Kenyon, Alfred Stephen (1867 - 1943)

Summary

Alfred Kenyon was a Commissioner of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission from November 1932 until he retired in January 1935. He was a water supply engineer from when he joined the Victorian public service in 1887. Positions he held included Engineer in Charge of Town Water Supplies, Engineer for Agriculture and Engineer in Charge of Water Supply, North-west Mallee. Kenyon was involved in opening up the northern and western Mallee and extending the districts irrigated from the Murray. He is noted for his pioneer studies in ethnology of Victorian Aborigines and pastoral history.

Details

Chronology

1887 - 1888

Career position - Engineering Assistant, Public Works Department, Victoria

1888 - 1891

Career position - Draughtsman, Department of Water Supply, Victoria

1891 - 1899

Career position - Acting Assistant Engineer, Department of Water Supply, Victoria

1896

Career event - Member (MAusIME), Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers

1899 - 1906

Career position - Assistant Engineer, Department of Mines and Water Supply, Victoria

c. 1900

Career event - Granted Certificate as Engineer of Water Supply, under Irrigation Act 1886 VIC

1902

Career event - Gave evidence to the "Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray"

1906

Career event - Member, Royal Society of Victoria

1906

Career position - Engineer for Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Victoria [under Dr. Thomas Cherry. Undertaking works of water supply, land drainage and setlement throughout Victoria.]

1906

Career event - Certificate of competency as Hydraulic engineer (with merit)

1910 - c. 1920

Career position - Engineer-in-charge, North-West Mallee, State Rivers and Water Supply Commission

1911

Career event - Member, and Councillor, Historical Society of Victoria

1915

Career event - Published "The Story of the Mallee"

1919

Career event - Member, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy [Formerly member of Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers]

1919

Career event - Foundation Associate Member (AMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia [Formerly member of Melbourne University Engineering Society]

1921 - 1932

Career position - Senior engineer, State Rivers and Water Supply Commission

1922

Career event - Member (MIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1927 - 1928

Career position - Chairman, Melbourne division, Institution of Engineers Australia

1928

Career position - President, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

1931 - 1935

Career position - President, (Royal) Historical Society of Victoria

1932 - 1935

Career position - Commissioner, State Rivers and Water Supply Commission

1935

Life event - Retired

1937

Career event - Member (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

1937

Career position - President, Section F (Anthropology), Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

1937

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

Related entries

Archival resources

Royal Historical Society of Victoria Inc

• Alfred Stephen Kenyon - Records, 1907 - 1942; Royal Historical Society of Victoria Inc. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Alfred Stephen Kenyon - Records, 1905 - 1934, MS 12261; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Records, ca. 1883-1980. [manuscript], c. 1883 - 1980, YMS 11170; Institution of Engineers, Australia. Victoria Division.; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Kenyon, A. S. and Mahony, D. J., Stone implements of the Australian Aborigines: guide to the classified collection in the Australian Room, National Museum, Public Library Buildings, Melbourne, arranged for the Australian meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Melbourne: Arnall & Jackson, 1914), 15 pp. Details

Book Sections

• McNicoll, Ronald, 'Kenyon, Alfred Stephen (1867-1943), engineer, ethnologist and historian' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 572-573. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090572b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary: Alfred Stephen Kenyon, MIE Aust', Australian Journal of Science, 6 (1) (1943), 28-29. Details
• Churchyard, J. N., 'Pioneers of Irrigation in Victoria, Number 9 - A. S. Kenyon', Aqua: Official Journal of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Victoria (1957), 259-, 44-. Details
• Daley, C, 'Death of Mr. A. S. Kenyon', The Victorian naturalist, 60 (2) (1943), 29-30, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40754557. Details
• East, L. R., 'Tribute to A. S. Kenyon', Aqua: Official Journal of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Victoria (1957), 44. Details
• Kenyon, A. S., 'Extracts From the Diary of Dr Neumayer, in His 'The Story of the Mallee'', Victorian Historical Magazine, 4 (1914), 64-70. Details
• Kenyon, A. S., 'Presidential address: Black and white culture contacts on the Australian continent [Section F - Anthropology]', Report of the twenty-third meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, Auckland meeting, January, 1937 (1937), 175-184. Details
• Turnbull, Paul, 'Australian museums, Aboriginal skeletal remains, and the imagining of human evolutionary history', Museum & society, 13 (1) (2015), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v13i1.318. Pages 82. Details

Parliamentary papers

• Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray, Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray, representing the states of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia : Report of the Commissioners, with minutes of evidence, appendices and plans (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide: 1902), 60, 359 pp. https://pov.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_GB/parl_paper/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:34095/one. Gave evidence. Minutes of Evidence pp.5, 125, 130, 190. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q24082467. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/13779724. Details
• 'Kenyon, A S (1867-1943)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-631038. Details