Dietrichson, David

DIETRICHSON, David (1856–1921) was born at Hole S Og Prgj, Norway, eldest son of Vilhelm Dietrichson and Gottfrieda Severine Bøckman. In 1875, he was living at Melsom, Vestfold, near Oslo where in 1879 he married Marie Amalia Hjort. After arriving in Queensland from London in August 1885, he joined the General Gordon Lodge in Brisbane, giving his occupation as civil engineer in March 1886 and was authorised as a surveyor in January 1887. He may also have had a Bachelor of Arts degree. As a surveyor, civil engineer, and architect, of Edward St, Brisbane, he called tenders for drainage at Wellington Point in May 1887 and for a house at Eight-Mile Plains. Soon afterwards he was appointed surveyor and consulting engineer to the Cleveland Divisional Board. While continuing to work as a surveyor, he was occasionally in court over financial matters such as non-payment of his staff, actions which he invariably lost. His run of misfortune (or maladministration) may have continued, when in 1890 at the end of a boom, he joined a company Pike Dietrichson & Co which offered to renew mortgages with English and southern money. He was soon in court again when the firm lost a case brought by the architect JJ COHEN over a valuation report. By the end of 1892, he had moved to the Central West where he practised as a surveyor and civil engineer, based at Longreach but working throughout the region. He was working at Oondooroo in August 1893 and supervising repairs by day labour to the Wokingham Creek crossing on the Boulia Road for the Winton Divisional Board in Oct 1894. Perennially short of money, he was convicted of false pretences at Townsville in 1895 but released. By 1898, he was clerk of the Thursday Is Divisional Board (QPOD) and in 1905 was practising at Roma as surveyor, civil engineer and architect. By 1915 he was an inmate of the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich but a couple of years later Dietrichson left Australia, arriving in March 1918 at New York from Wellington, New Zealand, enroute to Norway where he died at Asker, Akershus.