|
JULY 2025 100th Anniversary of E. J. KENNY'S DEATH |
Edward Joseph Kenny
'The Father of Merbein' 1863 - 18/07/1925 Kenny was appointed by the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission of Victoria in circa 1909 to use his engineering skills to supervise the forming of the irrigation channels and the erection of the first section of the pumping plant. When he first arrived, he pitched his tent adjacent to the white Murray River Cliffs and as the 'First Officer in Charge of the Merbein Irrigation Area’, he worked tirelessly to develop Merbein into one of the finest examples of closer settlement under irrigation conditions in the State. In 1912, Kenny had the original name of the settlement 'White Cliffs' changed to ‘Merbein Waterworks District’ and ‘Merbein Irrigation Area’. Even before his untimely death in 1925, Kenny was known as the 'Father of Merbein'. Kenny Park is named in his honour. |
In the centre of this photo is the remnant of the tent that E.J. Kenny lived in when he first arrived to work as State Rivers & Water Supply Commission’s ‘Officer in Charge of the Merbein Irrigation Area'.
Plaque erected by MDHS on Pump Hill beside track down to the irrigation pumps. It identifies the location of Merbein's Beginnings as an Irrigation settlement in 1909 and the significant part that Kenny played in the settlement's success. |
