Maria was the daughter of Samuel Wragg, an engineer who also worked for George Stephenson, and the widow of a man called Stafford who was killed in an accident.
Darbyshire travelled to Australia with his wife Maria on the Richard arriving in Melbourne on 7 July 1853 and became Engineer of Construction, and District Surveyor under the Victorian Government at Williamstown in 1854.
The drop off in competing proposals and line construction saw many men who had entered the new profession of civil engineer become unemployed.
[7][8] In response to a request to describe an engineer when appearing before the Select Committee upon the Railways on 4 May 1860, he stated: A man who has actually been employed for some years, having actual experience in the working and construction is a civil engineer, as compared with the man who has no experience in works of construction.
Darbyshire was well experienced in railway work when he came to Victoria, and was highly skilled in surveying and designing a rail line.
In the 1860s and 1870s, Darbyshire was a licensed surveyor undertaking township and rural surveys for Government and private practice.
He may also have won a tender for surveying part of the Victoria/South Australia Border, and was responsible for the Town Plan of Lorne in 1871.
[2] Darbyshire was also Surveyor General of Victoria in 1857 and reported extensively on railway and bridge engineering to a number of select committees and is credited with the design of a number of early and important railway structures such as the Saltwater River Bridge on the Maribyrnong River.
As engineer in Chief, he was responsible for supervising the design of five major iron bridges, including the Warren truss Moorabool Viaduct, the plate girder bridge at Jackson's Creek, and in particular, the five span continuous box girder viaduct at Taradale.
Darbyshire had offices in Temple Court on Collins Street but resided at a substantial property at The Grange in Wyndham Werribee,[3] where he contributed to the local community as Magistrate.