Charles Yelverton O'Connor was born on the 11th of January 1843 in Gravelmount, Castletown, County Meath.

O'Connor was a Engineer. The construction of the Freemantle Harbour in Western Australia was probably O'Connor's greatest personal achivements as their was huge opposition to it. He said ""the work of my life to which I have devoted all the thought I could bring to bear on the subject".
Work commenced in 1892 and was sucessfully completed in 1903. On 4th May 1897, the first overseas passenger vessel, the Sultan docked in the Harbour.

O'Connor is also known for his work on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. The completion of this scheme sucessfully carried water 330 miles (530km) from Perth to Kalgoorlie.

To commerate him, a bronze statue of O'Connor by Pietro Porcelli stands in front of the Freemantle Port Authority buildings. The beach where O'Connor died was named in his honour and another statue sculpted by Tony Jones can be seen.