"If you don’t know where you’ve been, how do you know where you’re going?"
Bob McIlvena - Historian, Author
Meet Bob McIlvena, the 90-year-old Horsham historian who has dedicated his life to answering that very question for the Wimmera-Mallee region.
About the Author: Bob McIlvena
Bob is not just a researcher; he is a living part of the Wimmera’s water history. His new book, "Waters of the Wimmera - A history of the waterways of the Wimmera Mallee," is the culmination of a lifetime spent working on, living near, and documenting the lifeblood of our region.
A Career Built on Water
Bob’s deep knowledge of the water system isn't just academic—it was earned in the mud and dust of the Wimmera. Starting in the early 1960s, Bob spent over 30 years working for the State Rivers and Water Commission (SR&WC).
Born in Ballarat, Bob descends from pioneering settlers who migrated from Ireland in 1854 and established famrs at Wonwondah and Bungalally near Horsham. After school in Ballarat and a working life that included time in Canada and the United States, Bob returned to Horsham in 1960 to begin work with the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission.
Starting with a gang using picks, crowbars and shovels, he rose through the ranks to become Water Supervisor for the Rural Water Corporation, overseeing 12 reservoirs, 16,000 kilometres of channels, and water supply to 24,000 dams, 3,000 hectares of irrigation, and 50 towns across western Victoria, Australia.
As a construction worker, he was on the front lines of water management. From maintaining regulators to building bridges and distribution equipment, Bob helped keep the water flowing through the largest open-earthen channel system in the world. He retired in 1993, but his work was far from finished.
The Guardian of History
Bob realized that the story of the Wimmera’s "channel days" was at risk of being forgotten. He set out to record the mammoth task that early settlers undertook: the hand-digging of thousands of kilometers of channels and dams initially using nothing but horse, dray, and manpower.
Bob's fascination with water history led him to compile decades of research, combining personal experience and historic records into an extraordinary chronicle of the Wimmera-Mallee's development. His first book, Pipe Dreams, detailed the region's water setory from the 1830s to the 1990s. His latest work, Waters of the Wimmera, continues that story through to 2020, capturing the cultural, environmental and social importance of water in shaping the region.
His research has been exhaustive. Bob has spent years scouring newspaper archives, analyzing State Rivers documents, and collaborating with the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority (WCMA) on projects like "The Wimmera’s Flowing Tale." His work ensures that future generations understand the ingenuity and hardship that secured the region's water supply before the modern pipeline era.
A Survivor's Resilience
Bob’s connection to the Wimmera landscape is personal and profound. A resident of Haven, he and his wife Ercil are survivors of the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Their story of resilience—fighting a "fire tsunami" to save their home—is preserved in the Museums Victoria collection. This experience has only deepened Bob’s respect for the elemental forces of nature that shape life in the Wimmera.
About the Book
About the Book: Waters of the Wimmera
Historian Bob McIlvena continues his lifelong exploration of the Wimmera-Mallee's water story in this remarkable sequel to Pipe Dreams. Drawing on more than sixty years of personal experience and meticulour research, Waters of the Wimmera traces the evolution of water supply and management across western Victoria, Australia from the 1830s to 2020s.
The book charts the transformation of a dry inland landscape into a thriving agricultural region through the vision, ingenuity and determination of those who built and maintained its vast network of reservoirs, channels and pipelines. It captures the trumps, challenges and milestones that defined more than a century of progress and perserverance.
Richly detailed and authoritative, Waters of the Wimmera stands as both a tribute to the pioneers who shaped the region's water legacy and an invaluable record for anyone interested in the social, environmental and engineering history of the Wimmera-Mallee.
"Waters of the Wimmera" is more than a history book; it is a tribute to the people who engineered a future for the region. This book offers a definitive look at:
- The construction of the world's largest open channel system.
- The transition to the modern pipeline network.
- The struggle and triumph of water management in a dry land.
As Bob says, understanding this history is "imperative." Through his eyes, we can finally see where we have been, so we can better understand where we are going.
Waters of the Wimmera by Bob McIlvena
