Joseph Austen Treffry (1782 – 29 January 1850) was an engineer, mining adventurer, and industrialist who became a significant landowner in Cornwall, England.
[1] Trained in civil engineering, Treffry built a new quay in Fowey to take larger vessels for the export of tin, the major industry of Cornwall.
However, as Cornwall was geographically isolated from the industries of London and the Northwest, and as there were minimal port facilities through the narrow streets of Fowey, Treffry needed to find new means of distributing his tin ore.
In 1828 he drew up plans for a new safe harbour at Par, and by 1829 Treffry had built a twelve thousand foot breakwater on Spit Reef, losing three of his own ships.
He also acquired the moribund port of Newquay and land and mines in the area of Goss Moor, and planned to link them by a railway system.