Picture courtesy of wikimedia commons
In Centeen Park, Water and Park streets, Brockville. The plaque was missing at the time of writing.
Commemoration
Born at Brockville, Canada West, Chaffey became a shipbuilder on the Great Lakes and the inventor of a new type of propeller. Subsequently, he went to California where, in partnership with his brother, he built a model irrigation project and founded the city of Ontario. At the request of Alfred Deakin, later Prime Minister of Australia, Chaffey went to that continent in 1886 where he began irrigated fruit production in the Murray Valley. By proving that irrigation was practical, Chaffey was largely responsible for the successful development of the fruit industry in Australia.
Background
Chaffey was a self-taught engineer, learning from books rather than at school. He shifted from boat building to irrigation when he visited his father who lived in California in 1880. He retired to California and died in the city of Ontario in that state.
Through Chaffey we see how the world had become smaller. His technical advances were not limited to his immediate environs. They spanned the continent and even made a significant impact on the other side of the world. No longer cut-off settlements in the wilderness, Ontario was now part of a global community.