Charles Yelverton O'Connor, CMG (11 January 1843 – 10 March 1902), was an Irish engineer who is best known for his work in Western Australia, especially the construction of Fremantle Harbour,[1] thought to be impossible, and the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.

He was the third and youngest son and fourth child of John O'Connor, a farmer and company secretary, and his wife Mary Elizabeth, née O'Keefe.

[5][6][7] His first task was the construction of the Otira Gorge section of the road over Arthur's Pass, so that the gold fields on the West Coast became easier to access.

In 1873 he married Scottish-born Susan Laetitia Ness, and they had eight children, four girls (including Girl Guiding commissioner Bridget Yelverton Lee Steere and painter Kathleen O'Connor) and four boys while in New Zealand (their fifth child, Charles Goring Yelverton O'Connor, died aged 7 months in a home accident).

By 1891, O'Connor had much experience in harbour and dock construction when he resigned his position in April that year to become Engineer-in-Chief of Western Australia.

A succession of gold rushes at Southern Cross in 1887, at Coolgardie in 1892, and at Kalgoorlie in 1893 caused a population explosion in the barren and dry desert centre of Western Australia, exemplified by towns like Cunderdin and Merredin.

On 16 July 1896, John Forrest introduced to Western Australian Parliament a bill to authorise the raising of a loan of £2.5 million to construct the scheme: the pipeline would pump 5 million imperial gallons (23,000 m3) of water per day to the Goldfields from a dam on the Helena River near Mundaring Weir in Perth, pumped in eight successive stages through 330 miles of 30-inch-diameter (760 mm) pipe to the Mount Charlotte Reservoir in Kalgoorlie.

[3] Evans describes how political machinations and individual greed led to many libellous newspaper articles about O'Connor towards the end of the pipeline project.

This crocodile imposter has been backed up in all his reckless extravagant juggling with public funds, in all his nefarious machinations behind the scenes by the kindred-souled editor of The West Australian.

—(Evans 2001:219)The government conducted an inquiry into the scheme and found no basis for the press accusations of corruption or misdemeanours on the part of O'Connor.

[12] It is claimed that local Noongar Aboriginal people, unhappy with his destruction of the limestone bar across the Swan River at Point Walter, placed a curse on O'Connor.