to a depth of 3,012ft., being the deepest one in the State. This was a splendid bore in good holding ground, requiring no casing and necessitating using the diamond drill all the way. The supply was 140,000 gallons per day of beautiful fresh water. No 2 bore at the 81 mile of the stock route, sunk to a depth of 291ft at which depth a practically unlimited supply of sub-artesian waler of good quality rising to within 114ft. of the surface, was struck. A well sunk on this 126ft. gives the means of supply. No. 3 bore at Mayhall Well, just five miles from Derby, and giving a beautiful supply for cattle just prior to taking them on board ship, was a great success. This was sunk to a depth of 1,064ft. and yields a supply of about 70,000 gallons daily, and permits of cattle watering in large numbers from the overflow in place of having to be carefully watered a few at a time from a well as heretofore. No. 4 bore is about finished at a point 15 miles from Derby, having been sunk to a depth 603ft. and striking a fine supply of sub-artesian water in the Pindan country, there lessening the difficulty of getting stock through one of the worst belts of hot sandy country on the whole of the stock rout Mr. Milne expressed the opinion that the opening up of the country by obtaining suitable water supply was only commencing and he thanked the residents for the assistance they had given him in his work. He also instanced the boring he had done for minerals and considered it possible that similar work in this direction would eventually prove of almost equal value to that done in securing water.
Messrs. McGovern and Thurkle also spoke in very appreciative terms of the work done by the Civil Service generally in the district, and the satisfaction it was to have deal with officers who could understand the requirements of the district, and Corporal Buttle, of the Police Department, who was also leaving on a holiday, was specially singled out for the tact he had used in the district.
Mr. Piper, manager of Meda Station owned by Messrs. Forrest. Emanuel and Co., admitted the great value of the work done by the Government through Mr. Milne, and the meeting closed by making a presentation to the guest of the occasion.
["Fate of the Koombana", The Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA), Saturday 06 April 1912, page 2]
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Mr. Milne, the government boring expert, had several men with him. He was married and had three children, the youngest just a few weeks old.
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["Mr. W. P. Milne", The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Saturday 06 April 1912, page 24]
[photograph]
["Some Of The Passengers", Broome Chronicle (WA), Saturday 06 April, 1912]
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Mr. Milne, of the Public Works Department, was preceeding to Derby with a gang of five men, Messrs. Davis, Baker, Martin, Hereford and Green.
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["The Lost Koombana", The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 07 April 1912, page 1]
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Public Works officials are requested to attend the memorial service to-day at St. George's Cathedral to the late W. E. Milne.
["Announcements", The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Saturday 27 April 1912, page 23]
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DEATHS.
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MILNE.--In March. 1912, lost at sea on the s.s Koombana, William Patrick Milne, Government Boring Engineer, dearly beloved husband of Mrs. Milne Labouchere-road, South Perth.
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["In Memoriam", The West Australian, Thursday 20 March 1913, page 1]
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MILNE.--In sad and loving memory of my dear husband and father, William Patrick Milne, who lost his life in the Koombana, March, 1912.
--Inserted by his loving wife and family.
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