13 Facts About Clement Wilks

Clement Wilks was a civil engineer and architect in colonial Victoria, Australia.

Clement Wilks was born at Peckham Rye, Surrey, 15 February 1819, the youngest son of the Rev Mark Wilks, of Paris.

Clement Wilks spent most of his early years in France and Switzerland and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts at the College de Paris in 1836.

In 1852, Clement Wilks left England for Australia, and immediately after arriving in Melbourne joined the Victorian Public Service, as an Assistant Colonial Engineer.

Clement Wilks was an Engineer for the Central Road Board in the colony of Port Phillip, Australia, from 1854 to 1862.

Clement Wilks was appointed Ballarat Road Engineer in 1857 having initially been stationed in Barkers Creek or Castlemaine.

Clement Wilks had originally surveyed the Ballarat-Amherst main road on which a series of unusually well-crafted bluestone bridges survives near Glendaruel, possible to his design.

Clement Wilks was responsible for maintenance of the infamous corduroy road between Bungaree and Ballarat on the route from Geelong.

Clement Wilks served on the Ballarat Sludge Commission, which was given the role of solving the flooding and silting problems caused by damage done by gold mining along the creeks.

Clement Wilks joined the Department of Roads and Bridges in 1864, and reported on the road to the River Jordan Goldfield in the same year.

Clement Wilks was a member of the Yarra Track Committee responsible for building this coach and dray road to the Woods Point Goldfields.

Clement Wilks designed a number or small bridges and culverts including the Wilks Creek Bridge, that commemorates his name, on the Marysville Road.

Clement Wilks was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 7 December 1869.