Henry
Deane, Railway
Engineer and Botanist, is an unsung hero of rail transport in Australia. He
arrived in Australia January 1880. Henry worked on the Gunnedah-Narrabri
railway construction and the Homebush-Hawkesbury line. He was also responsible
for the electrification of the Sydney tramway system. In 1906 he was in charge
in the construction of the Wolgan Valley Railway, one of the great engineering
feats in Australia. In 1908 Henry was Engineer-in-Chief in charge of the
construction of the Transcontinental Railway, which joined the eastern states
to Western Australia. Henry had a great interest in the Australian flora and
during his railway work collected native plants. He discovered Boronia
deanei and Eucalyptus deanei during his work on the Wolgan Valley
Railway. Whilst based at Gunnedah
(central west NSW) he collected Acacia deanei. At some stage, probably
during his time in Sydney, he collected Melaleuca deanei.
Henry was also involved in research into native hardwood timbers, wrote
scientific papers on plant fossils and was president of the Linnaean Society
of NSW. Henry Deane died in 1924 whilst working in his Melbourne garden.