This article was published in Australian Dictionary of
Biography, Volume 7, (MUP), 1979 William Baragwanath
(1878-1966), surveyor, geologist and public servant, was born on
1 August 1878 at Durham Lead near Ballarat, Victoria, son of
William Baragwanath, Cornish-born surveyor, and his wife
Margaret Hunter, née Herberton, of Glasgow. He was educated at
state schools at Durham Lead and Garibaldi, and later at the
Victoria College and the Ballarat School of Mines. In 1894-97 he
was articled to Robert Allan, land and mining surveyor, whom he
assisted with topographic and underground surveys at Maldon,
Daylesford and Ballarat. He joined the Department of Mines in
1897, and studied part time to pass the land surveyor's and
mining surveyor's examinations in 1902-03; he received the
certificate of geologist of the Ballarat School of Mines in
1911. In 1897 Baragwanath was assistant surveyor and draftsman
in the department's survey of the Walhalla goldfield, and was in
charge from 1898 until 1900. Successive geologic,