Henry Bregenzer

BREGENZER, Henry, MWAIE AMIEAust MBAS (1866-1928)

Henry Bregenzer was born on April 18, 1866, the son of German born engineer Louis Bregenzer and his Scottish born wife Margaret Bregenzer nee McInnes. He grew up in Ballarat where his father was the Shire Engineer and he was one of nine children. Henry came to Western Australia and by 1899 had applied for a gold mining lease at Mount Monger south east of Kalgoorlie.

In 1905 he married Victoria Marion Ellen (Marjorie) Fitch at Perth and they had a daughter, Gertrude Marjorie Fitch (born 1906).

In 1907 Henry was Acting Manager at Canning Mills for Millars Karri and Jarrah Company. By 1909 he was working for Smith and Timms as their engineer on the Port Hedland Marble Bar Railway, and from 1910 to 1912 he was working in the Pilbara for the Post Master General’s Department. He returned to work in Perth in 1913.

Henry Bregenzer was a founding member of the WA Institution of Engineers in 1909, and an auditor of that body from 1914 to 1917. He was also a founding member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia in 1919. In 1917 he was Vice President of the Australian Association of Civil Engineers, formed in Perth to accelerate the creation of a national engineering body. Henry had a keen interest in astronomy and was a member of the British Astronomical Society.

Henry died on July 14, 1928, aged 62, being survived by his wife and daughter.

Henry’s brothers, Ernest Raymond Bregenzer and Herman Bregenzer, had also travelled to Western Australia. Ernest returned to the eastern states before enlisting in WWI. Ernest died in France on August 18, 1918 just before the war ended, fighting against the country of his father’s birth.

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References:
Kalgoorlie Miner, 5.12.1899, p1;
Daily News, 16.4.1907, p8;
West Australian,16.10.1909, p11;
Daily News 19.7.1928, p12.