Henry Willey Reveley (1788-1875) arrived in 1829 on the Parmelia, James Stirling having appointed him Civil Engineer during his stay at the Cape Colony on the way to the Swan River in that ship. Reveley held that office 1829-1838, being responsible for all public works, which included designing the Round House (1831), the first Court House on Arthur Head, and the Whalers Tunnel (1838) underneath it. He also built and ran Perth's first mill.
Reveley also designed the 1836 Court House in Perth (completed December - the second oldest building in the state still extant), the 1829 Barracks in Barrack St, and the second Government House (1834).
He was a friend of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley whom he saved from drowning in the Arno in 1821.
He married Amelia Cleobulina Fielding, who was an artist, and left a painting of the (second) Government House that her husband designed. (See O'Brien: 304-5.)
Bekle H. & J. Gentilli 1993, 'History of the Perth lakes', Early Days, vol. 10, part 5: 442-460.
Hasluck, Paul & F.I. Bray 1927, 'Early mills of Perth', Early Days, vol. 1, part 8: 62-84.
O'Brien, Philippa 2023, No Stone without a Name: A Visual History of Possession and Dispossession in Australia's West, Ellenbook Cultural Foundation: esp. 252-3.
Oldham, Ray, bio in the ADB.
Reece, Bob 2013, 'Henry Willey Reveley: Swan River Colony's first architect', Early Days, Vol. 14, Pt. 2: 195-219.
Reece, Bob 2014, 'Too much for round here', Fremantle Herald, 21 Feb 2014. [on the Round House]
Webb, David & David Warren 2005, Fremantle: Beyond the Round House, Longley, Fremantle: 8-9
White, John 1976, 'Henry Reveley, architect and engineer', Early Days, Volume 7, Part 8: 24-42.
There was an image on this page supposedly of Henry Reveley. It now seems it is a drawing of Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, whose father's middle name was Reveley. I blame Google :)
Garry Gillard | New: 23 November, 2014 | Now: 13 September, 2023