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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
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SECTION 5 i If*, PAPERS I
PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA i 1973
Si, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
45TH CONGRESS, PERTH
13 - 17TH AUGUST, 1973
SECTION 5 - ENGINEERING
PAPERS
III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ANZAAS Section 5 - Engineering papers for the 45th Congress have been preprinted and presented, free of charge, to all registrants for Section 5. All costs for preprinting of papers have been borne by organisations outside ANZAAS and their generous contributions are acknowledged. The contributing organisations were:
ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, AUSTRALIA - W.A. CHAPTER CEMENT AND CONCRETE ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA - W.A. DIVISION INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, AUSTRALIA - WESTERN AUSTRALIA DIVISION
MAIN ROADS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, PERTH
IV AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 45TH CONGRESS PERTH; 1973
SECTION 5 - ENGINEERING: SPEAKERS
SPEAKER" :;; DAY OF-:;, PAGE -SYMPOSIUM
BEDBROOK/ G.M.
BRODIE-HALL, L.C. THU 93
DOYLE, H.A. TUE *not available
GORHAM, E.R. MON 1
HANCOCK, L.G. TUE 21
HOWROYD, L.H. MON 9
HUNT, H.E. WED 49
KEAYS, J.F. MON \ 13
KING, B.E. TUE 33
LETHAM, D.D. WED 41
LOCKETT, H.A. FRI 101
MALCOLM, C.V. THU 85
NOBLE, E.L. FRI 45
PARKER, L. FRI 97
PAYNTER, J. THU 53
SAMUEL, P. FRI 109
SPRINGETT, J.A. WED *
WATERMAN, P. THU *
WILKIN, W.J. TUE 37 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 45TH CONGRESS, PERTH. 1973
SECTION 5,-^ ENGINEERING; PROGRAMME MONDAY 13TH AUGUST; DEVELOPING THE NORTH-WEST Chairman: Sir Charles Court, M.L.A., Perth 09.15 - 09.45 Mr. E.R. Gorham, Deputy Co-ordinator, i Department of Development and De- I centralisation, W.A. 09.45 - 10.15 Mr. L.W. Howroyd, Architect, ; Technico 10, Pty. Ltd., Perth 10.15 - 10.45 Discussion , i 10.45 - 11.15 Break , 11.15 - 12.15 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS; THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND THE ENVIRONMENT , Mr. J.F. Keays, President, Assoc- ! iation of Consulting Engineers, j Australia Chairman: Mr. E.E. Freeth, G.E.C. of Australia, j Perth 12.15 - 12.45 Discussions TUESDAY 14TH AUGUST; PEACEFUL NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS i Chairman: Prof. D.J. AlLen-Williams, Department | of Mechanical Engineering, University j of Western Australia 09.15-09.45 Mr. Lang Hancock, Hancock & Wright, Perth 09.45 - 10.15 Mr. H. Doyxe, Geology Department, University of W.A. 10.15 - 10.45 Discussion 10.45 - 11.15 Break 11.15 - 11.45 Mr. B.E. King, State X-Ray Laborator- ies, Perth 11.45-12.15 Mr. W.J. Wilkin, Public Works Depart- ment, W.A. 12.15 - 12.45 Discussion
VI SECTION 5 - ENGINEERING PROGRAMME - CONT'D
WEDNESDAY 15TH AUGUST; ACCIDENTAL POLLUTION
Chairman: Dr. G.B. Hill, G.B. Hill & Partners, Consulting Engineers, Perth
09,15 - 09.45 Dr. J.A. Springett, Ecological and Resource PlanhingTcbnsultantI, Perth 09.45 - 10.15 Dr. D.D. Letham, Terth . ------.—-.—--• 10.15 — 10.45 Discussion 10.45 - 11.15 Break ._-.'...... 11.15 - 11.45 Capt. B.L. Noble, General Manager, Fremantle Port Authority 11.45 - 12.15 Mr. H.E. Hunt, Chief Engineer, Metropolitan Water Supjply, Sewerage and Drainage Board, Perth 12.15 - 12.45 Discussion
THURSDAY 16TH AUGUST: MODIFYING THE ENVIRONMENT
Chairman: Mr. P. Samuel, Consulting Civil Engineer, Perth
09.15 - 09.45 Mr. P. Waterman, Environmental Re- sources of Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne 09.45 - 10.15 Mr. J. Paynter, Canberra, A.C.T. 10.15 - 10.45 Discussion 10.45 - 11.15 Break 11.15 - 11.45 Mr. C.V. Malcolm, Agricultural Scientist, Perth 11.45 - 12.15 Mr. L.C. Brodie-Hall, Western Mining Corporation, Perth 12.15 - 12.45 Discussion
FRIDAY 17TH AUGUST: HUMAN ENGINEERING
Chairman: Mr. J.F. Keays, Section 5 - Engineering President
09.15 - 09.45 Mr. L. Parker, Australian Administra- tive Staff College, Victoria 09.45 - 10.15 Miss H.A. Lockett, Merz & McLellan & Partners, Perth 10.15 - 10.45 Discussion 10.45 - 11.15 Break 11.15 - 11.45 Dr. G.M. Bedbrook, Royal Perth (Rehabilitation) Hospital, Perth 11.45 - 12.15 Mr. P. Samuel, Consulting Civil Engineer, Perth 12.15 - 12.45 Discussion
VII Developing the North West
Pastoral Industry During the late 1850's as a result of a boom in the wool and wheat industries "southern" E.E. GORHAMB.E., H.I.E. AUST. settlers began to show interest in the North. Interest was spurred by the report of Gregory's DEPUTY CO-ORDINATOR officially sponsored expedition in 1861 that DEPARTMEK OF DEVELOPMENT there were "large quantities of good pastoral AND DECENTPALISATION land". The first stock were landed near Cossack on the mouth of the Harding River by a Mr Walter Padbury in 1363 and due to lack of feed near the IHTRODOCTIOH landing were taken to a wateriny point on the Harding River. After a reconnaissance trip The history of civilizud contact with Australia's further north, Padbury decided to transfer all North West can be traced back for hundreds of years, his stock to the De Grey River. Meanwhile, perhaps even to the early 16th century when it is another settler, John Wellard, had also arrived in believed Portugese traders first touched the shores. the area, and he was followed shortly by John Among the better known of the early visitors are Withnell who settled on the Harding River where Dirk Hartog who explored Shark Bay in 1616, leaving Roebourne soon developed. behind a pewter dish as a memento; and William Dampier who landed at Cygnet Bay in 1688, and in Withnell landed 1,000 ewes, 50 ramr, 10 draught 1699 followed the coastline north from Shark Bay, horses and 10 cattle, but only 86 sheep, one cow naming Dampier Archipelago and Roebuck Bay. Dampier's and a horse survived the short journey inland. In disparaging reports discouraged further exploration addition, most of their goods, left on high ground by the British for over a century. It was not until at Cossack to await their return, were swept away 1863 - almost two centuries later - that the first in an abnormally high tide. settlers landed at the mouth of the Harding River. The first enterprising "southerner" to overland Pror then until recently the story has usually been stock from Geraldton was E.T. Hoc-ley, who arrived one of hardship and despair, frequently one of tragedy at the Fortescue in 1864 after a journey or three and only occasionally of fortune. The pattern has months, losing only 8 of his 1,920 sheep on the typically been boom or bust, a story of small pioneer- way. For this he was granted 100,000 acres rent ing communities clinging to the rim of a large free for 12 years by the Colonial government. inhospitable region, seeking riches in the face of The normal incentive was 100,000 acres rent free very long odds. for 4 years and low rent for the next eight years. The majority of Australians have only become aware of Despite numerous initial setbacks caused by the region since the Pilbara leapt into world prominence cyclones, lack of surface water, disease, and as a result of the recent development of its vast iron opposition from the aboriginal people, the pastoral ore reserves. In fact, although the North West has made industry made steady progress and by 1869 there were a significant contribution to the economy of the State, 39,000 sheep in the area. By this time, however, the it is disappointing that civilization has had c.ily prosperity cf the colony was waning, and wool, which minimal effect and it could be argued that discovery constituted more than half the total exports, was no and settlement might well have been delayed until 1960, longer booming. Less money was being invested by the the time of lifting of the iron ore export embargo. British Government and important markets were lost. To add to this, the town of Roebourne, established in Why has development been so slow? Obviously the inherent 1866, was completely destroyed in 1872 by a cyclone disadvantages of climate, remoteness, cyclones and the which also caused heavy stock lasses. Wit' "ell like have played a significant part in hindering more himself lost his house and 4,800 sheep out of a total extensive development. But could a greater degree of of 6,000. Subsequent storms in 1881 and 1832 caused initiative on the part of government have stimulated further heavy damage. more confidence in the region and hence a greater degree of stability? Even with four massive iron ore projects In the early days port and shipping facilities were the population of the northern half of the State is still non-existent and the pioneering pastoralists had to less than 60,000 (approximately 5.4% of W.A. population). cart their bales of wool to the nearest stretch of Yet it has been estimated that in the 1890"s when the bea~h to await the arrival of a ship. The bales trten population of the Colony, as it was then, was approaching had to be loaded from the drays into boats and taken 100,000, a third were located in the North West. out to the ship. The whole operation was threatened Admittedly this was at the height of the gold rush, but by fast rising tides and the threat of storms. On why wasn't this sufficient to stimulate further interest, one occasion a vessel belonging to Withnell was lost development and settlement of the North? In an attempt with 42 people and the total wool-clip. Faciliti-s to answer such questions this paper will trace the to improve this state of affairs were very sl^w :n development history of the major industries in the coming. Pilbara, giving special consideration to the recent iron ore developments - and will examine the role of government Many of the pastoralists took to pearlinq in an effort throughout this period. The present day living to make ends meet and it vas only the hardy and conditions, and problems associated with life in determined who were still in business in 1885 when the North wilj. then be examined in broad detail in the discovery of gold in the Kimberleys signalled .1 order to assess future development potential, and temporary change in fortunes. The influx of population to formulate a recommended policy for future provided a ready made market for meat. However, there development. was only a very short breathing space before <3cr> ^ssioii hit again between 1890 and 1895. Then, as a result of successive golf1 discoveries between 1895 and 1905 - which brought a substantial increase in the State's THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS population (49,782 in 1891 to 184,124 in 1901) - pastoralists' fortunes again took an upward <-urn. By Evpn a brief glance at the history of develop- 1905 profits were sufficient for many to retire south, ment in the North West is sufficient to and a sionificant absentee owner class came into being. demonstrate the frequent and sudden changes of This group has contributed to a continual flow of fortune which have beset each of the industries funds out of the region, which, if re-invested in the to establish there. Since the prosperity of area, might have produced a different picture today. the region has usually been dependent on a single dominant industry at any one time, Droughts during succeeding years brought to light stability has been impossible to achieve. The problems of pasture regeneration, while disease, major industries around which the region has vermin and periodic flooding caused heavy stock losses. developed - pastoral, mining and pearling - In 1912 the State Shipping Service was established have all proved extremely sensitive to the with four old vessels, not - as might he supposed - vagaries of world markets and politics. to assist in the development task but in an attempt to lower meat prices to Perth consumers. Owing to uncertainty as to what the new commonwealth Govern- ment might'do when pastoral leases expired in 1928, essential capital development was retarded. It was not unt-1 19i7 that the expiry date was extended to 1948. The availability of labour declined as a result 1889 and the overland telegraph between Perth and of enlistments in both the Boer War and the Great Marble Bar was completed in 1894 and at a subsequent War, a pattern which was repeated again during date extended to Broome. Later, in 1912 a railway World War II. While the period between the wars was built between Port Hedland and Marble Bar. This was plagued by depression, 1920 saw the establish- was closed in the 1950's and subsequently torn up. ment of a special Ministry of the north West and in 1932 pastoral leases were again extended The impact of other mineral discoveries - apart from substantially to 1982. Wool prices began to iron - have been relatively slight. Characteristic improve in the mid-thirties which set the stage of the mixed fortunes suffered by smaller discoveries for a post war boom in wool aided by heavier would be the history of the Whim Creek copper mine. government expenditure on roads, schools and Discovered in 1888 the mine was worked intermittently other amenities. For pastoralists, however, the between 1889 and 1893 when high costs forced its problems of drought, cyclone, vermin, disease abandonment. ' Records show that 724 tons of ore and remoteness are little changed since the early averaging 30% copper were shipped through Cossack days. more than 60 miles away, during this time. The mine was then worked extensively for a short period between 1898 and 1901. Opened again in 1906, a total of 10,645 tons of ore averaging 17% copper was extracted The pearling potential of northern waters was by 1909. This was transported by narrow gauge rail- first investigated in 1861 when the "Flying Foam", way to the port of Balla Balla where it was loaded under the command of James Turner, was sent to into barges and taken out to sailing ships^ During Nickol Bay. The cruise was not a success, however, these early days pvei jlOOimehrwereFemployed'at the and only 910 shells and 150 pearls were gathered. mine and the Whim Creek township contained four hotels. One of these, which still-stands, was pre- When the first settlers arrived in the Cossack/ fabricated^in England andldragged to :the site, by bullock team. An attempt ,to operate the" mine on a Roebourne area they noticed that the natives wore 1 necklaces made of mother-of-pearl. The practice large scale by the Japanese in the I960 s was of beachcombing during the slack season began and frustrated by litigation over a clause in the Mining a small industry sprang up based in the port of Act preventing Asians from mining in Western Australia, Cossack. An American named Tay who deserted from which, combined with low copper prices, caused the a whaling ship', set the industry on a firm footing newly built plant to be closed down after only four in 1867 when he induced the natives to dive for years' operation. the shell from small boats. By the late 1860's ten boats were operating and this number rapidly Following the period of the gold rush the industry Increased to eighty by the early 1870's. In 1872 was characterized for the next forty years by Cossack was declared a town and port for Roebourne individual prospectors and small operations. Alluvial and by 1874 the value of pearl shells and pearls deposits of tantalite near Port Hedland were exploited won reached $148,000. This helped support many from 1905 and although occurrences of asbestos had been pastoralists, and the region in general during an reported in the region since 1917, operations did not extremely difficult period. begin until 1937. Later, in 1950, the town of Witfcenoom was established adjacent to high grade deposits and This industry also suffered its share of disasters, became the area' s sole producer of blue asbestos. however, and cyclones in 1876 and 1881 wrecked a Operations have since ceased and most of the town's number of luggers and drowned many men. In 1887 100 or more houses are now empty. Beryl production a cyclone struck the Eighty Mile Beach sinking 18 rose during World War II as a result of war demand luggers and drowning 200 men. During the period but export restrictions were later introduced in 1947. of recovery from these setbacks the industry moved from Cossack to Broome and by the early 1900's The 1950's brought the first hint of large scale production had recovered to $240,000 a year. The mining when shipments of iron ore began from number of luggers in service increased to 400 by Cockatoo Island in 1951. Although there had been 1912 and direct employment was provided for some interest in the island from 1927 - living quarters 3,000 men. It was then the State's fourth largest were erp^ted there in 1930 - the Depression brought export industry - valued at $843,000 - following chis activity to an end. In 1954 large scale mining gold, wool and timber, Apart from the dangers from of manganese began in the Pilbara, cyclones, there were the added dangers beneath the surface from sharks, crocodiles, gropers, sea From this brief history of the Pilbara's early snakes and devil rays. Consequently there was a development it is apparent that the mainstay of very high death rate amongst the divers, most of the region until recent times has been the pastoral whom were Asiatics and Aboriginals. industry. However, without the added prosperity and population provided by the Gold Rush and the The pearl shell market collapsed during World War I pearling industry it is doubtful whether many of and although some resurgence was experienced after the early settlers would have persisted in their the end of the hostilities it never matched the efforts to open up this new territory. It is also heights of earlier days. World depression apparent that while the gold, wool and pearl shell contributed to a decline in prices and competition exports were providing the greater portion of the from Japanese cultured pearls eroded the natural Colony's - and later the State's - export earnings, pearl segment of the industry. A further severe little was re-invested by either private or public cyclone in 1335 destroyed 20 luggers and 140 men sectors. From the earliest days people have been were drowned. By the end of the~1930's only about willing to live and work in the North - despite 50 luggers were still operating and in 1969 this the continual setbacks from drought and cyclones had been reduced to a total of 12 vessels. The etc - but growth has been continually hampered little port of Cossack has been deserted long since by market rluctuations, wars and general apathy and Broome looks back to the days before 1914 when • in the south. it had a population of nearly 4,000 made up of Japanese, Koepangers, Filipinos, Chinese, Indians, Malays, Aborigines, Greeks, Spaniards, French, as well as a few Americans and Germans.
The first major discovery in the North was that of Charles Hall and Jack Slattery, who discovered gold in the Kimberleys in August 1885. The news soon reached the colonies in the east and led to a rush of diggers, most of whom were unaware of the severe hardships they would encounter in the region. The Colony's first goldfield was proclaimed in the Kimberleys in the following year.
Following gold discoveries east of Roebourns the Pilbara Goldfield was proclaimed in 1888, to be followed in 1889 by the Ashburton Goldfield. The township of Marble Bar grew up at the centre of a rich alluvial field. In all a total of 20,000 fine ounces of gold were won from the two fields in the early period. This constituted an important source of income for the region by providing, amongst other things, a ready market for beef and mutton. In addition an itinerant prospecting group developed who focused their attention on other minerals when the gold supply was exhausted. As with much of the income derived by pastoralists, a good deal of the profits of the gold-seekers found their way out of Lhe region.
The gold boom in particular was responsible for improvements in communications to the area. A submarine cable was laid between Java and Broome in II THE AWAKENING - MASSIVE IRON ORE DEVELOPMENT
The early history of mining in the Pilbara is 8 million tons per year. This has involved exclusively one of small scale operations, extending the railway and constructing a new indeed often just single prospectors, working township at Shay <5ap for a further 650 people. on rich deposits of high value minerals. Gold/ Future development potential is based on the copper, tin, tantalite and asbestos were the massive Area C deposits in the Ophthalmia Range. principal minerals produced. This emphasis high-lights the problems of high operating and Port Hedland was chosen as the port by the joint transportation costs associated with development venturers and the installations were built at in a region as remote and empty as the Pilbara. Finucane Island opposite the existing township. Only small-time operators able to exist without A .4% mile approach channel had to be dredged to the back-up of local industry and commerce, or accomodate large vessels and more than 9 million adequate transportation, have survived. Even cubic yards of material were removed in this the larger scale operations set up in the 1950 's operation. Additional dredging has subsequently ••round the asbestos at Wittenoom and manganese been carried out and the port can no
(iii) The fact that much of the infrastructure is not deductable for tax purposes, increases the reported profit and therefore the tax. The level of earnings has to be correspondingly higher to provide an acceptable return. A more attractive alternative might have been for government to borrow overseas to provide all infrastructure. The cost of borrowing would have been lower than faced by the companies, and even if the companies had borne the full servicing load it would not have been necessary for them to provide a return to shareholders on the additional amount. It low rents, electricity is subsidized, and there are would then have been far easier for projects to be no municipal rates to cover public utilities and launched, and at the same time possible to justify the social and recreational facilities enjoyed. In much higher royalties. In addition, the State would addition, consumer goods are subsidized to such a not have been left with the present legacy of a point that cost of living is only marginally above proliferation of privately owned townships, railways, that encountered in the south. As far as physical ports and power supplies which, at some stage in the amenities are concerned the environment surpasses not too distant future, will need to be integrated. that of any town of comparable size in the country and compares favourable with a city suburb. A further reason for the neglect suffered by the Pilbara at the hands of government has been a lack The second category is that of the "open" towns of any effective political voice. By the time of whether new or old, which have been required to federation the diggers had mostly left the North accommodate large company enclaves. This category which and the majority of power was held in the South. includes Port Hedland, Karratha and South Hedland- The decision to set up the State Shipping Service in Wickham will, in the future, develop along these 1912 to lower meat prices in Perth, rather than to lines. As might be expected there exists a wide help the pioneering pastoralist, amply illustrates divergence of standards between mining company this point. Although a Ministry of the North West employees and most of the rest of the community. was created in 1920, the population of 14,861 in the This appears all the more obvious since, company area as of 1961 adequately reflects the effectiveness and non-company houses have developed in separate of that ploy in relationship to the development of blocks and little integration has been effected. the region. In fact it was not until recent years In these "open" communities amenities have"been : that, an effective political voice was raised in heavily subsidized by the~companies arid these are-, support" of. northern development. accessible to the whole community. Power costs are reduced because of higher demand but remain about It is.obvious that because offfinanciai:limitations 50* higher than^Perth and strong local competition^ : the State Government has been extremely.restricted helps keep the cost of consumer goods to a reason-" in what it could undertake. Unable to take the able level. However, the superior standard of -* initiative, it has been swept along in the wake of housing, pay and other incentives enjoyad by company privateTenterprise.v admittedly the extent of the employees has been the cause of growing resentment planning task alone over /the last ten-years has amongst the remainder of the population and conditions been enormous and because of-the nature of the in general fall behind those maintained in the developments it has been,possible,to use only a very closed mining towns.;" ,-,••-"-" ~." • " l short planning horizon. This has been complicated by the rateat whichprojectsiwere: being'.developed At the other end of "the spectrum are the old pilbara and expanded and the" consequent need for/more and towns: such as Marble Bar, Wittenoom,-andOnslow which more services. Even though in" many cases the have benefited little from mining activities. Public physical construction" was carried out by ""the mining services,are-extremely meagre and water-is not companies, people had to-be found to operate and available ;for. extensive .landscaping such-as exists in maintain these facilities. The discoveries of tile other towns.: Power is too expensive" to be"used natural gas, and the likelihood of oil, has recently for'aix^-conditioning7. rentals are higher.than the superimposed an additional dimension making much of metropolitan area and? subsidized supermarkets are the previous planning obsolete. just a dream. In addition, transport:and mail services are becoming less regular^ and:some-services have even been cut off as these towns are increasingly by-passed.
IV QUALITY OF LIFE While housing for non-company people in general is likely to be expensive and of poorer quality, there It is becoming increasingly apparent that the are prospects that the standard of social and re- major limitation on the economic potential of creational amenities provided for new settlers will the Pilbara is going to be the ability to improve. Lack of suitable education facilities has, attract people at a cost which does not result in the past, been one of the major reasons for families in industry becoming unprofitable. The resource to leave the region.. However, with'high schools at position of the region is hardly in question, Port nedland and Karratha, District high schools at the markets are solidifying and capital is now principal inland centres and primary schools at all readily available". The scarce resource has now towns the position has improved dramatically. become manpower, and this introduces the question Hospital facilities need considerable improvement of whether living conditions in the Filbara are but do not appear to be a cause of great dis-satis- good enough to attract the numbers necessary. faction at present. Improvements in transporation and communications have helped to reduce the isolation Traditionally, the old North West bred a life- of the area and bring it "closer to metropolitan style that was casual, friendly and unhurried. Perth with frequent air and coach services as well as It became a haven for some who, because of freight deliveries. Bitumenising of the road to Port domestic, political or even criminal reasons Hedland will be complete bythe end of next year and were misfits or outcasts. Development of this within the next few months the coaxial link will bring fairly unique life-style enabled the inhabitants television to the principal areas. to derive enjoyment from a situation which provided little in the way of creature comforts, As well as a high level of other incentives the and no additional compensation for the deprivat- company employees enjoy good rates of pay. These ions suffered. Society was not demanding and the are not, however, exceptional and it is only by outcasts of more rigid social systems were working long hours that the high wages associ;sr=d welcomed for whatever skills they could offer as with these mining ventures can be earned. In me: i. well as the local "colour" they helped provide. of the service- segments of the community (includ-r.j government, bank and shop workers) wage scales arj Suddenly in the early 1960's came the injection identical with those in Perth except for a district of a new breed of northerner in large numbers. allowance which is designed to offset part of the These were the geologists, the engineers, the disparity in living costs but is made taxable. Every- construction workers and the transport drivers one in the area receives a zone tax deduction which who arrived to spearhead the massive iron ore is insignificant compared with the various forms of developments. Their primarily urban backgrounds incentive received by the mining community. have brought faster pace and greater social demands and have quickly swamped the attitudes and It appears that there are few male workers who do practices built up over a hundred years. Only in not readily adapt to the style of working in the the centres bypassed by any major development, harsh Filbara environment. This applies irrespective such as Marble Bar, Nullagine or Onslow can one of whether they are manual workers, plant operators still get a glimpse of earlier days and in such or employed in offices.. Their work is often more places" it is not uncommon for the "old timers" interesting than they enjoyed previously and in most to shun the modern air-conditioned bar in- order cases the task carries greater responsibility. They to enjoy their beer on the verandah in temperatures appear to accept the challenge of a semi-pioneering nudging 120°F. situation and the extreme climatic conditions do not seem to have a marked affect on their productivity. This does not necessarily apply to the wives, however, The-manner in which development has proceeded who cannot get the same feeling of involvement and lately has created enormous disparities in living for whom relatively few job opportunities exist. While standards between company and non-company similar problems doubtless exists in any new community segments. Three categories of community can be the harsh conditions serve to compound it. If the identified. At one end of the spectrum is the woman has an air-conditioned company house there is a "company" town (Newman, Tom Price, Paraburdoo, tendency for her to lock herself away where it is Dampier, Fannawonica, Goldsworthy and Shay Gap) difficult to involve her in the many social or quasi- where virtually every service and amenity is cultural activities.promoted for that purpose. If she provided without cost. High standard air- lives in a non-air-conditioned asbestos house she is conditioned houses are provided for extremely likely to be driven to distraction by heat and the inevitable dust. Children invariably find;the freedom provided by the environment exhilarating and appear to thrive an it. V. THE DIFFICULTIES - AMD SOME LIKELY SOLUTIONS
The lack of opportunity for self-expression in the The previous sections have dealt with some of management of the community appears to be an inherent the hardships faced by early settlers and also problem of company towns and stems from a number of with some of the human problems presently causes. Rapid expansion has precluded the early being faced. But before going on to talk development of effective local government to cope about future development possibilities in the with planning and managing ten new towns in the region. Pilbara, it is necessary to consider the Almost by default the mining companies have had to difficulties which might be encountered in fill the gap. With the exception of education, any future development, and the likelihood medicine and police, all statutory functions of of solutions being found. government have been performed by company personnel. The only government involvement in such areas as Among the disadvani ag s of the Pilbara, climate water supply, sewerage or electricity supply and is usually the first _o be espoused. Certainly reticulation has been to approve the specifications. it is hot, and for three months of the year it Virtually the only function the Shire Councils is very hot. But it is not very different from performed in these towns was to collect vehicle the climate at Houston, Texas, where a city of registration fees. two million people has grown up, or Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona where the price of land has This has meant that in the "closed" towns the company sky-rocketed since Americans started to retire is not only the employer, but is also the landlord, there by the thousands. At the other extreme, the supplier of domestic services, the owner of the it is not considered unduly-onerous forthe trading centre, the organizer of recreational and majority of North Americans or Europeans to social pursuits and, in effect, is intimately accept a bitterly cold winter extending for involved with every facet of an individual's life. six months" of the yearror" more which "brings A resentment of this company intrusion into private most outdoor activity to a standstill. If life has therefore developed within a large part of they can accept living in an artificial climate the community. The companies have come to realise for at least half the year along with the that they are open to industrial action on every associated economic penalties, sufficient point of conflict with their employees whether at Australians can doubtless become used to a work or in private life. climate where air-conditioning might be necessary for up to half of the year. The 'Gradually though, modifications to this regime are climatic disadvantages of the Filbara certainly being introduced. Local authorities are now permitted become insignificant when compared to those to levy rates on company dwellings and commercial being experienced in Siberia, where $100 billion premises. In return the Shire Councils are beginning will be spent in a five year period (1970-75) to take over the operation and maintenance of many to develop an area which can experience services. As their financial capacity increases temperatures between 60° and 90°F below zero. this is expected to extend to a proportion of the cost of municipal works. With the declaration of all The remoteness of the Pilbara introduces both a "closed" towns as "townsites" in 1972 local government sociological problem and an economic one. The can now exercise authority given under many acts such sociological problem appears to be breaking down as Traffic, Health, Dog and many others. slowly as transportation and communciation services improve. It is bound to become less important Parallelling this acceptance of certain financial and as the population increases and extended family administrative responsibility, the emergence of civic units become established. The economic problem consciousness among the towns and people in closed resulting from the high cost of transportation towns was inevitable. Occupiers of dwellings are now is also one which will reduce over time. Increases liable for rates but can conseguently vote in municipal in volume of traffic will bring the justification elections and stand for election as a councillor. The for a rail link, bringing advantages of lower companies themselves are fully behind this movement and costs and more regular service. Also an increase they will, in fact, be urging government departments in the level of development would justify the and the local authority to take over their statutory establishment of some services industries in the functions in these towns, so reducing the possible region such as building materials, thereby areas of confrontation with their employees. reducing the requirement for all commodities to be brought from outside. In all respects then, these towns are expected to move towards a normalisation of the urban situation. Although transportation contributes a large part Local government will gradually assume the complete of the extra cost associated with building and role and there will be a steady infusion of non- living in the Pilbara, there are several other company employees into the towns from the service contributing factors. High wages and incentives sector and other industry. Private home ownership are expected to be required for some time but xs expected to develop and the controlling influence the gap between Perth and the Pilbara can be of individual companies will be progressively expected to reduce as population increases. subjugated. It must be emphasised that the companies The high turnover presently experienced in the were originally forced into such a position of area can also be expected to improve as control by the financial inability of the State and communities become established. The extra cost local government to participate effectively. of power, water and air-conditioning can be reduced but only with large scale development. Cyclones are an aspect of considerable concern to some but these are of infrequent occurrence and certainly no more of a hazard than in many populated parts of the world, including much of the eastern seaboard of the United States. Buildings and other structures require only relatively minor modifications in most cases and several of the large plants in the area have already weathered a number of cyclones with no ill-effects. In addition, the level of reconnaissance provided by satellite, radar and offshore monitoring stations has enabled the Bureau of Meteorology to provide adequate advance warning.
Water supply is often regarded as a major develop- ment constraint of the region. Because of extreme temperatures, evaporation rates are upwards of 100 inches per year, and this introduces the problem of salinity increases in any surface catchment. When associated with the extreme variability of rainfall - two or three years can pass without useful rain - these can become unacceptable. Fortunately, however, the Pilbara has been endowed with a good groundwater system and studies have indicated that by conjunctive use of surface and groundwater supplies, sufficient water can be obtained to supply a major population centre. Such a scheme would rely solely on surface water when it was available and switch to underground supplies when this was exhausted. The use of non- potable water for some applications, and methods of more efficient management, are approaches requiring further investigation. Any major project establishing in the Pilbara faces will be found - introduce some exciting prospects a massive logistical task. Construction manpower when considered alongside the other mineral wealth has to be attracted from throughout Australia and of the Pilbara, namely iron, salt, manganese, tin, temporary accommodation has to be provided. copper, nickel, gold, antimony, vanadium and others. Virtually no service industry exists and each project must therefore be self-sufficient. The Coupled with the need to increase the degree of situation is not as bad now as in earlier years but local processing is the recognised need to establish it will take large scale and continuous development alternative growth centres to direct expansion away to warrant the establishment of tertiary industry from already overcrowded cities. Decentralisation; and attract a more permanent work force for projects a popular cry, but an area in which there has been to draw on. little success in the past. If, for instance, developments to date in the Pilbara are examined The proliferation of company owned facilities - ports, it becomes obvious that, for all the hundreds of water supply, railways, power, housing and whole town- millions invested in the area, no significant ships - has been described in other sections of the population movement has been effected there, it is paper. This promises to become progressively more the Perth metropolitan area, paradoxically, which cumbersome and it must be accepted that for any has experienced the greatest impact. It is clear extensive development to take place, a logical and that the economic future of the whole region rests equitable programme must be developed for the on the ability to stimulate more intense development. integration of these facilities.' ~ Quite obviously Without some further significant initiative it this task, cannot be accomplished overnight but becomes apparent that development in the area was government will have to take tne initiative and by in real danger of stagnating. . } negotiating with"the companies establish acceptable guidelines. For a combination of these reasons, therefore, an imaginative development concept has been put forward . Incentives constitute a growing problem because which, if implemented, would really put the Pilbara i of the present inequities and the inadequacy of on the map while at the same time contributing the incentives offered to the workers not fortunate substantially to Australia's export capacity. The '; enough to be employed by a mining company. For proposal visualizes a massive industrial complex large numbers of people to be attracted in the containing such major improvements as a jumbo steel initial stages of expanded development the general plant; an aluminium smelter; a ferromanganese level of incentives would need to be improved. On smelter; plants to produce LNG, liquid ethane and : the other hand industry cannot be expected to bear the condensate; an electrolytic plant for the production ongoing load of incentives at the level presently offered of caustic soda; an ethylene dichioride plant; and ; by mining companies and it is to be hoped that these would as a possible second stage, a uranium enrichment be brought down to an acceptable norm over a period of time. plant. It has been planned on a massive scale partly to justify the enormous investment required to justify ': Practically all the solutions to problems presently the development of the offshore fields and to provide faced in the Pilbara simply require an increase in the operating economies necessary to meet the fierce "- population. This population increase, however, competition that exists for export markets. Low cost depends on labour-intensive development and most power is a key element in the scheme and several of potential secondary industries are reluctant to the industries proposed are extremely power-intensive. j establish until there is an improvement in many of these problem areas. A chicken-and-egg situation The infrastructure requirements of such a development therefore exists and the crux of the problem of are staggering and preliminary estimates suggest a stimulating development in the Pilbara will be that population of 130,000; a water requirement of 100 mgpd; cf persuading pioneer industries to "break the ice". a power supply of perhaps 4400 mw; and a large In this area a definite commitment of support is industrial port facility. The cost of these and required from government on all levels. associated services is likely to be in the order of $2,340 million. In view of the large scale on which VI DEVELOPMENT - THE NEXT STEP industry must operate, construction will need to be undertaken in large increments. While this will introduce some difficult scheduling and logistical The previous sections have been intended to problems it is believed that the sheer scale of the convey a variety of impressions. The early development will precipitate the establishment of a history has been presented in a way that tries permanent local building industry and other support to show the early promise of the Pilbara area industries at an early stage. It would also help to which brought heavy contributions towards the justify a high volume transportation link with the State's economic expansion, and the subsequent South, such as a railway. neglect which neutralized early advances.' The description of the awakening over the past ten Implementation of the scherce might be carried out years has attempted to show the emerging through a statutory Pilbara Development Authority potential of the region as a major resource which would co-ordinate industry participation. This centre and the importance that timing plays in Authority would be responsible for establishing, through the determination of when economic advantage of existing State instrumentalities, the power station, such potential can be realised. The dependence the port facilities and the water supply. It would on government initiative for the relative also establish a New Town Corporation - a further success or failure of the development task is statutory body with the responsibility for planning, examined and the inadequacy of the present building, administering and financing the township. Commonwealth/State financial arrangements for The proposed framework is, therefore, to have a _^_ a development task such as presented by the central authority co-ordinating the efforts of Pilbara is stressed. The remaining two sections industry; the relevant power, port and water give a brief resume of life in the Pilbara, the authorities; and the New Town Corporation. - problems likely to be encountered in the future developments and some guarded optimism about It has been suggested that once funded, each future improvements. infrastructure element would be able to take over the servicing of its own debt load. For instance, the What should the next step be? Obviously we port authority would charge a wharfage fee sufficient could carry on serving as a storehouse for the to service all capital expenditure and would also industrial centres of the world. Even the present levy a variety of handling charges designed to cover quarrying operations provide substantial benefits day-to-day operating expenses. The Part Authority through royalties, cosspany taxes and other less would therefore be a viable trading enterprise in direct channels. Australians are, however, its own right and would offer a full range of harbour beginning to realise the limitations of their services at charges comparable to other Australian ^ approach and are starting to recognize that ports, "he power authority would recover interest = far greater gains could accrue to the economy and capital through charges for power. The New Town from a greater degree of secondary processing. Corporation would, in turn, obtain revenue from the The iron ore producers already have an obligation lease of land and from the sale or rental of houses to progressively upgrade their ores by making and flats. pellets, metallised agglomerates and ultimately, steel. Following from this, the question arises as to where the initial funds are likely to be found. From the Until the discovery of extensive deposits of earlier discussion it is obvious that under present natural gas on the North West Shelf the question Commonwealth/State financial arrangements it would be of any significant development of secondary impossible for the State Government to initiate such a industry was largely academic, since the major scheme. The onus is therefore on the Commonwealth to prerequisite is a cheap source of fuel and provide the funds by borrowing overseas or giving energy. Possible improvements in technology to fund-raising powers to the Pilbara Development Authority. allow the direct reduction of iron ore using From present indications it appears that if a case for natural gas instead of coal has obvious public funded infrastructure in the pilbara can be implications for the iron ore producers alone. justified, the funds will be forthcoming. To investigate: An early proposal did put forward the possibility the feasibility of all aspects of the scheme a jointly : of utilising nuclear energy but this was not found funded study group was establiohed sarlicr this year. to be feasible. The ges discoveries which began The findings of this study, on which the whole future in 1971 - and the increasing likelihood that oil of the region depends, are expected to be available early next year. Lawrence H. Howroyd, FRAIA Population of the North West of Western Australia
In considering the future of populations within riorth o These obvious problems have generated a sociological Western Australia, it is appropriate to examine briefly crisis in nany areas which is attracting the attention the recent economic history of the region and in parti- of those who specialize in the detection and ameliora- cular the motivations, techniques and problems of the tion of social trauma. The Companies themselves are mining venturers who have already determined the pattern of course very aware of the transience of their work upon which current development is proceeding. force and the economic disabilities which derive there- from. Attempts at modifying the existing structures and planning to avoid previous errors are continuing In the flurry of development of the early 63's, when in academic, departmental and professional offices. capital requirement and risks were high and knowledge It is becoming more and more obvious that the economic scarce, the rush to exploit the most accessible and stability of the region will depend as much upon the richest deposits was identified by the philosophy of solution of social and socio-economic problems as upon "get in, write off, get out". nonetary exchange rates and markets.
Subsequent exploration, consolidation of markets, estab- o It should be noted here that in an era where technology lishment of transport facilities and consequent investment advances faster than managenent capacity of absorption, of great magnitude has provided a physical structure which there is a reluctance to accept that society is also will eventually become as complex as the resources from dynamic and changing with its technology. Mechaniz- which the activity derives. ation is now so much a part of industry that there is a growing belief, encouraged by the academic environraent- ologist, that man and industry cannot co-exist success- The progress of technology has enabled remote ore bodies fully. to be discovered and exploited. By definition they rarely coincide with an available work force. But, having found his mine, the venturer must find his people - and again In order to develop the capabilities needed to prevent thanks to technology they can usually be transported to widespread ecological damage, a society must contribute the ore from a distance and housed. to that damage to a certain extent in the course of its economic development. Planners now appear to believe that an hour a day on a freeway is preferable to a In the terms of recent history this has meant the estab- glimpse of a snokestack. lishment of Company towns which, by their nature and purpose, have encapsulated the sociological environment of large numbers of human beings within economic structures Society is of course composed of a very complex man- designed primarily for the optimization of efficient mining. nachine-man relationship, and it has so arranged itself that man the animal moves peripherally with its advance. It will certainly take much more than 70 years of exposure Although such aggregations of people have existed before, to pollutants to change basic human motivation. It will rarely has there been such isolated single-minded purpose take much more than air-conditioning to attract a permanent as tha motivation of, or such physical and emotional population to serve, direct and derive benefit from the isolation of the people from the balance of society. resources of the North West. It will take a great planning effort to remove the transience from the work force. Because of the isolation of its resources, the region is late in development, but the sane isolation has been an emphatic handicap not only to the economics of Design which involves an infinite variable like man exploitation, but to the acceptance of the region by is a very uncertain trade. In any design, however, the work force and their families. The economic centre experimentation is essential before the accuracy of of the region lies at the same distance from Perth as assumptions can be verified - it is a cold truth that Algiers from London, or Adelaide from Hobart. There if one is not prepared to make mistakes, there can be is as yet no sealed or all-weather road connecting it no progress or refinement of design. In the design to either the North or the South. There is no rail of a better mousetrap, "research" is the euphemism link. There is as yet no diversity of employment. for making design mistakes. In the design of communities The newspaper is usually the previous day's; piped mistakes are reflected in social disorder. The euphemism television (for those who are lucky) is two days old. for this type of mistake is often "labor unrest".
To make a bleak picture even more stark, many venturers One can grow a vine over an unfortunate house. An unhappy have oeen forced to spontaneously create communities community is too restless to allow the vine to grow. — of houses and facilities in areas which are by any standards arid, inhospitable, hostile and subject to extremes of climate. The landscape of the moon could It is the purpose of this paper, therefore, to attempt not be more f r '.-lable. to define a problem and in the process of definition to derive an answer.
The resultant to...._.iips are vital pieces of equipment, regarded in financial terms in precisely the same way The problem can be clarified by posing a question - is as any other piece of extractive equipment. Their the purpose of development of the North Vtest to be purely efficiency in terms of employee turnover and running the mining cf its resources - or is it to be the develop- costs are a continuous concern, control of \tfhich must ment of an area into a viable, self-supporting state, remain within the hands of management. capable of spontaneous growth to a status as prideful as any other economic region of Australia?
This management process, in its inherent exclusion of enterprises, its dependence upon a single resource, It is apparent that development to this time has con- its rigidity of control, creates within a free enterprise centrated upon the first of these alternatives. It society, a miniature totalitarian regiir.e. In other should be obvious that the preferred second alternative places events have proven such regimes efficient for will only be made possible by means of a concentrated olanned and limited political purpose, but unrewarding effort to amend the past sociological errors, determine to the individual. the medium upon which an artificial society can be cultured, and to set in notion a socially oriented design programme to catch up with, attach to and then dominate the physical resource planning which now pays The employee who finds himself in such circumstances only lip service to the hunan resource - without which without security of }ob tenure and with limited opportun- the North West must remain sterile. ities for involvement will probably determine his period of employment upon the personal savings campaign which will obtain his anbition of returning to a metropolitan Such planning would inevitably result in the diversion area with sufficient funds to buy hinself a home in of capital from resource exploitation. It would suburbia. Within the limits of his onploynent contract demand establishment of Pilbara sited offices of he minimizes his investment in the community, contributes Government; increases in parliamentary representation; little to his new environment, accepts privileges as rights and exploits his employer, who is in turn exploiting his ore body.
construction of an adequate rail and road network; The resultant "stage setting" was carefully mani- upgrading of communications; provision of a regional pulated in a manner intended to provide the material power grid and subsidy of service industry. backgrounds upon which the residents could apply their own personalities. It is thus possible to wander through the town, from point to point, and be enclosed o Such planning might also result in the creation of a by volumes of space, the dimensions of which have been vernacular architecture, the establishment of land banks, dictated by us, but which are already being changed by the taking of equity in the country by the people and the the individual. Already it is exciting. Be hope eventual creation of a permanent population. that within a period of time its success can be measured in :erms of increased job tenure and reduced sociological problems. • The Pilbara contains 171,462 square miles, twice the area of Victoria and a little more"thanihalf of New South Wales. At the end of 1971" it contained 29,469 However good the intention, however, the ultimate - -I people - a density of 0.17 persons per square mile. result of towns like Shay Gap will depend upon the provision_of_facilities which\the-company cannot, provide." —------o Before 1960 there were towns in the region - Port Iledland, Eoobourne, Marble Bar, Nullagine and Wittenoom, together with several main road service hamlets and stations. The t Perhaps it is appropriate to consider the typical total population was 3,200 persons. inhabitant of Shay Gap, examine his opportunity for social intercourse and the amenities which he lacks. o Since 1961 there have been sharp increases in the population of Fort Redland and Roebourne, and Company or single resource towns have been constructed - Goldsworthy, Dampier, o Education: the Company provides a primary school Karratha, Newman, wickham, Tom Price, Paraburdoo, Panna- which is staffed by the State. An employee who has , wonica and Shay Gap. The population had increased to children of secondary age must send them to a Company ' approximately 32,000"at the end of 1972. supported hostel at Port Kedland - where schooling to ; 3rd year is available -. If a child has the capacity to matriculate he must be sent to Perth. There are o It is significant that the total population of Western no technical or tertiary facilities available. Australia had increased by 290,000 in the same period, and that this spectacular=39%-increase occurred in the growth period of mining development. Since the majority o Educational consequence: The-venturer loses the services^: of this expansion took place in Perth, tne assumption is of a whole age spectrum of parents - and usually the age -, that government, service industry, manufacturers and mining group which is most suitable for permanent transplantation. groups increased their metropolitan personnel to cope with the demands of the North VJest. o Health: The Company provides a comprehensive medical centre, staffed by para-medics and trained nurses who o The statistics are voluminous, but examination reveals are, coineidentally, the wives of employees. The again and again that the North West of Western Australia Plying Doctor visits once a week. is being serviced, managed and governed at a distance. Present planning indicates that this tendency will continue, to the detriment of the efficiency and permanence of the o Health consequence: Severe illness or injury and Region. all confinements are evacuated to Port Hcdland. The service in this town is in a constant state of • If the map of the Pilbara can be' read in terms of improvement, but increasing demand for its services, human activity, some of the problems are seen in coupled with the difficulty in retaining staff, often terms of distance, transport adequacy and time. requires aerial evacuation to a metropolitan hospital. The wives of the comnunity become obsessed with fear of the consequence of accident to their families. o These factors became of considerable importance to ray group during the design process for the township of Shay Gap. It became very obvious that in terms of o Transport: The railways are for ore and do not carry communication, isolation, education, health and social passenger vehicles. The roads are long and gravel amenity the community we had been requested to surfaced. There are no bridges and rainfall often "spontaneously create" in the desert environment could cuts all road communication for days at a time. indeed become a preferred living place; but whatever our skills in architecture or engineering, however deep our sociological intuition, the resulting town o Transport consequence: The 130 railes from Shay Gap would remain-isolated from-the main stream. to Port Hedland is a horror-trip, reluctantly under- taken by vosien who taay wish to shopatthelarger centre. while the Company attempts to maintain a Goldsworthy Mining Limited required to establish a reasonable standard of maintenance on the sections work force to exploit the ore bodies in the Nimingarra of the road system within its control, they can accept range and prepared a brief in association with our- no responsibility for State roads. The resident of selves to provide a community which in its concepts Shay Gap raist face a 7 hour return journey to sample and technology took advantage of the errors of the the delights of civilization. past, the awareness of the present and the technicrues of the 70's. o Social activity: The Company pays considerable attention to provision of recreational facilities within its township. A social club, bowling green, The resulting community can be regarded as experi- cinena, library, tennis courts and swimming pool cater mental in the sociological sense. The humanities for the closed ccmnunity, but of course the breadwinner have been welded with the engineering disciplines in who works a drill in the open-cut mine, often in 115 F a manner which it is hoped will have a continuing shade and 180 F sun tenperatures, for 10 hours a day influence upon planning and nacro-design of communities for six days a week, is often reluctant to participate elsewhere. in community activities in his limited free time.
Since it was basic to the brief that the town would o Social consequence: marital disorder, employee remain closed - under Company control - the design discontent, transferral of personal difficulties to was deliberately informal. It is not so tightly the labor field. controlled that the individual can't have his own influence upon it - in fact it is the opposite. It is a very dangerous process of course, to have the o Thus vie have a series of conmunities established for heavy hand of one man evident in every corner - but a specific resource development and within which people inevitable if the economic advantages of industrializ- live at a standard which, in the metropolitan norm, ation are to be obtained. Thus a deliberate decision they would rarely achieve - but the communications and was made to subordinate the buildings to the landscape to make the spaces external to the houses three dioen- transport networks, the educative and health services, sional, like a piece of sculpture. are inadequate. This circumstance is beyond the control of the ven- A system of high speed passenger vehicles should be turers who believe that they are already over- planned to run in parallel with the ore railways to committed in terms of infrastructure loadings. both ends of the industrial Dampier-Cape Lambert area from Hillstreara and dormitory communities situated in a corridor parallel to the routes. Yet it is also obvious that the State has political difficulty in the provision of funds for the con- struction and improvement of the base networks. The further developnont of Karratha and Wichhara should Planning proceeds and efforts are made to obtain be re-examined to determine their future viability in staged development. But in the case of the Pilbara, the iixiuitrial planning of the region. Any expansion the chicken has definitely preceeded the egg. The of those townships should be limited to temporary Region requires people: people require services: structures or developments which could be utilized services requires capital: capital derives from as out-camps or administrative centres. industry: industry requires people: people require services.-..an endless-circuit. A programme of road improvement should"commence, from theiresource ends of the main roads.l_;Present planning A precarious labor balance in this merry-go-round is which makes people wait upon improvements from the provided by the industry,^at the risk-of an over- Perth-end of the road system detracts-from the purpose priced product. Employees are in effect induced into of development within the region. the area by special allowances, 20 hours of overtime each week, notional rentals and controlled prices - all of which add up to substantial subsidy. Such roads should all lead to the new capital. The people of Shay Gap and the people of Newman would be equidistant in time and distance - approximately 200 I therefore propose that the parallel economic and miles. social design programmes mentioned earlier should be vigorously pursued in the Regional context, and further that the following programme could provide a Urgent attention nust be paid to the expansion of the scenario for a "people oriented plan". State railway system to link Newman to tleekatharra and the required rail link along the foot of the Uamersley escarpment should be nade a matter of first It is blatantly obvious that a Region of such incredible priority. Major investment in the rationalization resource is not represented adequately in a political of the rail system will have immense effects upon the sense. The people of the Region have restricted cost of construction development by reducing reliance access to political action and little opportunity to upon the inadequate highway system. benefit themselves in the democratic system. Having ins.de such drastic suggestions - which no doubt Political representation at both State and Federal raise political questions of some magnitude, I will levels oust be increased. content myself uith explaining how such developments would affect the "quality of life". It will be necessary to establish, as a matter of urgent priority, an administrative, governmental, educative, medical and social centre to the region. Its planning • If it is accepted that the development of mineral and siting should not be determined by the existing resources requires the establishment of small human demographic and industrial development, but by factors resources at the mine site, and if assuming such involving the best possible guess at the economic communities can design out or eradicate the problems structure of the region in the year 2000. arising from their purpose, then firotly:-
It is a chastening thought that, had the present circumstances been foreseen in I960, probably neither The people of the region could identify themselves Port Hedland nor Dampier would have been developed in uith an identifiable estate and by exercise of their their present form. Ports and industrial centres at democratic rights determine their own political rights or near Cape Keraudren and Cape Preston would have to a piece of the action. permitted a r.ore rational transport network and incidentally prevented the possible destruction of the Danpicr Archipelago and its hinterland as a potential The certainty of a totally adequate medical service city site. I will return to this matter later. and a maximum separation of 200 miles from their children at advanced secondary and tertiary educative levels would equate them with a large proportion of their fellow Studies on behalf of a client have led us to recommend Australians in more populous regions. the establishment of an inland regional centre in a position which could provide a centralized industrial complex for the impending developments in the Pack- The development of the region can accelerate to the saddle and Angela reserves.— Since that tine further benefit of other areas. The purpose of decentraliz- developments have been announced which make the centre ation in the matter of expansion of the City of Perth more viable. Investigations in the matter of this may well be answered without recourse to the establish- inland industrial centre should proceed as a matter of ment of Salvador. urgency, prior to independent developments which could prejudice long term planning. The transferral of administration of the Mining Companies to Millstream would assist in the rationalization of the It is obvious that when the time scale has been advanced Industry. to the year 2000, the development of the present Dampier- Karratha-Hickham-Cape Lambert strip as a city for the required work force will be fraught with difficulty. The establishment of service industry in the region would The certainty of secondary ore processing expansion, become imperative, for light and professional industries of a petro-chemieal industrial complex, of at least tuo concentrate where the decisions are made. huge deep sea ports - coupled with the probability of tertiary product manufacture and the ancillary service industries, present an awesome picture - of delight to If the Pilbara can be considered as typical of the the State and to Industry, but of horror in the domestic future problems of the North West, then it would be a sense. logical process to extend the principles proposed into other regions even more isolated but whose future is not yet pre-determined by intensive development. • It is suggested therefore that a new city should be established at an inland position which, for the sake of discussion, I have nominated as Ilillstream. The The Kinberley region has probably more potential than new city should be planned as the capital of the region the Pilbara and yet presents a practically unsullied and immediate provision made for the creation of tertiary nap for the Planner. It must be considered in the same education at both technical and academic levels. all context, as a potentially self-supporting region. Government Departments should be established at once, represented by officers of high professional capacity and equal in status to Department Heads in the State It is an interesting thought, perhaps, that if instead Capital. of a single state in this vast Western section of continental Australia, there had been created three o An international scale airport should be planned for States - South Westralia, Hid Westralia and north immediate construction and a sophisticated expansion Westralia - the means would already have been found of the Flying Doctor network established as a special for the social development of the North West. division of the Department of Health.
12 J F Keays MBE BCE FIEAUSt FASCE
The Civil Engineer and the Environment INTRODUCTION
The original 1828 Charter of the Institution of Civil aspects of the environment. We hear and read a great Engineers defined the profession of Civil Engineering deal on the subject and must appreciate that much as the art of directing and applying the resources of of the subject matter comes from people who are nature for the use and convenience of man. It is well informed in particular aspects of the problems. only in the last decade that the community has begun A great deal however is ill-inforoed and emotional to look criticallyratrour-workras-engineers and ask and gives;gives:n6^rpfop^7cbn¥idera^iOTltb:the;overai: i £ if it is indeed for the convenience of mankind. We interests of"thejpeople. The community is "developing in turn are^ looking critically!at^ what we have" done a realisation -Jfchat ,raanyj of, our_modernl developments in the past and how we should change our ways. bring problemsi which";ih-some cases may negate the overall benefit to the community. Engineers have in the past applied basic scientific principles and their accumulated experience and The technocrats were the first people to make use of engineering judgment to provide the skills necessary the vast improvement in communications and used these to design and construct the works considered the facilities to assist materially in the post-war most advantageous to the community at large. As upsurge in technical skills. These improved advisers to our political and commercial leaders, communications are now assisting people in under- we applied our knowledge to assess community needs standing the problems that have been built up. and to analyse the economics of alternative solutions. •-€. MULTI-DISCIPLINE TEAM The emphasis lay in the need to provide the maximum community service with the minimum use of materials Engineers were slow to realise the changing needs and manpower. We seldom questioned the wisdom of and attitudes of the community but there is a what our client wanted done. growing realisation in engineering fields that there are large "grey" areas and that all our problems are We have been proud of our ability to develop new and not subject to mathematical analysis. There is a improved mathematical approaches to engineering growing realisation that environmental projects need problems and to take the maximum possible advantage consideration by multi-discipline teams. The public of improved methods of design and construction. A is at last, beginning to realise that an individual study carried out in 1970 showed that a group of small Engineer cannot be expected to have expertise in all rural bridges designed and constructed some 15 years fields of engineering, and I nov find clients much earlier would, if designed using 1970 methods, have more receptive to proposals that I bring in others to been constructed for the same 1955 cost. The tragic advise on particular phases of a project. This lack failure of the Westgate Bridge in 1970 indicated of understanding by the public of the complexities of that in bridge design we may have been endeavouring our work has been and still is an issue that calls to go too far too fast, but our technical advances for attention by our profession. Some Engineers still have been of great benefit and we must not cease to feel it is an admission of a lack of competence if advance• they suggest they need assistance but they must change this thinking. There is a constant public demand for improved living conditions and it is appropriate we give some thought We should by continual example build up the under- to developments that have occurred in our lifetime. standing that, we heed the team effort and when I say I was ten years old before I saw my first aeroplane. team I do not necessarily mean a team of Engineers. In my lifetime the motor vehicle has developed from Host, if not: all, of our environmental projects need a crude and unreliable unit to become something that people in disciplines other than engineering to work has the community held at ransom and we see no clear actively in the project team. I have obtained answer to its inroads on community affairs. considerable stimulation through operating in such Electricity was confined to the major centres of multi-discipline teams. It has been interesting to population, domestic refrigeration was unknown, radio see how people with adequate scientific training can, was the toy of experimental scientists, and T.V. was if they get round a table in open discussion, begin not even thought of. Sewerage was confined to the to see and understand the other person's point of central areas in our major cities and our urban view. In time they arrive at compromise decisions water supplies were by modern standards quite in- that, whilst not giving complete satisfaction to the adequate. Our rural road system was totally individual, do help to optimise community interests. inadequate for the traffic of the day. Factory and I have found that the ability to operate satisfactorily office conditions were poor and production relied xn such multi-discipline teams depends a great deal on manual strength. There was virtually no on the personality and training of the individual. mechanisation in our rural industries and mining was Those who have worked in narrow fields tend to be a matter of survival of the fittest. These are only fixed in their ideas and cannot appreciate the some of the changes I have seen but they are all overall problem. This applies to many Engineers but areas in which the Engineer has made a major fortunately the proportion who can operate in such contribution. teams is higher in the engineering profession than in other scientific fields. No doubt this is because The Engineers, or to use a modern term the technocrats, Engineers haye had greater experience in team work are blamed for many of the problems we at oresent and have had more administration experience. realise face mankind. There is a growing realisation by the general public that we have reached whilst I felt that Alvin Toppler in "Future Shock" a stage at which we need to have a new loo): at many was prone to jump to major conclusions on little real evidence I was receptive to his thoughts on the 13 coming ad hocracy and with his concept of horizontal. He estimated that 90% of the world's scientists were rather than vertical communications. . I commend this alive today and were moving "rapidly into more section for consideration by all Engineers concerned restricted fields of knowledge. His message is of with environmental problems. We have for years importance to us all and is one that should be struggled with the bureaucratic hierarchy with considered at an A.N.Z.A.A.S. Conference where we communication between disciplines moving vertically have the meeting of the disciplines. We must give and with little chance for those in the middle of greater consideration to this problem. the tree to get together and understand each others thinking. The solution to many of our problems is My own opinion is that each discipline should in the in our own hands and we should see that we develop fields of tertiary education set up a basic degree the team approach and are not content to write our course that gives the student an adequate background story and allow it to go up and down the respective training in his particular discipline. I favour the trees. We need to develop the horizontal inclusion of more humanity subjects but do not favour communication at different levels and understand the trend to introduce subjects in other scientific each others problems. disciplines other than very general instruction that will give the student some understanding of what the Toppler foresees the emergence of the new kind of subject is about and how the people operating in organisation man. A man who despite his many that discipline tackle their problems. Part of my affiliations, remains basically uncommitted to any work is in the urban and regional planning field organisation. He is willing to employ his skills where I find the maximum contribution is given by and creative energies to solve problems with people who have a basic training in Engineering, equipment provided by the organisation and with Surveying or Architecture and who have at post- temporary groups established by it. But he does so graduate level obtained qualifications and only so long as the problems interest him. He is experience in the planning field. Those without committed to his own career, his own self fulfilment. such a basic discipline who have qualified by a course in planning or urban studies have fringe know- I have explored these thoughts with members of my ledge of many disciplines but without the basic know- own staff and feel disappointed that many of them ledge in one cannot appreciate the depth of any of prefer to operate in tightly defined cells with clear them. and fixed lines of vertical control. There is a need for Engineers who are concerned with We need to appreciate that people think differently tha environment to develop knowledge at post-graduate and that careful selection is necessary to build up level in subjects such as sociology, biology, uhe satisfactory team. The Toppler new kind man and economics, physical planning, geography, management the man who prefers the fixed cell are both needed and other fields that feature in our modern concept in the team. of the works. The professions should be getting together to help solve the problems of acquisition Planning is time consuming and complex. Evaluation of of this added knowledge. We must clarify our thoughts alternative solutions calls for the exercise of on how much training is needed in such subjects to mature judgment, a quality that is unfortunately provide the Engineer with the necessary understanding rather rare. The addition of social and ecological to appreciate the problems of the fully trained factors has added to the complexities and few can professional in the respective fields. possess the capacity or breadth to cover all the disciplines involved. It is however essential that Working experience is I consider a desirable pre- any multi discipline team should have a leader who requisite to post-graduate work. We find that few is in complete control of the team. Whilst the Engineers are in a position in which they can embark Engineer is normally the correct leader in the on full time post-graduate studies after the environmental team he is not necessarily so. We will necessary four or more years experience from find as we obtain a better understanding of team graduation. The tertiary education establishments operation that members of other disciplines who have would like to see sandwich semester type courses the necessary judgment and who can stimulate team introduced but I fear that under present conditions members will become the leaders. It is important few Engineers will be in a position to handle such that we learn to work together and understand each courses if they extend over more than or.e semester. other. If we do not, decisions will continue to be Pew employers are prepared to allow staff a full made by the layman who is influenced by the best semester on pay and few can afford to take time off talker or the one who has exaggerated his case. We without pay. are the professionals and should be best able to determine the optimum solution. Experience in the Institution of Engineers indicates that interest in the one off single paper type of CONTIMUING EDUCATION learned society meeting has faded and it appears that it has little real value in the continuing education The professions operating in the scientific fields of the Engineer. are deeply concerned with the problems cf keeping up with the growth in technical knowledge and with Seminars are valuable in that they assist in the desirable depth and breadth of their basic informing people of current thinking and of new tertiary degree courses. Professor Hollis Peter developments but do not provide the grass roots know- during a recent address to Queensland fsmbers of the ledge that is obtained in a formal course Institution of Engineers referred to the vital need for the professions to give careful consideration to I see a refreshing trend towards the greater use of obsolescence Drevention. He referred to the fact members in the other professions as speakers at these that the half life of an Engineer's knowledge is now Seminars. It is thought that the proposed recognised to be of the order of six to eight years. 14 31 restructuring of the Institution will lead to the I live in Brisbane which in 1946 had only some 35« of development of more multi-discipline organisations, its houses connected to the Sewerage Scheme. such as the Geomechanics and Computer Bodies. The Considerable, design work and some construction was Water and Waste Water Association has assisted greatly carried out in the immediate post-war period but it in the development cf inter-professional relation- was not until 12 years ago that a vigorous ships in this field but there has been an excess of campaign for the Lord Mayor's seat stirred public engineering strength in this body and they need opinion to a stage where it forced political action. the stimulation of other scientists. The result is that Brisbane is newahead of Sydney and Melbourne in the proportion of houses that are I am satisfied that the old concept of regular sewered. Maybe our roads and other services have technical meetings, discussion groups, seminars and suffered but the houses are connected. Public conferences do not provide the continuing education opinion has now turned its attention to the lack of that will be^iiecessaryjand ithat '_£ullltime'"complete treatment and the deterioration of the waters of-S^'-T" post-graduate courses are not a practical solution. ttje Brisbane River and the adjoining coastal areas., .:: .Political pressure decided that houses should be'"-.': '-'-. There is. need! for._a_Mwrapproach..and .it is desirable that employer and" employee Engineers get connected, to the system without treatment of the . ~ -- : together and explore the problem in depth. One wastes. Engineering Departments on their own;would ™° : answer could be to develop a comprehensive series have endeavoured" .to; strik% a balance but without the ;:L of high pressure three to four weeks courses in support of public opinion funds, would not; have been _':, single subjects, designed to assist Engineers with available. Public opinion demanded sewerage without thought to the ultimate disposal problems and is more than five years experience since graduation. now even more demanding on the need to solve the At this stage most Engineers have decided on their disposal problems. field of operation. They need added knowledge in this field or build up knowledge in allied fields. There has been a change in the practice of waste It was my thinking that the change over to the water treatment in the last decade and we as Engineers ?: semester approach in our tertiary education establish- must accept some criticism for not leading opinion ments would provide a mid year period in which in the direction of improved techniques. There were teaching staff could handle the courses. examples such as the Ruhr Valley in Germany where Unfortunately it is likely that the mid year break there was a strong appreciation of the need for will not provide the necessary time, and staff will research and development and a need to preserve the be heavily committed in handling half year quality of the water in the rivers. examinations. We will possibly have to develop the 'Summer School1 concept. ~The Institution would I am However, until a few years ago most Engineers accepted confident support such a scheme and practising an empirical approach established in the United Engineers would be willing to assist in setting up Kingdom in 1910 and based on a direct relation- and operating the courses. There would be ship between the volume of sewage and receiving considerable value in the closer relationships waters. The U.S.A. with its system of major rivers that would be established with the academics. and inland lakes poured sewage, in many cases without treatment or with nominal treatment only, It is I think desirable that the initial high pressure into its waters with the result that ultimately its effort should have a consolidating period of study waters were destroyed. Public opinion has forced which could be effected by a detailed schedule of urgent and drastic action and currently huge sums study reading followed by a written examination some are being expended in the U.S.A. and other six months later. countries on treatment, and in many cases waters are improving. The Thames in London is a classical example of. what can be done ill bringing Employers would co-operate in such a scheme provided a stream back to life. it was not allowed to develop into' a one way exercise. We are in a period of increased annual leave and It is of interest and possibly typical that the major maybe Engineers will be prepared to devote some of impetus to nutrient research came at Lake Tahoe the increased leave to such study courses. Employers which is a deep and crystal clear resort lake in the will be prepared to allow time off for staff to mountains on the border of California and Nevada. attend courses of real value if employees co-operate. Despite comprehensive treatment of sewage, it was found that the clarity of the water was decreasing, The emphasis in post-graduate work in the environ- and those directly interested could see the possible mental professions should be on improving knowledge demise of a valuable asset. Detailed research in in the allied fields and all environmental sciences this area contributed materially to our knowledge should give serious consideration to ways and means of the problems of phosphates and nitrates as by which they can support their allied professions. nutrients and their relationship to algael growths in inland waters. PROBLEMS IH THE WASTE WATER FIELD
As often happens in such break throughs, the nutrient A significant part of my engineering experience has issue was grossly over-stressed and it is only now been in the environmental fields and it is beginning to become established on a sound basis. appropriate that I should comment on some particular projects that demonstrate the changed thinking of I have over the last few years been directly concerned the public and the general approach of the Civil with investigation of the disposal of sewage from Engineer. Darwin. The Departmental proposals for collection
IS REUSE OF WASTE WATER and disposal of untreated sewage in Darwin Harbour I have for many years advocated greater attention produced a strong public reaction and forced to the reuse of our treated waste water. The Governmental reconsideration of the proposals. One time is not far distant when we will in some of of the objections raised was that the added our major population centres be faced with the phosphate content of the Harbour waters would alternatives of desalination or reuse. Currently increase algael growth and upset the ecological the cost of treating waste water effluents to balance. During our investigation it was found bring them to drinking water standards is less that the tidal waters near king tide level in the than 10% of the cost of desalination. There is of mangrove areas had a high phosphate content and it course a psychological objection to reuse of waste is possible that we need phosphate enriched sewage water and there are many grey areas that need to restore the balance which could have been investigation and research. We should be working disturbed by elimination of a few areas of mangroves. on this research now with top teams operating pilot We are now satisfied that phosphates are not a plants and carrying out long term assignments. problem in tropical tidal waters. They are in inland fresh water lakes and streams. During 1964 I spent some weeks in California investigating ocean outfalls and reuse of effluents This was one aspect only that was considered by our as a lead up to our work on the Gold Coast sewerage. multi-discipline investigating team but it is of There is a plant at Whittier Narrows in Los Angeles interest to record that public opinion in this case which handles 12 million gallons per day and passes led to an upgrading of the proposals and to the a high quality effluent to underground beds which carrying out of in depth studies that have I think are drawn on for industrial water in the area developed a satisfactory approach. between the plant and the ocean. Research work is proceeding in this area and other parts of I have also been concerned with sewerage works for California and considerable work has been carried the Gold Coast in South East Queensland where we have out in Israel where reused treated effluent becomes a scheme under design and construction which will part of the drinking water supply. There are eventually sewer the 20 odd miles of coastal develop- several plants operating in South Africa where ment. Sewage is taken to three separate treatment chemically treated effluent is returned to the water plants located a mile or so from the ocean. The supply system. first stage of the Southport plant went into operation some eight years ago and discharges its effluent into Quite apart from the value of the water itself the Nerang River. Prior to and since this date the schemes providing for reuse will greatly reduce the Nerang River waters have been subject to regular risk of pollution. monitoring over a wide range of characteristics. Initially it was considered that the receiving waters It is tragic that a country as short of water as ours could take a well treated effluent from a population should not be active in this field. We should not of 15,000 to 20,000, after which we would have to be allowing this waste water to discharge to tidal discharge to the open sea by a long and deep ocean waters, and the day is coming in which we cannot outfall. Test results to date have shown that afford to do so. populations well in excess of this figure can be handled without risk, some tests indicate an There are problems to be solved and-they cannot be improvement in quality due to the substitution of solved overnight so we should at least be preparing a good effluent for the very poor septic tank for the day by active research work. effluents that previously found their way to the stream. DAMS
I quote this as an example of the necessity for the These days an Engineer approaches any proposal for detailed study of conditions over long periods. It construction of a dam with some apprehension. It is a further example of multi-discipline work which is an area in which there have been long and some- has throughout been initiated by and directed by times bitter arguments and it is evident that a Engineers. The beaches and intercoastal waterways more rational approach must be found. are of great importance to the Gold Coast and it is essential that there should not be the slightest Water is a commodity that will become a major possibility of pollution. factor in the future of mankind and will in some countries become a control factor in the Waste water is an area in which there has been determination of ultimate development. Ecologists confused thinking and we still have much to learn. must face up to the fact that at some stage in the The Engineer must have the assistance of men skilled future very good reasons will have to be advanced in other sciences and we need to persuade politicians to prevent the development of any site which can be that it is a field for urgent and extensive research. used to store stream flow. We need detailed and continuous monitoring of the existing schemes with a wide circulation of results. We passed through a phase in which the economists Any plant to treat wastes should provide an effluent were most critical of any storage project that did that approaches drinking water standard-: and we not serve the major urban centres. This has been should be making use of the by products. followed by the phase in which emphasis is given to ecological aspects. Again we need the multi- discipline approach with the interested persons operating as a team and not sending reports up and down the trees. I am confident that acceptable 16 ROADWORKS solutions will be found in most cases provided the Roadworks is a field where we have to balance the team members get to know and understand each other. demands for high speed and safety against damage to flora and places of interest. The geometry of high This is an area in which there has been a deal of speed roads with severe limitations on grade and unfair criticism of the Engineer and where many cur .>ture severely restrict our efforts to avoid people show a lack of appreciation of true values danicc- to rural areas. Our road authorities are very in the environment aspects. Anyone who knew consc.ous of the problems and detailed attention is Mt Isa before we constructed the Leichhardt River given to alternatives that will reduce the impact Dam appreciates that this project altered the whole on the land. There is a continual program of rural environment of the area. Previously a rocky, brown, roadside beautificatlon by tree planting, grassing desolate waste land.we now have attractive housing, and general housekeeping; -:;We"'despair~at"'times~when trees, lawns, aquatic sports, picnic areas and even our efforts'.are '"spoilt by the fitter "deposited 'by a beach for the children to play on. The people the motorist "and jaur ~environmentaljiiinded\. friends now have a friendly environment rather than one could weli'tvfrn their attention to this' problem. that is harsh and hostile. There is evidence o£ the Engineers attention to In many cases those responsible for the construction esthetics in the form of many of our modern bridges of dams have followed up by spending considerable and the Narrows Bridge in Perth is a good example, sums of money on the development of really excellent architects are prone to be critical of Engineers for picnic and camping areas and many inland people their lack of appreciation of form. In Brisbane we have been able to obtain the amenity of water sports. have recently replaced an ugly steel bridge by a My good friend Fred Haigh who is Irrigation prestressed concrete structure with graceful lines. Commissioner in Queensland'has for many years given When I look at this bridge and then turn to the top priority to the development of these areas which modern box like Insurance building and the beautiful have given great pleasure to many people. eld Treasury building adjoining the northern abutment I feel we have nothing to be ashamed of. Many of We hear criticism of the whole of the Murray Valley our early freeways are concrete monstrosities but water conservation and irrigation works because some later efforts show an improvement in line, form and areas are experiencing problems due to salt build general appearance. However the social problem of up in the top soils. We have a problem which has freeways is far from solved and I do not think anyone been investigated in depth and possible solutions has an answer that will satisfy more than a section have been proposed by an Engineer-led multi- of the community. Engineers advocate improved rapid discipline team. Costs are high but not excessive public transport with adequate car parking space at and no doubt the productivity of this land will be stations but this does not appeal to the public. restored. The motor car and the mobility it gives has been of great benefit to mankind. We are in a period where We hear criticism of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and we appreciate that these benefits carry problems claims that power could have been obtained more which must be solved. I am confident they will be economically by development of coal burning plants. solved. I am confident that posterity will consider this project as a major milestone in the development of CONCLUSION Australia. Quite apart from the value of hydro generated power and the diversion of water to the Ih recent years Engineers or technologists in the inland the project has greatly increased the broader sense have been made the scapegoat for all amenities for the people of this country. the excesses and deficiencies in the development of man's living conditions. This criticism is valid It has opened up the alpine area for public use and however only to the extent that Engineers are too many people now benefit from the snow sports, the often either satisfied or willing to identify and T.skss and merely being able to travel through the analyse the problems and then step back and allow rugged country. Not the least of the benefits is others to make the decisions. We must become the reduction in flooding in the streams and the decision makers. consequential reduction in soil erosion. Most major decisions on large engineering projects People forget that schemes such as the Snowy are based on benefit-cost studies. We have still Mountains and the vast T.V.A. projects in the U.S.A. to develop a basis for evaluation of human benefits were the brain children of Engineers whose prime and costs. Maybe we will develop system studies consideration was the improvement of man's living where we can approach the answer but I fear there conditions. These projects were based on sound are just too many variables. scientific and engineering principles and were subject to detailed investigation of the total impact before We need the true multi-discipline approach in they were put in hand. assessing these alternatives and in determining the optimum solutions. We must have mutual under- I cannot comment on Lake Pedder as I have ye" to read standing and co-operation between the interested a report which has been prepared by a co-operative professions. All professions must make adjustments team and which can outline the various parameters but the challenge to the Engineer is the most and give a reasonable picture of the issues at stake. formidable as he is the one who is most readily identified.
17 We claim that the Engineer is the logical leader of criticism and to rise above it, public confidence the team as he has the management experience and and support can be marshalled to an all time high. normally operates in a team but he is not This will surely be needed in order to secure the necessarily the leader. The important issue is who consent and money necessary to achieve the standards understands the total problem best and who can of quality that are being dictated today by the users communicate most clearly with both technologists of engineering products and services.' and laymen. He also likened civil engineering to a talented The real long term need is not so much that we symphony orchestra comprising a broad spectrum of thoroughly understand our Society but that this specialists in their chosen skills - but too often Society more thoroughly understands the position. an orchestra without a conductor. This important ; _: The people must learn the difference between service is often provided by a politician or a non quality and extravagance. The Engineer must be engineering professional. heard, then clearly understood and finally heeded and believed. We must get with the people and not He has a message for all Engineers and we should note be satisfied to speak in our learned Society areas. it carefully.
Mr William H Wisely who recently retired after a We have much we can be proud of but we have to long period as Executive Director of the American develop the poise and stature necessary to lead the Society of Civil Engineers in a recent address states community in these fields and in many aspects we must develop new thinking. We have in the past solved •The harbingers of ecological doom have misinformed our problems and will continue to do so. Those who and confused the public with gross exaggerations about were fortunate enough to see Prince Philip the state of the environment but they have also this year on TV would appreciate his story of the performed a great service. Never before has public late 19th century problem in London where the growth attention been focused so sharply upon the causes in the horse population raised an apparently and consequences of air, land and water pollution. insuperable manure disposal problem. Like Naver before has the engineering profession been so Prince Philip I am confident that our technocrats aroused to the realisation that it is obliged to who solved this problem will continue to solve the justify all of the probable and possible effects of environmental problems. We will do so if we combine its projects and programs as part of their original our efforts and improve our communications. planning and execution. It is because of these conditions that I believe engineering is on the threshold of a renaissance. If the profession has the substance, poise, and stature to accept just
IS Address by Mr. L. G. Hancock Thousands of people have been electrocuted or burnt in their homes through the misuse of labor-saving I have yet to hear of any public protest when one electrical appliances, but has any government shown of the famous Pilbara cyclones swings in and vents the will to ban this dangerous utility. wind and water on our great desert spaces. Yet just Untold thousands have been killed with the motor one of these blows will destroy more rock than 1000 car - a product which could not exist in anything years of mining by nuclear means. This is nature like its present numbers, except for the roads at work. How man wants a piece; a tiny fragment of built with the road metal quarried by Nobel's the action. So I want to tell WHY AUSTRALIA MUST dynamite. Are we then to be without motor cars or ENTER THE NUCLEAR AGE. And I will tell under the the convenience of electrical home appliances on headings of :- the score of danger? Would the government be game SAFETY OP AUSTRALIA enough to ban coloured TV because the radiation NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION emission is stronger, than that. emanating from the NUCLEAR MINING clean hydrogen bomb. It is worthwhile to remember - NUCLEAR EXCAVATION that the human race has lived with radiation for _a AND HOW AUSTRALIA IS EMINENTLY very long time because radioactive isotopes are SUITED TO THIS TECHNOLOGY part of our very body tissues.
Let us at first set the scene - as it is now in The wartime use of an atomic bomb at Hiroshima has 1973. Every unorthodox innovation for the large left such a legacy of fear in men's minds that it scale benefit of the majority of the human race has carried over to prevent the use for peaceful seems to be preceded by a host of detractors, some purposes of the "clean bomb" or as it is better of whom are cranks, some of whom are soured and named the hydrogen nuclear device. Press vicious people, but some, in fact the great majority sensationalism, genuine misunderstandings and are otherwise sensible human beings who are wilful perversion of scientific facts have apprehensive about what perhaps could be called "a generated a host of fallacies regarding the use of leap in the dark". The outcome of this leap is the "clean" hydrogen bomb for peaceful purposes. something of which they have been kept in Therefore if we are to pass out of the superstitions ignorance, or have learnt to fear through press of mediaeval times we must discard this disease of sensationalism. There are no circulation the environmentalists, which, according to dividends in presenting unglamorous facts of Mr. W.J. Gillies of the S.E.C., is "bred of a scientific progress, whereas if the subject in parentage of frenzy, fear and unawareness coupled question can be dressed up to present some with the indisputable needs of this, our age of Frankenstein type phobia the public will buy the environment". Their criticism is, "ill-informed newspaper, discuss it, choose sides and argue the and indoctrinated public opinion promoted by pros and cons whether properly informed or other- selfishly biased, insular minorities." Or they wise. This atmosphere is heightened by publicity consist of groups with vested interests who wish to seekers, who, lacking the brains or capacity to have industry re-located into areas from which they invent something in their own right, can see an expect to draw speculative monetary gains. However, opportunity for notoriety in decrying a discovery let's agree we all want clean air and we all want by some really great man - the more ill-founded and clean water. I think our best chance of getting it way-out the objections are the greater the notoriety - is by nuclear means. the greater the media circulation. SAFETY OF ADSTRALIA Pasteur was ridiculed. Geographically and militarily we are an Asian The discoverer of the anaesthetic properties of country populated not by hundreds of millions of chloroform. Dr. James Simpson, was ostracised by Asians, but by a mere thirteen million Europeans the medical profession, particularly by those members surrounded by emerging dictatorships with unstable of it who were adept at hacking off men's limbs political climates from which a Hitler-like with meat saws and allowing women to be tortured in militant adventurer can emerge at any moment despite childbirth. The struggle to bring the benefits of the present apparent calm on our Northern shores; a chloroform to the human race was not won on calm which is likely to disappear the moment the scientific grounds or medical grounds, but as a Americans completely withdraw from South East Asia. result of the example set by Queen Victoria, who Notwithstanding the ties of blood and language it subjected herself to its use at the birth of her would he unreal to imagine that either the U.S.A. son Prince Leopold. or Britain would aid us if we were attacked. Suez The innovation of the motor car saw our legislators was Britain's last foreign military adventure - at work compelling a man to walk in front of it Vietnam will sound the death knell of America's waving a red flag. The initial railway was role of policeman in Asia. objected to on the premise that it would prevent hens Should it become necessary we cannot slug it out laying eggs. man for man with our neighbours; we have not the Nobel, with his invention of dynamite, was heralded numbers. One of our near neighbours breeJs more people every year than Australia's tctal as anti-Christ, whose one aim was to destroy the population. How then are we to balance the world. equation? Surely we must make good our deficiency Faraday with his discovery of electricity, in sheer in numbers by superiority in technical ability on frustration at being unable to penetrate the mind all fronts. In short, Australia must enter the of Mr. Gladstone said, "Look Mister Prime Minister nuclear age. you will be able to tax it". We have some of the world's greatest deposits of To those of you who wish to exclude Australia from raw materials. These materials the industrial its birthright to enter the technological nuclear nuclear armed powers must import in ever-increasing age on the score of safety, several comparisons quantities because their own industrial consumption spring to mind, for instance, Faraday when he is expanding at an enormous rate. If we develop discovered electricity - Nobel when he invented our resources and markets to the point where, for dynamite. instance, the United States becomes dependent on us to maintain its factories or in fact its very with several companies operating; all with their existence as an industrialised nation, then and own small power plants spread miles apart. only then, will they be forced to prevent our These companies are dynamic, privately-owned subjugation by a hostile power to save their own enterprises not dependent on government handouts in economy. any way, but on the contrary making huge contribu- Meantime we may have to defend ourselves as best we tions to the Treasury. Operating singly, not one can. This I believe can only be done by arming the of them has a need large enough to justify the Fill with a nuclear warhead so that the militarily installation of a nuclear power station; jointly stronger nations on our borders (who out-number us they could consume some 200 megawatts which at the tenfold or more) will know that if they should feel moment is the minimum justification for a nuclear tempted to attack us they will in turn be handling plant. a fairly prickly hedgehog which can strike without being seen and which can "take out" their vital This seems beyond the imagination and capability of targets such as power installations, water supplies, government to supply. You will remember communication centers and munition factories to the Mr. McMahon cancelled Australia's first proposed point where it nullifies their capacity to make war nuclear plant authorised by Mr. Gorton. How then on us except at very great cost to themselves. is the breakthrough to be made? This can be done by the Fill supersonic terrain- The answer could lie in attracting some huge multi- following warfare system because the Fill operates national company with adequate capital and below the radar screens, hits an unseeable target experience in building nuclear power plants to the in weather that prevents the plane from being seen Pilbara iron field by offering them equity in a and returns to base without the enemy having a large iron ore deposit, whereby they would become chance to prevent the attack. Pilots who have flown basic operators in their own right so that in their this machine in warfare say that in not one instance own interest they would find it worthwhile to has an Fill been hit by a bullet i.e. up to the time instal a nuclear power plant and sell off the that I was last in Dallas. Judging by the heroism surplus power to the other producers in the field. of the World War 1 pilots in the dog-fighting era They could not, of course, do this under the this may sound an unsporting method of making war, onerous taxation conditions that exist at present but to me it would seem jmcommon sense considering relative to mining installations not lodged on a the otherwise unequal odds. mining lease. The place for the nuclear power plant must be on the coast adjacent to sea water at This then is the first step towards Australia a centrally located point relative to the Hamersley entering the nuclear age and seeing that it is a Range Iron Field. It could not be installed on one case of self preservation it is probably the main company's mine site, which it would need to do one. Please do not let us fool ourselves by under the present unrealistic tax set up to avoid thinking that the Fill or any other aircraft offers hardship. us adequate protection if loaded with "iron bombs". NUCLEAR MINING It has to be nuclear or nothing. Our giant resources must be mined with nuclear explosives to increase their scale of operation, NUCLEAR POWER GEHERATIOM reduce the cost, speed up the time factor and The next step should be to develop our natural lessen transport and storage difficulties. resources on the cheapest possible footing in order to capture world markets thus bringing a nuclear- With regard to nuclear mining of the orebodies the powered nation's trade channels to our door. This first commercial blast in the world has been set means installing nuclear power stations in our big off at Rulison in U.S.A. The American Government mineral fields. It means building nuclear power will now sell this nuclear device to industry in stations in our cities, not only to supply cheaper much the same way as industry can buy TNT and fuel with which to make our industrial output dynamite at present. It is therefore just a short competitive on world markets, but to improve the step for us to transfer this technique to the health of our work force by eliminating smog. It Australian mineral fields commencing on the iron will gain Australia nothing to develop our with a 40,000 ton TNT equivalent blast at the industrial output breathing an unhealthy Wittenoom iron deposits. atmosphere such as one experiences in Los Angeles In U.S.A., at Rulison, there was conducted an and other industrial cities powered by fossil experiment, which, if used by industry, will open fuels. A reduction in smog we are told means a the way to doubling the known resources of natural reduction in cancer and other diseases which can gas of the U.S. This technique could possibly be be still further reduced by the adoption of nuclear applied at Gingin and the Goldwyer location near medical techniques. Broome in W.A. and probably central Australia. Probably the mineral that is in shortest supply in At first every conceivable obstacle by the eco-nuts Australia is water, yet untold millions of gallons was thrown in its path up to the point of asking pour into the oceans from our rivers when in flood the Supreme Court of U.S.A. to stop the explosion. and are unretrievably wasted. Again the use of the cheap nuclear tool will need to be used to dam Judge Arraj found the Colorado Open Space Co- these waters or turn them inland for use in the ordinating Council and the American Civil Liberties development of the giant projects in the outback. Union presented no evidence to support their claims Apart from savinq these natural waters one of the that the project was unsafe. The U.S. Circuit by-products o£ a nuclear power station would be Court of Appeals upheld Judge Arraj's decision. desalination of the water thus providing an Circuit Judge Delmas Hill of Wichita, Kan. said addition to our fresh water supply. explosion opponents presented "a very weak case'." The Judge found the evidence offered by the Council Those horizons sound easy on paper - are they and the ACLU "totally lacking" in support of their achievable? Let us look at the Pilbara iron claims of irreparable damages. The two groups -it-uation where we have several ports in existence contend : a ORE ORE;
FRACTURED
Artist's impression of a 40 kiloton contained underground nuclear hydrogen blast to fracture 43*1 million tons of iron ore. Crushing plant, drive and ore deoosit are in existence. ! 1. That the explosion set for 8,400 feet under- These were our assets which we were risking, nobody ground could vent radioactive material through else was risking anything. See drawing. Note the a fissure in the earth; contaminant is hundreds of feet below the orebody. 2. That underground water could be contaminated The first step was to satisfy myself that nuclear by the blast; mining was safe. So I went to the D.S. Accompanied e 3. That danger of poisoning the atmosphere with by Dr. Teller, I went down the Piledriver contained T radioactive materials exists when the Atomic nuclear explosion site to within 100 ft. of the actual Energy Commission proposes to open the explos- shot point and allowed the fractured rock to run E ion area. through my hands. Piledriver was one of a series of L- However, Judge Arraj noted in his decision that - such mining shots. The first was under Rainier Mesa in 1957. The U.S.AsE.C. experimentally mined this 1. No witness at the hearing before him could when it was done 16 years ago. The art was young say there was any probability the explosion then. would vent - that ir. ract this was highly improbable; The thing to remember is that the radioactive matter dies; it does not hang around forever. 2. There was no evidence whatsoever relating to underground water; Following on a total disregard for Western Australia's 3. That no plans have been made to open the welfare as illustrated by the Treasury and Federal explosion area until six months after the Reserve Bank's currency and capital restrictive 4 blast. policies, Australia has no alternative to enable it to keep pace with our competitors except to enter I went to Rulison to see the world's first commercial the nuclear age. We are facing extreme competition shot and whilst there met up with various private from Brazil whose government realistically devalues contractors experienced in such work. The most when ours naively revalues, whose government gives impressive of them was Dr. Gerry Johnson who set tax holidays when ours charges an exorbitant rate of off the first fifty nuclear explosives in the Nevada income tax; whose government levies no royaity when Desert. He has now left the American Atomic Energy our W.A. government levies royalty at 700 percent Commission and is managing a firm which is contract- higher than the Commonwealth does. In short, Australia, ing to use nuclear explosives in private industry. for a major project, has to raise approximately 400 He returned to Australia with me and after visiting million dollars worth of capital to do the work of the Northwest in my company agreed to make a study approximately 210 million because at the first bite and put up a firm quote with a detailed program the Commonwealth Government takes 47%% of the profits. covering all safety aspects to mine and crush 43 million tons in one blast of iron ore at Wittenoom We, therefore, must use nuclear mining to its fullest at a cost of 1.8 cents per ton. It is currently extent which could reduce the cost from Si.00 per ton costing the huge Pilbara iron ore companies some- to 1.8 of a cent. thing like one dollar per ton for the same exercise (this is 55.5 times as much) NUCLEAR EXCAVATION: This step should be followed by the excavation of with Mr. Gorton as Prime Minister an underground a land backed harbour capable of carrying the explosion had every chance of being permitted in world's largest ships of the future and being able Australia because the P.M. would have had at his to load several of them simultaneously. This can elbow the quots and program of the man who had only be done economically by nuclear blasting. actually set off 50 nuclear explosives. He would have had the support of the American Atomic Energy It is regrettable that the Australian Government Commission. He would have had the support of the with the ball at its feet,-fumbled badly and ended inventor of the device, namely Dr. Teller, who was up with a dismal flop at Cape Keraudren; a place prepared to come to Australia and answer in front that did not justify a harbour of such dimensions of the P.M. any of the arguments that would undoubt- but which could easily have been transferred to a edly flow from the various detractors of the scheme. site near Depuch to serve practically the whole of He would possibly have had the support of Sir Philip the Hamersley Iron Field. Baxter, then head of the Australian Atomic Energy The Government, weighed down with a bureaucracy Commission, who at that time was confronted with lacking in experience of detonating nuclear .charges the fact that his department had cost the Australian and bereft of any geographical coastal knowledge taxpayer nearly 200 million dollars (more than relative to the Hamersley Iron Field, has cost enough to build a nuclear power station in Pilbara) Australia dearly through its failure to bring and had, so far, not generated one single horse- Keraundren or rather its replacement harbour to power of energy in return for such an enormous fruition because of the objections of the eco-nuts. expenditure. For every human being on earth at present there is At Wittenoam the idea was to break the ore and dis- said to be more than one million tons of air in the charge it onto an underground conveyor leading to atmosphere. For my part I am willing to risk the old crushing plant at the asbestos mill. We contamination of my million tons by such an explosion thought that this preliminary use of the nuclear as I don't see how a device detonated some six device would be the ideal lead-in rather than aiming hundred feet under the sea bed covered with several for the building of a harbour first, because of fathoms of water with the contaminants sealed in people's fears about contaminating the ocean and at the moment of explosion, could ever escape to theoretically discharging radioactivs contaminant atmosphere. At this stage let me quote from a to atmosphere. By having an underground inland letter that I received from Dr. Teller — explosion we thought most objections would be over- ruled, added to which was the fact that the only "There are two instances that need emphasis. people who really stood to lose were Hancock and One is that the Russians have proceeded with Wright because of our investment in the nearby town- careful use of cratering explosions, and have site and in the proving and drilling of the orebody reported on their progress at the International too ether with all our underground equipment at the Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. mine - a total of something like 2h million dollars. The other is that in the case of your interest 24 I i t~l ft 3 10 0 MILES
6 ONE LOCO
10
These three profiles are reproduced from clips taken from animation in a movie being made to show operation of the scheme of which'the downhill railway is a part. you will familiarise yourselves with the Nuplex in North Western Australia all the conditions for safe use of nuclear explosives according Concept you can see what could be accomplished with to the Plowshare procedures are justified." just one nuclear plant. If you care to study the Nuplex Concept it will take very little imagination HOW AUSTRALIA IS EMINENTLY SUITED TO THIS TECHNOLOGY: to see on what the Government's Pilbara Concept was We must use a nuclear device to dam our rivers. based. See drawing. We must use nuclear power to desalinate the ocean and obtain fresh water. In the Pilbara there are 127 million million tons We must use nuclear power to beneficiate our of iron ore. Enough to last the whole world for a minerals. multitude of centuries. Why not insure against our We must use nuclear explosives to quarry rock future rising costs by blasting some thousands of and blast tunnels to build and improve the grade millions of tons in the isolated outback and leaving of our railroutes. For instance the current it dormant while the outback is isolated. This rail roads in Pilbara require up to 1.4 HP per could be a tremendous reserve of broken ore at the ton of train because of the terrain whereas the cheapest cost imaginable as a guarantee of downhill rail route to Depuch requires only Australia's future. .3 HP per ton of train. See map. I believe that we should enter the nuclear age as promptly as possible and use it immediately to mine The present Commonwealth Government is committed, our vast mineral deposits, to create dams to save according to its pre-election platform, to bringing the water which would otherwise run uselessly to the Australia into the nuclear age. If it fails to do sea and furthermore to excavate channels at our sea so we will never be other than a minor country whose coast to service ships not of the present 100,000 standard of living will decline rather than increase. ton range but the ships of the future of half a Our markets for our materials will be taken from us million or even one million tons carrying capacity. by the emerging dictatorships of Africa and South The GLOBTIK TOKYO of 476,000 tons is already afloat. America. As I have explained, the inroad that Brazil is already making into our iron ore market To build such a harbour with conventional explosives is a case in point. would cover a time span of some 4 or 5 years involv- ing the slaughter of fish with every detonation. We st.ould remember that this year in U.S.A. 34 new With the nuclear device the explosion would take a nuclear plants have been commissioned. We should fraction of a second. Surely this would present a remember that throughout the world there are current- golden opportunity for some notoriety seeker to do ly being built 13 ports capable of servicing 250.-000 something practical (instead of sabotaging Australia's ton ore carriers. In Australia we have not one single productivity) by inventing a dye or some sonic device nuclear plant and not one single harbour capable of to scare fish away for the small fraction of time handling vessels of this dimension. necessary to explode the nuclear tool.
We have all heard much of the "Pilbara Concept" ap e I therefore propose the following program for the in e based on the dream of being subsidised by offshore u (A gas, which may have to be brought ashore some hundreds use of the nuclear device in all cases :- S
of miles away, after being won from sands some 7,000 1. Set off a contained underground explosion in 0) i feet below the seabed, which seabed is situated some an orebody at Wittenoom or Marandoo without c > 450 feet below the ocean's surface, which surface discharge to atmosphere. 5C1O sometimes undulates in cyclones with waves of 70 ft. 2. Blast a rock dam on the Turee Creek to supply i— in dimension. Added to which is the engineering water for Wittenoom, Marandoo, Tom Price and 01 problem of having to build a giant device with its e — Paraburdoo mines, rather than divest the foundations on a sea bottom, which may have to be •* w efi country of underground water supplies leading 01 -X cc penetrated some 400 feet or so before a solid found- Nu t Oi l to the devastation of the surface by the killing Pel l ation is reached. off of all flora dependent on the present under- Superimposed on these practical difficulties are all ground supplies. sorts of government impediments in the way of devel- 3. Dam the Fortescue River at Gregory's Gap as oping this gas as an economic unit such as prohibitions well as the Sherlock and Shaw Rivers to supply on exports and things of this nature. It may take water to the coastal mining towns. years before there is any positive outcome, but if 4. Augment the present Pilbara meagre water supply there is a positive outcome the cost will certainly by blasting undulating terrain and channels to be prohibitive and not such as would provide 4 mil enable the otherwise unusable Ord River water power as envisaged in the "Pilbara Concept"; unless to be brought south. This supply could be it is r-y way of a monumental bonus to all onshore further augmented, when required, by blasting industry which in this "concept" visualises the dams on the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers. usage of 4400 megawatts of power. 5. Cheapen the cost of the proposed downhill railway To the uninitiated, 4400 megawatts might not mean leading from 90% of the known ore in the Hamersley much but it is 20 times the amount of power which Ranges to a site near Depuch by blasting the early detractors of nuclear power in our Northwest Chichester Ranges in appropriate places. said would be beyond the total needs of the Pilbara 6. Blast a channel near Depuch so that in the fore- i.e. they claimed as a reason for not building one seeable future ore carriers of one million tons that one nuclear power plant was too big for the can be used thus keeping Australia up with the Pilbara - now they are envisaging a hand-out from rest of the world. n private qas company to provide us with 20 times 7. Blast some thousands of millions of tons of iron this figure. ore and leave it dormant as reserve for years to come. This is particularly applicable where What then is the sense of sabotaging an imaginative deposits have an expensive overburden removal idea like the "Pilbara Concept" by basing it on an problem. j'ry-fairy pipe dream of cheap gas which might never 8. Instal a nuclear power plant as part of the -'Vi-ntuiite, when right at our doorstep is the means "Pilbara Concept" on Depuch Island. I hope you •• .-stablishing cheap power in Pilbara almost over- are aware that, because of the eco-nuts, ••, mht. As T have said, this year alone in the U.S. Americans are considering building platforms in '4 -uiclfar power plants have been commissioned. In the sea on which to locate nuclear power plants Aii..! t.i! la, not one has been commissioned. Yet, if in future. 26 HANCOCK & WRIGHT'S +-t-t Existing Railways PILBARA PLAN ——Proposed Railway KEROAIDERI
HILLY, MAINLY BASALTIC
HAMERSLEY IRON PROVINCE
ANGELANMT.
On the east and west of the map are the expensive-to-operate existing north-south railways. Centre is the economic solution. Indian Ocean PILBARA INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX PROPOSED PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT
,S JO
Industrial area; future major industry Tl.De/ambre Island Future light industry j: Townsite; future townsite expansion RSP Airport; future airport JL* Road; future road —— ..A* Railway; future railway I I I I IWH PROPOSED Tidal flat IRON ODE BERTH Proposed mine 250 0001 «£5SEL5 Cape Lambert
CWAM IRON ORE BERTH RtCREATION CWAM INDUSTRIAL AREA Dixon Island RESERV Point Samson PROPOSED f\Depuch JETTV MUCLE»RRWcmi( j^>j, Port Walcott
KARRATHA'/' ' Conventional Power Nuclear Liquids Solid Consumer liquid i Solid Steel Generation Aluminium Fuel Chlorine Fertiliser Railway Pollution Products Wastes ' Mill From Low Reduction Cycle Caustic Plant Area Handling Petrochem. Handling Temp Hear Industries (No Coal)
Aluminium & Steel Research & Copper, Nickel, Pollution Consumer Products Consumer Plastics Rubber Development hot Air Vanadium & Research!!, Products Plastic £ Rubber Utilisation Manganese Conversion Development Aluminium & Steel Perrochem. Smelters Plastic Rollins, Forming
Hot ft'atei Pone
PILBARA NUPLEX CONCEPT PROPOSED WATER SUPPLY 1000 • 100 1 I J Statute Miles Litepede l» Pumped Gravity: open piped Piibara Iron Region
l"pump station
-1 Mt Slnglaarr '• I. Miukiiv '.-',•
. *^' T"r,
W •". - • . • ?• 2955 ^ .. ' -« *" -I • Mi Lerslerj- <—••jr* •MtNlcbojo^ ." ~: -^ ^ ",n"+^2«™"T "~ •*
^ _ - --=37" ywju.w-'"''""'"1' ' ' .
e r ' 0 e s •7/wsU'-
.Mt Modler 1750 ALIA Giles Me' U S T R 507
"-"--. ^feaui / o .•«••" "I
. Harl°8
M H- i3 H- o Q hi ill it rti^P rfMHGj'O D*3 SJrt> on 3C:Mi3siq(0O (1 H- O tt. H-;Hv I • (B • rt ffl *< H* H rt it 111 H 33 o « 1 rt rt ff;iii a ai 1 t ID c H»» o-o m K n> ss >0gH - HV ,— i. 3 rt ^ c c<;p"Mi t* Mi- h Hi (0 ft 3* ft H-HH- All of these proposals are located in isolated areas It may come when our markets have been taken from us totally devoid at present of population (except for by more virile populations leading to a consequent Wittenoom). Therefore they will need to be imple- decline in our standards of living. For instance, mented right now whilst they are in total isolation, Australia now has one of the lowest growth rates in but before we can do this our political leaders must the world; by comparison, Brazil has sprung up in pull their heads out of the sand; they must play a the last five years to a growth rate something like decisive part. In fact they have a duty to play it. five times that of Australia and second only to that They must make every endeavour to destroy the false of Japan. Neither Brazil nor Japan are shunning legend which is the legacy of Hiroshima, thus ensuring nuclear power. that Australia is not denied the benefits of the nuclear The time to cash in on nuclear mining is now when age. They must keep the public fully informed at all we can be at the head of the queue and whilst the times to enable them to have a proper understanding of 'spoils to the victor are greatest. There is no the benefits which can accrue to them with perfect; -prize for dragging the chain in this fiercely safetyi':-f just as they now enjoy electricity, -the"-'- "Icompetitive world. . i~to_j: . r^rirv™^"ic.". - : rZ fruits of dynamite, the benefits of nuclear cancer- If we are prepared to jump into the nuclear age contrbliihg. medicine.and; will en joy the relaxation immediately, there is ho reason why the Pilbaratl of colour TV - provided they sit ten" feet away from in .Western Australia could not become the "Rhur \ it. of South-East Asia".-With theJ; ensuing build-up in The nuclear age will come to Australia some time; it economic strength Australia would be:strong "enough is inevitable, but, when it does come, it may be too to defend itself. The raw materials are here. -"--'. late to be of any great benefit to the Australian What is lacking is leadership, guts and foresights; people.
31 Nuclear Energy and Legal Controls
Author: B. E. KING
Introduction relation to Commonwealth territories. However, the Cor.uaonwea 11h Government is not entirely without power to regulate the use of radioactive saostances in its own territories or elsewhere in Australia, The controlled production of nuclear energy was and this will be referred to later. first achieved in 1942, but that occasion, the sub- sequent research programme and the establishment of In 1953 the Atomic Energy Act (1) was passed a very large industry were carried out with extra- by the Ccuaonr/ea 11h Parliament, setting up tTie ordinary secrecy until 1945. The use of nuclear Australian Atomic .Energy Commission. This Act gave energy by man dates from that year, and the fact that the Commission broad powers connected with the wining, nuclear energy can produce violent and catastrophic treating or selling of uranium and in relation to results in the short term, serious disability and atomic energy..__ In some respects these powers only disease in the long term has been kept alive by apply to Copinonv/ealth territories and in others they series after series of test explosions by the U.S.A. lean heavily on the constitutional provision that and the U.S.S.R.. , by their later negotiations for a the Commonwealth nay legislate with respect to the test ban treaty, and more recently by Chinese and defence of the Commonwealth. wliere defence consid- French atmospheric tests. Less spectacular, and erations are involved, the Atomic Cnergy Act may less publicised has been the continued progress in override State laws. harnessing nuclear energy for a useful purpose, the generation of electricity. .Experience in '.Testern Australia.
The production of nuclear energy, like many of The Western Australian Radioactive Substances the endeavours in which man engages is inher'tently a Act (2) was passed in 1954, and this was followed by dangerous process, and its use consequently raises discussion of th» regulations between the states and important questions of health and safety. It is the Commonwealth. The regulations were finally inevitable then, tliat government health authorities gazetted in 1958 an.! the first licences to use x-rays should take a close interest in the use of nuclear and radioactive substances in 'Testern Australia were energy. In this paper, experience in the control of granted in 1959. the use of some sources of radiation is discussed, and some important questions are asked regarding the Up to 1954, virtuaIIy the only radioactive future control of the use of nuclear energy. substances used in medicine in Western Australia were Radium and its decay products, while in industry, At present, in Australia, the only producer of some radioactive substances had been used for nuclear energy is the Australian Atomic Energy industrial radiography. From 1959, the picture Commission which operates a nuclear reactor at Lucas changed rapidly. The use of substances other than Heights in Sydney. This reactor is not used for radium in medicine was increasing and a wide variety the production of electricity and there are no other of applications in industry were bein^ developed. U'ith the growth of industrialisation in this state users of nuclear energy for any commercial purpose. f From time to time, there have been proposals to use during the !9&0 s, many of these were put into use nuclear explosions for civil engineering and mining here. applications, and to use nuclear power for large scale mining/industrial complexes, but none of these The aim of our State Health Department lias been appear to be actively pursued at the present time. to permit this growth to occur without there being It might seem misleading then, to speak about legal any unnecessary risk to! the health of users of x-ray control of something which has not been used in equipment and radioactive substance or to the general five states or any federal territory, and is only public. One of the first actions taken was to pro- being used in the sixth state for research and hibit the use of x-ray machines in shoe stores. These limited commercial purposes. The justification is units irradiated both sales staff and customers and that we have for many years been making widespread had been shown to be entirely without benefit to the use of some of the fruits of nuclear energy, and will buyer of shoes. Of more significance \,-as the pro- almost inevitably use nuclear energy itself for the vision of a means of measuring radiation exposure of generation of power within the next two decades. pers ins exposed to radiation in the course of their worl . This was provided through the medium of the Film Badge Radiation Monitoring Service, which The fruits of nuclear energy are the radioiso- provided the film badge, a monitoring device which topes. These substances are the by-products of the incorporated a small piece of photographic film operation of a nuclear reactor and-+hey are being sensitive to x-rays in a special type of holder. used in increasing quantities in Australia and many \/hen processed and measured under carefully control- other cdtmtries in medicine, industry and research. led conditions, the amount of radiation to which the film has been exposed can be estimated. Although Legislation in Australia. in 1958 and earlier years, a similar service had been provided by the Contionwealth Department of Health, The dangers to health from the use of radioactive its use was not widespread. The result of the almost substances and x-rays were apparent over fifty years universal introduction of film badge monitoring, was ago. The main radioactive substance available at that for the first time, many people became aware that time, was radium which occurred naturally and of the radiation doses to which they were exposed. could be extracted from minerals such as Pitchblende. Improvements in" protective measures and operating Radium occurs in minute concentrations and has procedures could often be achieved quite readily and always been expensive to produce. The cost has had at little cost, and the film badge service provided an undoubted inhibiting effect on its procurement direct evidence' of the effectiveness of these and use. The development of the nuclear reactor, measures in reducing radiation exposure. The impr- permitting a wide variety of radioactive substances to essive result has been, that in most areas of radiatioi be manufactured artificially at relatively low cost, usage, the radiation exposure is only a fraction has opened up a wide variety of applications which of what it was ten years ago' and only a fraction of were previously impracticable. the maximum levels recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. By working In the early lgsO's, radioactive substances well within these levels we can be assured that the which were a by-product of the nuclear energy industry risfc to the health of radiation workers is minimised. were already finding many uses and it was clear that this would increase in the years to come. Even The growth areas of radiation usage during the then, experience indicated that some regulation of 1960ls have been, in addition to medicine, mainly in the use of radioactive substances would oe necessary industry and mineral exploration. They are: in order to safeguard the health of both users and the general public. 1. Industrial Radiography. The governments of the states have the authority 2. Well and borehole logging. to legislate with respect to the health of the popul- 3. Process control in industry. ation within their borders, and the Federal Government therefore took the initiative by preparing inodel 4. X-f.ay itnalysis. legislation and regulations and requesting the states to 5. Veterinary Radiography. agree to adopt these in a uniform manner throughout the Comi.ionwealth. There are obvious advantages in The growth in the first began before the raining having uniform laws throughout a country, but as has boom, while the second, third and fourth have been happened on so many occasions, there was not complete closely associated with raining and mineral processing. agreement and most states did not enact the model The fifth may seem out of place, but is no doubt due legislation without change. Thus there are signif- to the increasing affluence of our society. icant di 1" Terences between the laws and regulations in the six states. Mostly the grov-th in item three has occurred in spite of a profound lack of hnowledge oi radioactive Although the Co L'-.onwealth Government took the substances, their properties and safety measures, on initiative in this matter, it has never proceeded the part of the designers, engineers, technic ians to introduce si;.vilar legislation or regulations in and others concerned. Some manufacturers of process
33 control equipment have s!iov.*n by their inattention to the Act. The Commonwealth however, is not a major safety features and to the quality control of their producer of power in Australia, and Canmonwealth product that they have been poorly informed on the territories are not major consumers. The States dangers of ionising radiation and the necessary are the major producers of power, and it is the states safety features. which will have a need to supplement the traditional sources of fuel for electrical power production The regulations in V.A. and other states are sometime during the 19S0's. necessarily general in their scope, since when they were formulated many of today's uses of radiation The production of power from nuclear energy is were scarcely thought of. Tie need for the regula- a Subject which has not been without controversy in tions has been highlighted by problems which have recent years. The public is rightly concerned about arisen, and for which industry apparently had neither the environment in which they live and it is the the knowledge or the ability to find their own public which must be convinced that nuclear energy solutions. The result has been the development of can be used safely. When it comes to the point of numerous codes and standards with the result that establishing a .nuclear.. power_plant_in a state, the usage of x-rays and radioactive substances lias become question must tie asked and answered,; vho-iB.-to an area subject to extensive government controls. licence it? IVhb is,to decidejwhether the design, This v/ill remain so until industry (and to a lesser the method of construct ion'and the proposed methods extent research and medicine) show that they are of operation are safe. able to accept full responsibilities themselves for radiation safety. Under the Yf.A. Radioactive Substances Act, the use of any radioactive substances is the concern of To quote a few examples, we have seen radiation the Minister for Health and his Radiological Advisory gauges delivered with defective mechanisms and Council. The Council cannot turn a blind eye to shielding. X-Ray analysis equipment has long pre- something that is difficult or complex, and if it sented a serious potential for radiation exposure considered that the design or operating procedures of the operator, and only relatively recently is for a nuclear power plant were unsafe and a danger equipment being supplied with adequate safety to health, then the Council could advise the Minister features. In industrial radiography, not only is that a licence cannot be granted and the Minister more work being done but there is a demand for must accept this advice. more powerful sources of radiation. Because oi economic factors there was a slowness in adopting However, if a state were to grant a licence, the safer equipment which had become available, and this does not mean that an electricity authority or even with this equipment, there have been repeated other organisation could go ahead and build and failures resulting in high radiation exposure of operate a nuclear power plant. Major components Some operators. The lack of training of operators of the power plant would have to be imported, as in this and other areas has been a continued cause also would the nuclear fuel. If the Commonwealth of concern, and to overcame it a number of radiation Government did not approve either the design of the safety courses have been held. Even so, industrial plant or the type of fuel to be used, it could pro- radiography remains the area where the highest hibit their importation. Furthermore, the nuclear exposures to radiation of workers occurs. fuel is a prescribed material under the Atomic Energy Act and' the Atomic Energy Commission has However, all these problems have been faced broad powers under this Act to-contrdl such pre- and there is no doubt that the users of radiation scribed materials if it is considered necessary or operate with a degree of safety better than in desirable for the purposes of the defence of the many other areas of usage of toxic agents or danger- Commonwealth. ous equipment. Who then will licence nuclear power plants. Powers of the Commonwealth Government. Both the states and the Federal Authorities clearly have an interest in the matter. The safety of Although the Commonwealth has not passed similar nuclear power plant design must be properly eval- legislation to the states, it is not entirely with- uated and the public must be convinced that it has out power. Firstly, it has complete authority to been properly done,that the construction has been control the importation of radioactive substances properly executed, and that it is being operated from other countries into Australia. Radioactive safely, substances have been declared prohibited imports and authority to grant clearances from this prohib- YJho is to do this? The Atomic Energy Commiss- ition has been delegated to the Commonwealth Radia- ion would no doubt want to, and they are at the pre- tion Laboratory in the Commonwealth Department of sent time the best able to perform this function, Health when the substances to be used for medical but would their evaluation be acceptable to the purposes, and to the Atomic Energy Commission when states and to the public. There have been serious the purpose is non medical. The granting of clear- misgivings in the U.S.A. that their Atomic Energy ances is at the discretion of these tv/o organisat- Commission which is the body engaged in the promot- ions and they will only permit the supply of radio- ion of atomic energy, is also the licencing author- active substances to persons or organisations within ity and cannot therefore, be entirely impartial. a state who are holders of a licence granted in On the other hand, would the individual states wish that state. Not all radioactive substances are to go to the expense of setting up their, own eval- imported, since for some time the Atomic Znergy uation and inspection staff for the purpose? Commission has been a substantial producer and supplier to the Australian market and it exports to other countries. V/ithin Australia, it is tile policy of the Atomic Energy Commission to supply radioactive substances to licence holders. Another question which has to be answered concerns insurance. A nuclear power plant repre- sents a small but real possibility of accident, The cost of radioactive substances may be a and insurance against damage to person or property further deterrent to their careless use. Some are must be provided. It was early realised in other very expensive, particularly in the case of medical countries that the insurance industry could not uses, and here the Commonwealth Government exer- provide coverage to the quite unprecedented amounts cises further control through the medium of the necessary. Furthermore, contrary to other areas of Pharmaceutical Benefits legislation under which insurance, there are no statistics of accidents and radioactive substances are supplied free of cost damages to enable premiums to be determined, and to the patient, and presumably if the Commonwealth there is still only a limited number of nuclear Department of Health did not approve the use of a power reactors in the world, preventing insurers particular radioactive substance for medical purposes, from spreading the risk over a large number of it would not meet the cost, and if the substance was insured operators* of overseas origin, it would not allow its import- ation. In the U.S.A., insurance companies have established nuclear energy liability insurance Use of Nuclear Enerey- pools which can insure to a limit of 5»6O million per risk. Legislation known as the Price-Anderson The legal situation concerning the use of nuclear Act provides indemnity to a licencee and to anybody energy is far less clear. The states at the present else who may be liable up to an amount of not more time have the power to control the use of nuclear than S500 million per nuclear incident. The energy within their borders, but this situation could Australian states can legislate in this area but it be altered if there was conflicting Cor.imonwealth is unlikely that they would want to do so to legislation. For any Commonwealth legislation to indemnify nuclear power plant operators to the extent override State Laws, it woultl have to be in accord- of S500 million. ance with the powers given to the Commonwealth Government under the Co:nmonweal th constitution. Use of Nuclear Explosions.
The Commonwealth Government lias its Atomic This is a. subject of special interest in Energy Act wliich clearly permits it to producs Western Australia since it is in this State where nuclear power in Cora lomvea 1 th territories, and to the only proposals to use nuclear explosives for sell or use that power for purposes laid down in civil engineering and mining purposes have been put forward. The questions which have to be answ- 34 ered with respect to the use oi nuclear explosives the states by agreement to achieve common economic are more difficult than with nuclear power plants. policies for the development of nuclear energy in Australia on a national basis. However, in It will be clear that, just as with nuclear practise it is extremely difficult in matters of power plants, any proposals for the use of nuclear such magnitude to obtain co-operation from all the explosions must receive a most thorough safety states concerned. evaluation and there must be a sufficient dis- Where the Commonwealth is able to offer closure of information so that the public can be financial inducements to states the history of convinced that nuclear explosives can be used Commonwealth/State co-operative action is much safely. better". ThiV immediately^revealsa dilemma.- The '.'Uiil es s~most ~ac t ive~s teps~are~ taken" to~produce ~o— position of the-State is much the same as with agreement with the states, Australia will be \^:> nuclear power plants and if the Radiological . ^ caught without a satisfactory code of law applying.- Advisory Council felt there was a' danger to health, to nuclear activities, just as we were discovered a licence would be refused. -But because nuclear to be without adequate laws to deal with the search" explosives are involved, the Atomic Energy Comm- for and mining of mineral deposits and to regulate ~, ission-cannot disclose-full information to~-the dealings in shares and securities. '.7e are still states or'anyone else.4^ Defence considerations and without adequate laws in these two major areas of agreements^v/ith: other countries would prevent-.this. national activity in spite of the years that have Without, adequate disclosurei"it would be extremely elapsed.? The fact is that it;is difficult to get difficult to convince either the'rotate authorities seven governments to act at all, let alone in or the public that a nuclear explosion can be iinj ann" carried out safely. There is no doubt that there is a paramount References: need for co-operation between the Commonwealth and the states in order to resolve some of these 1. Atomic Energy Act 1953-1966. Commonwealth of questions. Australia. In concluding, it is appropriate to quote 2. Radioactive Substances Act 1954-1964. Western from a paper (3) by Professor J.E. Richardson, Australia. Professor of law at the Australian University. 3. J.E. Richardson, "Australian Constitutional At a Symposium in Canberra in June 1972, and Associated Issues". Proceedings of a Professor Richardson said: Symposium on the Role of Nuclear Energy in "The states are constitutionally competent to make Australia's Development, Canberra, A.C.T. , up for most of the deficiencies in Commonwealth June 1972. Australian Academy of Science. power and it is possible for the Commonwealth and
35 Use of Peaceful Nuclear Explosions by Engineers
by V/.J. tfilkin, B.C.3., Dip. Admin., H.I.2. Aust.
1 , Introduction The relative merits of excavation by nuclear In principle, a nuclear explosion has, to the explosion depend very much on the scale of the project, the cost of alternatives and Engineer* the same potential usefulness us a the extent in each instance of the difficul- conventional explosion. ties introduced by the nuclear method. The She nuclear explosion differs from the con- method is far from being a universal solution ventional explosion by beinf- much larger - to large excavation problems. perhaps as much as some i.undreds of times larger than the practical limits of convention- 3«2 Use of Cratering Sxplosions al explosions. This very large quantity of energy and the low cost of explosive per unit An excavation may bs the crater o: a single of energy makes the nuclear exrJlosion a potential explosion, or an elongated excavation may be tool for use by the civil or mining engineer for obtained by simultaneous explosion of a row very large scale earth-moving or rock-shattering of charges. operationspr for creation of an underground Uses which have been suggested for craters cavity. include:- The nuclear explosion also differs from the Harbours and harbour entrance channels, conventional explosion by having a number of such as have been studied for a site in special problems which the latter does not have. .ilaska and suggested for Cane Keraudren These problems are of three types: technical, in V/.A. political and safety. Borne of these are really serious obstacles to the use of the nuclear Right-of-way cuttings for road, rail or explosion. Others limit the effectiveness with canal. A feasibility study for a com- which the nuclear explosion may be used. These bined road-rail project, "Carryall", in disadvantages have to be weighed against the Southern California and for a second chief advantage, the economy of scale, in Central American Canal, are the proposals deciding in any specific project whether a of this type which have received most nuclear explosion can or should be used. study. The canal has now been abandoned as a possibility in the short term, officially because of lack of pre4iet~ 2. Effects achieved by nuclear "xplosions ability of the size of charge required and because of uncertainty of the stability The settinr of the nuclear charge has a major of the sides of the excavation. influence on the results achieved. Surface reservoirs, with storage in the Apart from the influence of magnitude of the crater below natural surface level - such explosion, the setting is the chief variable as described in Ref. 2. open to choice in design of an explosion. Dam construction, by use of the lip of The effects of various settings are described the crater across a valley as the wall. in Hef. 1 and can be summarised as follows:- This has already been done in Russia, in combination with storage in the crater, above ground devastation of surface providing a combined reservoir capacity features over wide area of 21 million cubic metres. The practical but minimal excavation size of this form of reservoir construction of ground. is only in the small to moderate range. An at ground level shallow excavation, alternative method suggested for the still with devastation construction of dams by using a crater type explosion is to place the charge to of surface, the side of a gorge, which the side of shallow depth - shallow "crater" with the crater would breach. The rock would raised lip. Some ejected be displaced sideways and perhaps downwards material is deposited to create the dam wall. around the crater, some is re-deposited in the Removal of overburden — for mining - or crater. making a "retarc" for quarrying. increasing depth - 1. a depth can be selected To create a "sink" to be used for aquifer to give the maximum recharge or for liquid waste disposal. apparent crater volume for a given size of 3.3 Use of Contained Implosions explosion. Possibilities associated with excavation are:- 2. a depth can be select- ed to give the maximum Shattering of large rock masses to volume of shattered facilitate subsequent quarrying or rock. mining b.v conventional means, as favoured by Hr. Hancock. 3. explosion does not throw material clear Creation of an underground cavity of the surface but for use as an underground storage causes shattering of for fluids, particularly natural a "retarc", and leaves gas. a raised mound or a slight subsidence. Other suggested uses of contained explosions, in approximate decreasing order of attention 4. an underground cavity that they have received are:- forms, and there may be some collapse from Closine off, under/ground, of natui-al its top, but a natural gas wells which have caught fire ana arching occurs and so cannot be otherwise, extinguished. This the surface remains has already been achieved in Russia. more or less intact. There may be a dome .Fracturing of oil and gas formations formed or if the depth to aid extraction - the subject of the is great enough, there Gas-Buggy and Rulison experiments anu will be no significant further proposed tests in the United Burface displacement. States and similar tests in Russia. Shattering of ore-bodies to permit removal by subsequent leaching. Possible Bngineering Uses of Huelear Explosions Use of the heat from the explosion to liq.iify heavy oil, to make extraction 3.1 General possible, or for the in-situ gasification All civil engineering uses and most mining of coal. applications are essentially forms of large Providing a cavity haying access to the scale excavation.. By nature, the release of heat energy of the earth's interior, which energy in nuclear explosions is not controllable would be used for desalination of water direetionally, and this is the most severe engin- or as a source of geothermal steam energy. eering disadvantage. Providing a zone of contact with molten although facilitating the earth-moving-, the rock in the earth's interior, into which nuclear explosion is very likely to make other to dispose of radio-active wastes from phases of a project more difficult, and specific nuclear power plants. examples are discussed below. Some of these proposals can only be considered as nuclear projects. They would be impossible 37 by conventional means. 3.4 Present State of Knowledge .dneriea, Russia and jrTance have, between If the weather conditions are not adverse, them, let off about one hundred nuclear the radius in which air blast is likely explosions which have been studied for to cause structural damage is of the order their peaceful applications. Some of the of 50 kilometres, depending somewhat on the a ^plications have received much more size of the explosion. The range can be attention than others. increased dramatically by atmospheric focussing and wind effects and these must Of the cratering possibilities, only one be avoided. The 50 kilometre radius has been put into practice, the reservoir corresponds approximately with the range project in Russia. Feasibility studies, of serious radioactivity. Siting of an to various degrees of detail, have been explosion within this distance of any made for canal projects, cuttings, significant human settlement would thus aggregate production and harbours. introduce problems of prolonged evacuation, Conceptual studies have been made of cost of repair or replacement of structural other projects. 'Jhile many of the damage and others. These considerations variables can be confidently predicted would be sufficient to rule out many sites, in most conditions - eg. crater size - and to be a substantial negative factor in they cannot all be reliably calculated in the evaluation of others. new situations - ejj. crater lip dimensions in underwater harbour projects in soft The seriously damaging effects of air blast rock - and others have still to be confirmed even from shallow craters, normally affect by practical tests. Many of these uncertain- a smaller area 1han radiation, so are less ties relate to the technology of development likely to be a limiting factor. of the project after the explosion rather than to design of the explosion itself. The magnitude of ground movements is very de':3nrifint on the nature of the ground and it .Jith the exception of gas well stimulation i? therefore very difficult to generalise arid gas well 1'ire extinction, the situation about the i. The radius to the damage threshold for with contained explosions is much the same. r. jrmsl r i-'fuetures is generally of the same Has Hell stimulation has been studied in oi-u; -J. magnitude as for air shock. great depth, and there have been at least five semi-commercial test explosions, followed 4.3 Son-directional Hature of Explosion by successful improvement of production from the wells over considerable periods. There .-i conventional explosion can generally be remains a radio-activity problem with this given some directional bias, by suitable application, and the economics for full placement of the explosive material and by exploitation of a source are uncertain. Many mi Hi-second delays in the sequence of the of the other contained explosion applications components of the explosion. These procedures have advanced very little distance beyond are not open in the case of nucloar explosion, conception, an1? some are such radical concepts except possibly to a very limited extent by that there would "be many unknowns to be investi- the use of several nuclear devices, which gated before any such project could be attempted. considerably increases costs. The relative importance of the lack of directional, control varies with the type of 4. Special Difficulties Associated with Use of Nuclear project, for quarrying purposes it may not jxalosions be a serious complication. If the blocking 4.1 Radioactivi tv of the entrance of an excavated harbour cannot be avoided, the subsequent conventional Radioactivity is certainly the most prominent excavation of the entrance may add considerably of the problems, but in many situations it may to the total cost of the project. not be the most serious objection to the use of a nuclear explosion. 4-4 Problems of later Construction On the credit side, radioactivity is claimed to be highly predictable. If airborne Problems peculiar to excavations made by radioactivity is involved, it is strongly nuclear explosions include:- influenced by the weather, but the influence can be anticipated. Inappropriate shape - j. nuclear excavation can only be made within limited combinations In the case of contained explosions, much of volume, depth and diameter. Thus, to of the radioactivity is occluded in the make a harbour of the required width may rock glass at the bottom of the cavity. necessitate its being uncomfortably deep, There is no venting to the atmosphere, so providing no facility for bottom anchorage. no fall-out. The available shapes may or may not be suitable for efficient shattering of an The ecological effects of radioactivity have ore-body. Similarly, a long cutting for received a great deal of study and extensive transport right-of-way will be a series of information is available, nevertheless, intersecting craters, with an undulating numerous problems of radioactivity remain. floor profile. This may be acceptable for ?or example, in the case of a harbour exca- a canal, but for road or rail, a great deal vation, radiation would be dispersed in the of conventional earthwork will be required for displaced water; in a surface or underground levelling. storage, the stored fluid might be eontamin-r ated. Similar contamination would occur in Inaccuracy of prediction of size - Whereas ore leaching and in oil or gas stimulation conventional blasting is often carried out projects. In tho eas-3ugry and Rulison by a successive series of explosions, which experiments, the radioactivity from tritium, can be modified as the work proceeds, toe although relatively mild, was many times whole of an excavation by nuclear means the level that would be accented under pr-ssnt will normally be a single event. The U.S. criteria ii the gas was to be used un- importance of the accuracy of size of the diluted for domestic purposes. excavation will vary with the type of project. The political, sociological and legal aspects of potential radioactivity are not the least Unstable side slopes - Muclear craters are of the problems facing an intending user. lined with fall-back and the sides are close He must - rightly, of course - obtain a licence to the angle of-repose of the material. for the event, satisfy the Limited Test Ban Where works have to be constructed on the Treaty conditions or obtain a waiver, and sides - e.g. wharves for a harbour, a pump- overcome the inevitable objections of a ing station for a reservoir - this instability proportion of the general population. is a decided disadvantage, adding to costs International endorsement of constructive and difficulties. In the case of harbour use of nuclear explosions is inherent in projects there is considerable doubt on Article V of the Hon-xrolificatiop Treaty, whether an explosion would create sizable but some applications are constrained by the crater lips, because the ejecta-water mixture Limited Test Ban Treaty. Success in unravell- may behave as a fluid during the deposition ing this situation at the international stage. In a canal project requiring a series of political level would be a necessary pre- row explosions, subsequent explosions could requisite to ^ peaceful nuclear explosion, cause major rock-falls from the sides of 'ihe uncertainties, costs and delays which are previous excavations. associated with these processes could easily outwei/.h the potential benefits of the tfatertightness of a dam embankment - In nuclear method of excavation. conventional rockfill dam construction, an impervious zone is generally constructed 4.2 Shock concurrently with the main mass of the wall or afterwards on the upstream face of a ' The shock of the explosion will cause major thoroughly compacted mass. Ihe former is not cround shock waves and air blast effects. If possible with nuclear excavation, and the rock the explosion is in or under water, water pile formed will probably not be in a form waves rreater than a normal range may occur. sufficiently compacted for placement of some types of impervious zone. 38 Earthquakes - The magnitude of a nuclear explosion can give rise to subsequent minor earthquakes, which will increase Use of nuclear explosions for civil or mining the cost of structures in a project if engineering- excavations has the possibility of provision has to be made to withstand being economic in the case of very lax-ge excavat- them. ions, particularly in remote locations, provided that their considerable inherent disadvantages are Time Factor - The essfcut^al pre-shot not too serious a drawback. investigations discussed below will add The larger the project, the more likely is the to the total project construction time. nuclear solution to be economically advantageous. Limitations on access caused by radio- However, it is unlikely that any organisation would activity will delay post-shot construction, undertake a very large project, until a smaller which may or may not be offset by the speed project of a similar type had besn carried out and of excavation. the effects studied. Such a smaller nrojeet, having fewer afl.vavtages is less likely to generate the 4.5 Safety Study impetus to overcome the obstacles of additional The magnitude and multiple effects of a nuclear project tike, legal considerations, and uncertain- explosion make comprehensive safety investigat- tities of political and public reaction. Small ions essential. Comprehensive coverage of projects may never reach fruition unless they are many fields, as diverse as ecology, geology treated largely-as research and development projects. and meteorology are necessary and the cost Otherwise, only in very special circumstances are and time required are considerable. Even a the potential advantages likely to be so great that preliminary study is expensive, not to be it will be worthwhile for an intended user to take undertaken unless there is serious interest on these many formidable tasks. Some may doubt in the proposal. whether it would ever be worthwhile. Others will question whether possible economic gains would ever justify exposing the community to what are Costs regarded as potential hazards. One could perhaps In the absence of practical examples, estimating is weigh the radioactivity hazard against the known rather conjectural. The following information is accident statistics of conventional construction. based partly on experience with experimental explos- In the absence of data from a detailed study for ions, on U.S..'-.3.C. published indicative prices for a soeoific case, it is impossible to reach an objective nuclear devices, and on "order of magnitude" estimates conclusion , whatever is chosen as the criterion • for some proposals which were never implemented. for the decision. The first thing to note is that the cost of the de- vice is only a small part of the total cost. The second is that the cost of the device varies vary References: little with size - a factor of about two for a size increase of 2,000 times - that is, from 1. Teller, 3; Talley, VT.K-; Hig-gins, G.H.; and 8300,000 for a 1 kilotonne device to 8600,000 for a Johnson, S.W. The Constructive Uses of Huclear 2 megatonne device. This works out to be approx. Explosions, McGraw-Hill 1968. the same cost per unit energy as ammonium-nitrate/ fuel oil explosive for a 3 kiljtonne device but 2. Leech, 1.3.3; Diffusion Blasting and its Potential is only one four-hundredth of the unit cost at the for the Development of Australia's Inland Surface megatonne size. Water Resources. Journal of the Institution of Other costs required, which would not be necessary Engineers, Australia - Oct./Nov., 1969. for conventional excavation are:- 3. '.filson, A.R.W.; Current Status of Civil Engineering Safety S 500,000 and Hineral .Resources Development Applications of 2eaceful Hudear 3xplosions. Communications 100,000 Proceedings of the fourth International Conference Monitoring 100,000 on the Peaceful Uses of atomic Energy, Volume 7; United Nations, 1972. Assembly, emplacement and firing of device 300,000
SI,000,000
To this must be added the costs of access, camps, exploratory bores etc., most of which will be more costly than for conventional construction. Then, allowance must be made for any increases in costs of later works which"are caused by adopting nuclear excavation. The minimum overall cost is of the order of $1,500,000. The excavation component of a pro- ject must exceed this for nuclear excavation to be considered.
39 Accidental Emissions
Author: D.D. Letham
An emission is something sent forth. The packing plant by the reaction of molten sulphur with things emitted which we are going to consider today are hydrogen which is piped from a nearby refinery, solids and gases sent forth into the air. Those which lydrogen sulphide passes into two coolers arranged in are sent forth at a steady r;jte are most frequently parallel which are alternatively purged to atmosphere waste or by-products such as from the combustion of fuel to remove the excess sulphur carried over. With this or decaying vegetation. On the other hand, accidental excess sulphur there was an escape of hydrogen sulphide emissions are commonly products of commercial value; into the atmosphere; venting into a vessel filled with chlorine is an example. These are man-made, accidental vermiculite and caustic soda corrected this. emissions on which most of our attention will be focused. Continuous monitoring for hydrogen sulphide over the last 12 months has consistently shown no emission or Before doing this, natural accidental emissions emissions which are just detectable and thev have not warrant a passing reference. At one end of the scale been a source of complaint. are volcanoes, eruptions f which are commonly spaced many years apart. Apart from the disruption that lava There are several instructive facets to this from an erupting volcano can cause, the airborne emissions case. The first is the sheer folly of allowing housing are of considerable importance. These include ash to develop next door to a heavy industrial area. In particles which irritate the eyes, nose and throat. As this case the local authority allowed residential well an acrid taste attributable to SO- in concentrations development to take place after the whole area was of more than 30 parts per hundred million has been de- gazetted "industrial* in 1955. The dtate Government is scribed. The SO, content in Hawaian volcanic gases has in the process of buying back the residences. been estimated at 6.5$. (1) The volcano is by no means the only source of natural gaseous emissions. At the Accidents from large industries are unpredictable, other end of the scale there is that man-made natural although the people concerned in this case have been sub- accidental emission of H2S which can be such a source of jected to relatively low concentrations of hydrogen social embarrassment. sulphide and the circumstances are such that they are not- likely to be subjected to a large overwhelming emission, Let us now consider a few accidental emissions nevertheless hydrogen sulphide in high concentration can which have caused concern in recent years beginning with have disastrous consequences. the emission of soiid particles. In November, 1950, at Poza Rica in Mexico the ALUMINA DUST accidental mishandling of natural gas processing machine^ resulted in a spillage and the disbursement of a large Nearly a decade ago an alumina refinery was amount of hydrogen sulphide gas over the residential area established in Western Australia. Since that time escape of a nearby community Ipopulation 22,000). Temperature of the end-product, white alumina dust, has been an inter- inversion at the time delayed dispersion of the gas. mittent source of complaint by people living near the Although the emission was stopped 25 minutes after it refinery. The Company has bee*i much aware of the problem first appeared, 320 persons became ill and there were and has progressively taken steps to control the emission. 22 deaths. It has been doing this because the management much dislikes the Company seen as a source of nuisance and annoyance Even without the threat of a large accidental to its neighbours. As well, there is a significant loss emission, the best one can hope for is an uneasy truce of valuable material which is the end product of opera- between industry and local residents. The lesson to be tions involving a capital outlay of many millions of learned from the ammonia emissions, is the importance dollars. of thorough design. One of the difficulties here was that this was only the second plant of its kind in the world. The major source of emission has been from A skilled assessment of the appropriate metal to be used alumina dust being loaded into ships; from time to time in a situation such as this is one of engineering, probabl winds with a westerly component have distributed the chemical engineering expertise. dust through a nearby residential area. i'he accidental emissions in "'estern Australia The Company has spent much time and money on so far considered were recurrent. Once the fault causing improving its loading facilities. Consultants have been them was located, their recurrence remained predictable called in and have made a model study of the loading until the fault was remedied. operation, as a result of which extensive modifications to the loading procedures were recommended. Some of The ILjS emission at i oza Uica is an example of these have been tested, but the perfect solution has yet a massive single accidental emission whicti was not pre- to be found. dictable. In .'estern Australia there was early last year a large accidental emission from the same industrial area This case well exemplifies the difficulties of as the recurrent emissions already described. trying to remedy a faulty engineering operation once it is built into a system. The importance of plant design SINGLE MASSIVE ACCIDENTAL EMISSION which incorporates means of preventing emissions, annoy- OF SULPHUR TRIOXIDE ing or harmful to neighbours, cannot be over-stressed. Not only is the good public image of the Company preser'.'°i, Early in 197? there was a l.-.rc emia.-ion of but in the long run money is saved. sulphur trioxide from a source 1*5 milus south ot Fremantle. The sulphur trioxide, making contact with the mois* air, These emissions of alumina dust have been quickly became a sulphuric acid mist which was carried recurrent. Recurrent accidental gaseous emissions have northwards in a visible cloud by a wind from the south. also occurred in the same large industrial area. A group of children playing on a beach almost 2 miles north of the source began gasping and choking and quickly GASEOUS EMISSIONS FROM A NICKEL REFINERY. left the beach. The cloud of'mist continued to move northward. Three years ago a nickel refinery commenced operations in Western Australia. It was situated in a The Regional Director of Meteorology investigated heavy industrial zone ea^t of an area which was residential the weather conditions at the time. On the coast there was and quite separate from the one exposed to alumina dust. probably a very shallow inversion layer between 300 ant" 500 It was not long before complaints about the small of feet in depth. Steady winds of 10-15 miles per hour ammonia were being made by the residents of this area, carried the mist northward beneath this layer. There was and these were always invariably associated with an e^erly little lateral or vertical dispersion until the cloud wind. reached Premantle, where the sea breeze had strengthened. This would have greatly facilitated dispersion of the Ammonia is used to leach nickel concentrate effluent. Nevertheless, the evidence of a senior chemist slurry in autoclaves under pressure. There have been a indicates th".t the mist was still detectable eipnteen number of emissions from this system. Two were trace- miles north of Fremantle. A clearer appraisal of the able to human error which resulted in the overflow of situation north of th3 river wns made difficult because ammoniacal liquor from a tank. However, rapid corrosion visibility had been much diminished by smoke from a big of pipes in the ammonia recovery system made a major con- bushfire at Sreylands. tribution to the remaining relatively frequent emissions of ammonia. Mild steel pipes in the system are now being The source of the emission was .-. sulphuric acid replaced by a non corrosive stainless steel. As important plant in which sulphur is burnt in a furnace to sulphur as the corrosion of the pipes was that of the stainless dioxide. This is converted by catalytic action to nulphur steel packing rings, which have been replaced by a new •trioxide which is absorbed by sulphuric acid in an absorp- set made of the same non corrosive stainless steel, tion tower. If moisture comes into contact with the sulphur specially flown out from the United Kingdom at a cost of trioxide prior to absorption it in emitted in a white plume 811,000 for airfreight alone. The cost of reconditioning, from the stack. At 5 p.m. on the day o:' the accident the modifying and replacing faulty parts bynon-coritEise stain- emission as indicated by the plume wns oicensive. less steel was of the order of »200,000. Immediately steps were taken to close dc-wn the plant. This took <15 minutes to complete. At the tiire the moat likely cause was thought to be a burst steampipe. However, after There were also emissions of hydrogen sulphide the plant had been 3hut down and when inspection was into the same residential area, which was a source of possible it was found that a masonry arch supporting the complaint. The hy.rogen sulphide is used for eoppsr, absorption tower packing had collapsed blocking the outlet nickel and cobalt precipitation and is produced in a of sulphuric acid" which in turn resulted ir. escape through tlv.- :;tack of the sulphur tnaxide not hiinr. absorbed. It is important to understand that this sort an infant of 11 months, who had been in a house about of accident had not been reported before in any one of 50 yards from the derailed tank, died in hospital. a number of such plants of which there are sixteen in Australia. This unpredictability stresses the need to Chlorine gas used for the chlorination of completely separate industrial areas like the one at swimming pools can be a hazard. Several years ago there Kwinana from residential areas. This accident also was an emission from one of these in an outer suburb of clearly illustrates the way in which meteorological Perth. The gas spread to cause symptoms to people conditions can combine to impart to such an emission attending an Agricultural Show nearby. Twenty-three a maximum potential for adverse effects. people were admitted to several hospitals and were dis- charged the next day following a period of observation. CHLORINE The cause of the accident was fundamentally human error. Because accidental chlorine emissions are The swimming pool manager w.is unfamiliar with the chlorination plant; and thinking that a chlorine not rarely reported, I viiah to conclude by drawing your cylinder was empty he opened the valve and was attention to them. immediately exposed to chlorine being emitted from the cylinder. He was affected severely enough to be unable They have occurred from fixed installations to close the valve, as a result of which, gas was and from chlorine in transit. The dangers with chlorine emitted-for some minutes. -There was no respirator are several:- available as there should have been. Since that time, courses for-swimming pool: managers have been introduced (1) It is set up in pressure cylinders or tanks and part of their training is the proper, handling of so that when it is emitted it is emitted chlorine. rapidly in high concentrations under pressure. CONCLUSION (2) It is heavier than air and st keeps close to the ground giving it access to men and l-o All the gases we have considered today are animals. heavier than air. Their tendency to gravitate is one more reason why plants from which such gases can be (3) It is highly irritant and toxic to the lungs. emitted should be well separated from residential areas. You may recall that chlorine was one of the gases used as an offensive agent in World War I. REFERENCES Joiner and Durnell (3) described an accidental spill of 6,000 gallons (36 tons) of liquid chlorine which (1) R. J. M. Horton and R. 0. McCaldin, Public followed a derailment of a chlorine tank. The cloud Health Reports (1964) 79:925-9; of gas spread very rapidly killing 71 animals - mostly pigs - and 380 chickens and ducks as far as one and (2) Air Pollution, W.H.O., Columbia University one-half miles from the site of the derailment. That Press (1961), 178-9; the derailment occurred in a sparsely populated area limited the number of human casualties to approximately (3) R. S. Joyner and E. G. Durel, Journal of 100, of whom 15 were admitted to hospital. Three Occupational Medicine (1962), 4:152-4. children and one adult were unconcious on admission and
42 Accidental Pollution from a Port Management Aspect
By Capt.B.L.Noble, AFAIM, F.C.I.T. ,M.I.N. (Aust. ) General Manager, FremantJe Port Authority.
1. Port Management Responsibilities approved tests by engineering regulatory with regard to Conservation and authorities, had been subject to X-Ray at Protection of the Environment in the time of installation, and up to the time Port Waters. ~ of the accident nad performed satisfactorily. The chest failed at a time when it was sub- The Management of most ports is required by ject to less than the normal maximum the legislation under which it operates to accept operating pressures, and caused a consider- responsibility for the control of pollution able quantity of oil to be discharged within its areas. Obviously, because of-the overside. length of time in" which such legislation "has been in existence, in most cases control of pollution is not defined in precise terms, but (b) Accidental pollution due to negligence. is" implied by the" broad'"definitioris of the Management's responsibilities. The most common incident of this type is due to the bunkering of conventional In the case of Premantle, Section 24 of the vessels at night, whereby the filling of a Premantle Port Authority Act, 1902-1964 states tank has not been properly supervised, with the Authority shall have exclusive control of resultant over-flow due to it becoming the Port, and shall be charged with the mainten- ,filled before the expectation of the person ance and preservation of all property vested in in charge. Quite often such incidents as it under this Act. The legal interpretation the foregoing are due to inadequate and of this clause and the word "property" is that incompetent manning of vessels, or to an such property includes port waters, and of irresponsible approach to the job by either course all contiguous land within the defined shore or shipboard personnel. areas.
The responsible discharge of this require- (c) Accidental pollution due to ignorance ment means in practise that the Authority of the effect of deliberate discharge expends considerable finance and resources in of wastes. cleaning up other people's messes, and in controlling those activities of port users and Into this category surely must fall a the general public within its areas which could large percentage of damage to port waters be detrimental to the environment of the port. due to the effect of industrial wastes. Often at the time industries along tho Effort is therefore expended in - foreshores were established, the signifi- cance of the waste discharge into the (a) controlling and policing industrial waters was not appreciated, and damage to activities along the foreshore; the environment sustained entirely because (b) controlling and policing shipping of this ignorance of effect. The same wastes within the port limits; applies to an attitude whichwas apparent until recently that the oceans and seas (c) controlling and policing the port's had an infinite capacity to absorb wastes customers and the general public using from ships and shore establishments. beaches, wharf areas and wharf We are rapidly becoming aware that the facilities, whether that use be for capacity of the seas to perform as a giant work or recreation. garbage disposal is finite, and will fail us if our activities in this regard are Of course, where such control and policing is not not curtailed. fully effective - and it rarely is - it devolves on port Management to clean up the resultant (d) Accidental pollution due to natural mess. In the latter activity the Authority phenomena. cleans beaches, removes and disposes of garbage from ships and from land areas under its The best example I can think of locally jurisdiction, deals with oil pollution of its in this category is that of a plant in which waters, and endeavours to deal with the effects the stormwater drainage system was planned of industrial wastes discharged into port waters. to meet the heaviest rain storms known to Air pollution also receives attention, and have occurred in the region, but which Management must endeavour to minimize the latter, proved to be inadequate for an even more and clean up the results of an inability to intense squall experienced after the achieve 100% control in this respect. installation of the system. This lack of capacity caused pollution of the waters adjacent to the plant by the flooding of the From an ethical point of view, responsible chemical treatment ponds and subsequent Management of a port must set an example to the overflow of polluting wastes into port waters. users of the port by ensuring that its own activities have as little as possible a detri- mental effect on the environment within its area. Economic or other factors should not 3. The Main Pollution Risk Activities in be allowed to influence a Port Authority's Port Operations, and Counter-pollution attitude in achieving the highest possible Efforts by Management. standards of environmental protection in the conduct of its own activities in the operation (a) Pollution of water by oil. of a port. International, national and local counter-measures.
2. Categories of Accidental Pollution. Internationally a great deal of attention has been paid to the operations of oil tankers, It is considered that the most satisfactory and the Inter-governmental Consultative way of defining these categories is to illustrate Organization (IHCO) of the United Nations has each definition with an example drawn from local been extremely active in this field. experience in port operations. Responsible sections of the oil industry have also been active in meeting t;-.= criteria laid (a) Accidental pollution due to causes beyond down at IHCO Conferences. The latest stand- those which could be reasonably foreseen. ards laid down by IMCO - and it must be mentioned that compliance with these standards, Quite often it is easy to be critical of because of their international implications, an incident which caused pollution after the is at present voluntary - are as follows :- event has occurred, and it is not possible to be precise about what could be reasonably No oil shall be discharged within 50 foreseen. An example is that of a ship miles of any shore, except that which 1 loading bunkers at its normal rate of 800 may be discharged in 'clean ballast tons per hour which caused a major pollu- from an effectively cleaned tank. tion by oil of port waters due to the failure of a valve chest controlling the Beyond 50 miles from shore, the rate deployment of the bunker fuel into the ship. of discharge is limited to a maximum This chest, which is a component of the of 60 litres per mile of ship's travel. ship's bunkering oil lines, had passed all Total volume of oil discharged on any one ballast voyage shall not exceed 1/15 000 of the carrying capacity of the ship. 45 One of the nost significant achievements escaping are currently being examined - for in reducing the discharge of oily wastes into example by the use of more advanced instrument- the ocean has been by the co-operation of tanker ation for continuous monitoring of small operators in instituting the Load-on-Top (LOT) quantities of oil in seawater. Heating of the method of handling their tank cleaning. It is slop tank contents, the recycling of the slop fair to say that the widespread adoption of LOT tank water to the washing machines and/or the has been the biggest step forward in reducing use of demulsifying chemicals, together with sea pollution. It is worthwhile therefore, to other measures, are constantly under review to consider its application, effectiveness and improve the total operation and to minimize attendant problems in some detail. both loss of oil to the sea and retention of water on board. The latter is, of course, Although after discharging her cargo of important in that water is 'dead' freight and crude oil a tanker's cargo spaces are passed as an excess is undesirable from the accepting empty, there still ains a certain amount of refiner's point of view also. oil adhering to internal surfaces and retained in pumps and lines. The quantity remaining will Total crude oil shipments approximate depend on several factors, including the ship's 1 100 million tons a year, and the effect of draining characteristics, the type of crude,the agreements to use the LOT method have been length of the voyage and cargo temperature at appraised as follows :- discharge. A figure approaching 0.5% of total carrying capacity may be taken as giving some idea of the amount of oil retained, although If LOT were not operating, the total dis- this figure can often be exceeded. The re- charge to the oceans would approximate 4 million filling of one-third or so of the cargo tanks tons per annum. The LOT operation currently with seawater for stability during the ballast prevents the discharge of over 3 million tons voyage will therefore result in 'dirty' ballast - per annum. However, about 3/4 million tons is that is, ballast water having some free oil still discharged at sea by ships not operating floating on the surface and a much smaller LOT. Standards have also been laid down for amount mixed with it. In most cases the dirty ships other than oil tankers, but it is not ballast cannot be accepted at the ship's next possible at present to assess the level of loading port since 'slops' reception facilities compliance with these standards or the effect are not widely available at crude-oil loading of such compliance. terminals. The foregoing of course deals purely with the normal operation of tankers and other vessels Because of the necessity for a tanker to at sea, and does not take into account the arrive at the crude loading terminal with only result of spillage by collision or groundings. clean water in the tanks (to prevent local Records indicate that the average yearly dis- pollution on discharging the oallast), it had charge due to these causes is between 117 000 for many years been accepted practice to wasn tons and 140 000 tons for all vessels. The the tanks with seawater and discharge the efforts to reduce this pollution are in the area wasnings, including the oil, .it sea. As of established routing of shipping in high inferred above, this neant the discharge to. density areas, and of improving the standards of sea of up to about 0.5% of the previous cargo thp personnel manning ships in general. which, in the light of about 600 million tons of crude shipments a year at that time (more like 1 100 million now) , './as a significant In dealing with oil pollution incidents quantity. The necessity for preventing this in Australia, the approach is on three levels; discharge led to the adoption of LOT, the national, state and local. The national plan principle of which may be simply described as of the Commonwealth Government is designed to follows, although variations, some of which deal with major oil spills due to collisions and entail rather more sophisticated techniques, strandings where large quantities of oil threaten are adopted in practice. foreshores and waters in the vicinity of the incident, and are beyond the clean-up resources of either state or local authorities. The One or more tanks, referred to as slop state plans in turn are designed to meet incidents tanks, are selected to act as a reservoir for within the capabilities at the resources at the the oil to be retained on board, and tank state's disposal, and the local plans similarly washing with seawater is then commenced after are aligned to the size of spills which can be sailing on the ballast passage. The tanks dealt with purely by local effort. The three required for clean ballast are always cleaned levels are integrated into an over-all plan, and thoroughly and special circumstances sometimes mutual assistance is the chief feature contribu- dictate that extra tanks are cleaned. ting to effective counter-measures. The oil industries are also integrated into the planning, This tank washing is effected by means and in addition are tooled up to deal with of apparatus either built-in or lowered into the incidents occurring at the specific sites of their tank and fed with water under pressure; washings industrial activity. are pumped from these tanks into the slop tank. The washing water gradually becomes less con- taminated, and the oil accumulates in the slop In the case of the Port of Fremantle, tank. By suitable adjustment of tank levels, counter-measures include the installation of and with due allowance for settling, discharge pneumatic oil barriers, and the provision of of clean water can be effected from the bottom floating oil barriers, detergent spraying equip- of the slop tank, or any other intermediate tank, ment, emulsifying equipment, and beach cleaning if required. equipment. The situation is eventually reached where the ship has clean ballast, other tanks clean as (b) Pollution of water by sewage. required and a slop tank containing a top oil layer, an intermediate emulsified layer and a In the case of sewage from shipping, the bottom water layer. Repeated settling and IMCO organization previously mentioned has made pumping of the water layer to sea, taking care efforts to achieve compliance with standards for to stop pumping as the water emulsion interface new ships which include the installation of is reached, leads to the slop tanks containing holding tanks and sewage treatment equipment. the retained oil, some still in emulsified In the case of large passenger vessels consider- form, resting on a water bottom of a few inches. able progress has been made, and this also applies Due to emulsion-settling difficulties, the total to a certain extent to new tonnage. As before, water content of the slop tank at the completion compliance with these standards is voluntary. of the operation is often of the order of 30%. Nationally, the Association of Australian When fresh crude is taken on board at the Port and Marine Authorities has paid attention to loading terminal, part of the cargo is 'loaded 1 the problem of the discharge of sewage into port on top of the contents of the slop tank, in waters, though at present no nationally accepted which a further separation of water may occur. policy has been established. However, in the Where possible this is removed during the sub- case of discharge of sewage from shore mains, sequent loaded voyage, to minimize the water Australia-wide efforts are evident to improve content of the cargo at the discharge port. the standards of such discharge. Provided the water/emulsion interface is In the Port of Fremantle spot monitoring not too closely approached during removal of the of the effects of the discharge of sewage is water bottom from the slop tank, the 100 ppm undertaken at periods of high shipping density, convention limit is not exceeded. Nevertheless, and such testing shows results within acceptable in order to keep the free-water presence to a health standards. reasonable minimum, and despite preventive efforts, very small amounts of emulsion- entrained oil do sometimes escape. 'lays and means of preventing even this small quantity from It can be confidently predicted that the direct control of the standards of industrial unacceptable effects of discharge from ships will wastes discharged from these establishments, and reduce due to the efforts I have previously * in this regulatory climate counter-measures have mentioned. However, because of the high level taken the form of soliciting co-operation from of flushing of port waters due to tidal and wind- companies in improving their effluents after driven current effects in Fremantle, there is no fully informing them of the results of the studies, evidence of a need for concern other than up-dating that information, and allowing an monitoring at this time. examination of the techniques employed, and resulting reports, by the companies1 Manage- ments. This procedure has been partially (c) Pollution of water by industrial wastes. successful, but needs far greater efforts on the part of the companies to achieve a satis- In the Port of Fremantle, the effects of factory standard of discharge, and to effect industrial wastes, particularly in the southern a reversal of the damage already sustained. part of Cockburn Sound are of greatest concern to the Authority."- Industries along the Kwinana foreshore which have been progressively established (d) Pollution of air by smoke, dust for the past fifteen years must obviously have" had and fumes. -; ~ r . :~ - -- -' - • - an adverse effect on the marine environment. Environmental studies of a somewhat unique The aspects of clean air are, I understand, character have been in progress in Cockburn Sound to be discussed elsewhere in the ANZAAS Congress, for some years. Initiated by the Port Authority and I will limit my remarks to the efforts of the and carried out by a consultative organization, Fremantle Port Authority for the control of-air " the studies have the objective of the establish- pollutants. -""*"".. ment of baselines for future comparisons and subsequent follow-up monitoring. The baseline Vessels are limited in the times they may studies had the primary objective of identifying emit smoke, and fume control equipment is a marine life forms which had re-acted to the feature of plant operated by the Authority. effects of industrial wastes and had the capacity One of the most difficult things to achieve is to provide identifiable variations, and act as a satisfactory control of dust due to blow-off indicators of the health of the environment. from cargo loading operations, and both the Authority and industry have made efforts to minimize this nuisance by enclosure of trans- Included in the marine life forms which fer points in;bulk loading operations, and have demonstrated suitability as indicators are:- controlling the puff phenomena experienced with rapid loading of dry bulk commodities Sea Grass (Posldonia australis). This is into ships' holds. examined for breadth of frond, stunting of growth, count per square metre, and general health of fronds. (e) Pollution of beaches and land areas Algal Epiphytes. These are minute marine by discarded trash. life forms which adhere to the fronds of sea grass and indicate changes in their This includes the disposal of ships' environment by- variations in their number garbage by incineration to Commonwealth Depart- and types. ment of Health standards, beach-raking, provision of garbage receptacles and clearance of same', and the operation of sweeping and area cleaning Zooplankton, which is used in assessing water equipment within the wharf areas. The fact that quality based on the variety of types Fremantle by world standards is regarded as a defined in water samples. very clean port is a satisfying indicator that these efforts are both effective and worthwhile. Pinna Dolabrata, which is a large clam, and which by dissection is capable of identi- fying water impurities over a comparatively (f) The Port and its surrounding seas. long term. Pollution of port waters originating Ascidians, which have the same function in beyond port limits. the study as do Pinna Dolabrata, but as a short term indicator only. One of the most difficult pollution problems to deal with is that resulting from oil spills of substantial quantities occurring Additional comparative analyses of at areas remote from the port and being driven effluents and sea water, and analyses of deep into pert waters by weather conditions. Often bottom sediments in the Sound are undertaken to the presence of such pollution is not detected identify impurities such as heavy metals, etc. until a report is received from an observer where a beach has been damaged. Usually such During the course of the studies a side pollution_is. caused _by_ heavy,_oils_which _have been benefit was the ability to report on clearly thickened to a tar like substance by evaporation apparent damage due to industry. One of the and other factors. However, aerial surveillance easiest to define, and one of the most serious is helping to provide earlier warnings of this effects has been the dying off .of seaweed along nuisance, and beach cleaning techniques are the Kwinana foreshore. The serious nature of improving. Obviously the solution to this lies this damage can be appreciated when it is under- at the source, and the best chance of minimizing stood that the seaweed fronds and their it is through the activities of IHCO previously associated root systems are the major stabilizing mentioned. influence on the perimeter sand dunes both ashore and under sea existing along the Sound foreshores. From the foregoing it will be seen that The three major causes of damage have conservation and counter pollution measures are been identified as - a major feature of port management and planning. Daily, new techniques come to the attention of (i) The discharge of oil in circulating water, Management, and responsible Management will (ii) The dumping of waste gypsum, investigate and keep up to date with all efforts (iii) The light-robbing properties of to minimize the effects on the port of the circulating water which has serious menace of accidental pollution. picked up concentrations of wastes in the performance of its function. Also, to a lesser extent, the effects of blow-off of fine materials in cargo handling operations. Having established these baselines, progressive monitoring has taken place, and is continuing. It is not proposed to go into detail with regard to the techniques employed in the establishment of the baselines, or of the monitoring activities. Because of the legislation under which industries have been established at Kwinana, the Port Authority is disqualified from having
47 Accidental Pollution
(I.E. HUNT. B.E., F.I.E. Aust., Chief Engineer strcnin fluw respectively have been estimated for Metropolitan Water Supply. Soworai.it; and various catchments. It has emerged thai, ivithm the Drainage Board, Perth, Western Australia. range of possible error in the data etc. the salt- fall and saltflow are in equilibrium for forest A consideration of "Accidental Pollution" may lead catchments in good condition. The loss of chloride along many pathways. The late Rachel Carson startlwJ from the farmed catchments is much larger than from the general public of the educated world and set it the forested areas and these arc expressed thinking of the unexpected side effects from the use quantitively to ranye in the cases quoted from 200 of pesticides when she published her classic 'Silent to nearly 700 kilograms/hectares per year. By Spring'. Closer to home, the report from the Senate estimating the ground water storage in catchments Select Committee on Water Pollution, in referring to the authors have been able to project "characteristic the evidence given in Western Australia commented rimes of equilibration" of input and output of "Throughout the evidence the word 'salinity' kept chloride for particular options of land use. This rising up like a spectre". As our populations area of fundamental research could well give a lead congregate in large cities and are engaged in industiy, in selecting strategies for the practical management the problems of pollution are intensified; aesthetics, of a catchment. health and recreation expectations are rising; public awareness of the issues is growing in town and country. Table 1 is reproduced from published data of the Public Works Department, W.A. to prcscn* an estimate The popular definition for pollution ha; changed -f fresh and other water available l'lom surface dramatically in the last few year?. Until recently it flows in the south-west. was associated almost exclusively with the effects of sewage or trade waste discharges. Now it has broadaied After considering this account it is intcrestinn to to include practically everything which changes or speculate if our predecessors, strengthened by our alters the character of water, land or air. Without presently generally accepted theories, would have plumbing these depths deeply, it is nevertheless ay tackled the task of land development more cautiasfy. wall to recognize that even primitive man had his The decisions to be taken are questions of degree pollution problems which compounded as he progressed but less clearing could well have ensured more of cur to practice forms of agriculture and which have been streams to run fresh water today. Armed with the accelerating ever since. To disturb the ecosystem is experience gained in the past, the mining activities to promote pollution in some form. in the forest water catchment areas of the south- west are under close surveillance; the effects of It is well that I should outline the course I propose mining are to be monitored so that a departure from in this discussion. My interest lies particularly in that predicted can be given timely recognition. the field of watsr engineering and as much of this paper will survey this area it is convenient to quote Bauxite mining commenced in the Darling Range* in the definition given to the expression "Water Pollution" 1958 when an area of forest totalling about 1O hectares by the United Nations Economic and Social Council - were cleared ami mined. Development of course has been "Water pollution is an impairment of water function geared to markets so that an annual clearing rate of which has or may have an effect on subsequent water some 280 hectares can be predicted in the foreseeable use". As to the "accidental" qualification I take this future. The industry is a highly competitive one and to be the concept of "unexpectedness" which may also to compete the miners must operate efficiently with include the unavoidable concomitant which may be regard to large scale operat ion and oconuny in haulage attached inescapably to the achievement of some desirably and handling. end. For example the addition of copper sulphate to control algae in a domestic water supply may be The areas in the Darling Range ui" Western Australia deleterious to fish life. and subject to bauxite minino leases include all the water catchmen ts supplying the heat (works for the These comments serve as an assurance that this paper metropolitan area, the Goltlfiolds and Ayricul lural is not to be made a vehicle in which to relate the areas and the Great Southern Towns and Irrigation nightmares of a hydraulic engineer. As such it couli Areas of tho South West. be an account of a factory malfunction allowing arsenic to enter the city's reticulation system, or The ore generally occurs on the slopes and to .i of a mineral oil discharge playing havoc with the lesser extent on the ridges. 11 occurs in di s- microbiota of waste water treatment plant. The paper continuous areas of 4 or more hectares each. Tho will deal with the general problems firstly of average mine produces 50,000 tonnes to 75,000 tauts supplying a "safe" domestic water supply and secondly per hectare and the quality of the ore is somewhat with the special problem of rising salinities in less than the values applying for many major bauxite many catchments in Western Australia. deposits elsewhere in Australia and overseas. The soil profile generally consists of a hard cap undsr- The second of these problems was highLighted by the l£.in by a friable zone which usually passes through Senate Committee. To the State the problem of heavy clay to decomposed rock- Prior to mining,the salinity is double-pronged, firstly as a danger to top soil is stored in stockpiles to be returned to plants and secondly as affecting water supplies. the surface after mining. Where practicable, Within the State some 400,000 hectares of land have excavation of the bauxite cainmences from a contour been salt affected and upwards of some 100,000 hectaias bench and when completed a sloping tough clay out- of these as a result of agricultural development. crop remains. As a first stpp in reconstituting the Many water supplies have been rendered unfit for use. ~-iil the top soil is spread back over the surface Mast of the land affected lies in the south-west of and the area is ripped deeply by heavy machinery on the State and the cause can be attributed to land use, the contour as a preparation for tree planting. climate and the nature of the land forms. Following the clearing of the natural vegetation with its all In 1904 some 4,5U0 hectares of the Mundaring water year round transpi ration, the soil profile becomes catchment were ring barked as a nensurp to improve wetter and salt in solution migrates in aquifers slowly runoff. Fortunately the t imber was promptly re- down the slopes. In the valleys of the wheat-belt established . The present situation is iiore di ff icif t with their characteristic low gradients, the salt forms ,is the bauxite has been removed and the ociimorpholriy "i shallow water table and in fact may break out from disturbed. Earthworks to mi tincite tht» cuncon l ratirn the surface in salt springs. Further, salt is deposited of surface runoff from the areas are appropriate, as on the surface of the land in the summer months due to *he Mined areas exist at the higher elevations. The capillary forces. overall project is being researched, designed anJ constructed under the coordinated efforts of the There are theories to the origin of this salt pointing C.S.I.R.O., the Mining Industry, the Forests Depart- to the weathering of the parent rock and attributing it ment and the Water Authorities. to the consequence of marine submersion in geological time, but it is now generally accepted that it has been conveyed by rainfall. To ensure a "safe water" for domestic consumption safeguards are necessary. In Western Australia as The first published evidence quantifying the build-up in most parts of Australia the- catchments are mainly of the salinity in surface storage is due to W.E.Woods, unalienated, uninhabited and controlled by the Water a Railway Engineer. His paper1 presented in 1923 Authorities. Except for cont rolled forestry operations contained a general discussion of evidence of salinity the vegetative cover has been undisturbed and build-up on cleared land in the wheat-belt dating back Generally treatmen t has been unnecessary alt hough to the L890s; it also stated that by 1905 a number of there arc some instances where t r&itmcnt processes water supplies in the south-west had become too salt have been needed to correct for enlour or to remove for economic use in boilers. The paper and tho hardness. discussion on the paper records analyses of the chlorite dissolved in rainfall at various points in the south- References to t he sand oi Perth are legend and in the west and express a recognition of the chloride deposit ennineorinn context those sands -ire noteworthy ;a, due to capillarity action particularly for an inflow intake areas to the un-Jerground water reservoirs, ui from a summer thunderstorm to a water supply dam at the metropolitan area and Ms environs. For many Mulletva. Wood concludes that the removal of native years the artesian aquifers have heen exploited firstly vegetation from catchment areas was. resr uisible f<«r as a prime source and in later years as a boost to tl • increased streams' salinity. help meet summer demands. The artesian water has a t ntal dissolved solids content greater lnan i s In a recent paper 2 A.J. Peck and O.H. ilurle have normally acceptable for a city and its temperature examined the chLeride balance of some forms and some hv like slamlar U i-, hir»h. However, by suil.ihh- forested catchments in South-Western Australia. hydraulic dc*i._m at tho'-^rvice r^ervoir t !.«• nrt^i-r. The saltfall and saltflow being the average yearly water is blemie
Tin* Mirrabuoka Treatment Works are supplied from conventional water wells. The treatment process is Possible Annual Yield at one of aeration , clicini cal floccula tion , sediment at im, SOL'lll WEST COAST Point of Lowest Practical filtration and disinfection providing for the removal DRAIN/AGE DIVISIUN Development of hydrogen sulphide gas. improvement of colour and '000 acre feet adjustment of t he iron contwi t pr iL-r to tleli vtry to storage. Total Average Fresh Brackish HLucr li.'mins Annual Water or The biennial Conference of Enuim.'p rs , represen tinn Saline Authorities controlliny water supply and sewerage Dis- undertakings serving ihu eilie=, and towns, of Australia, charge ha^ adopted a set of criteria and ob luctivo for public water supplies. These criteria are set out 1 . Ebpcr.^nce Ctuisv 0 0 0 in Table I' in the form of a comparison with the current Internalional Standards for Drinks mi Water .!. Albany Co.isl 64 0 34 prescribed by the Ivor id Health organisation. It is i. Denmark River 15 23 0 clear of course that to a large extent the options available to a water undertaking are limited by the 4. Kunt RIVLT t)8 72 0 '[lality of naturally occurring waters quite apart r from pollution due to human activity. Aside from 5. Krankli'md Rivpr \'l i b 00 ensuring t h<- appropriate ri'Cnon I timi nf health h. Shannon River 243 179 0 standards, one of the ubjocts'in having such stan-Jarls -it all is Ui stimulate improvement in water quality. 7. Warren River 306 •sia 0 It may happen of nmr-,p that .-.uch improvements havl- H. Dnnni'l ly Rivi>r 2 In 162 0 to awai t the t ime when improved economic and technological resources make this possible. A-, tn <•>. Blackwood River O55 35 21)5 pollution control, ihe statistics of t*e> M.W.S.S.&D. l'J.Busseltnn Coast 5b 42 0 Uuard show that mnre than 15.UU0 Individual checks are conducted annually in the course of monitoring. 1 I.Preston River 136 76 0 Thc-M- comprise chemical tests (including chlorine' l2.CoLlie River 188 137 0 rcmcJui' tests), bacteriological and biological tests. Of these the bacteriological and. chlorine residue 13.Harvey River 133 08 0 li'sis in particular JTP directed towards the 14.Murray River 3-14 88 140 prevention of water-borne disease, principally i-ntf-ric disorders. 15.Canninn-Sorpen- 174 124 0 tino Rivers With the certainty uf increased exploitation of lt^. bwan-f\von Rivers 181 as 2i ground water rosm-rces fur the metropolitan area, 17.Mooru-llill I 30 12 68 the pullutiona] risks, to this resource must be Bivrr, Cr.;-.-,t monitored. fortunately, town planning measures have re serve'U cuii>i'ii_T.ibl e water ca t chnicn t a roas by TOTAL 3,064 1, 389 6 30 excluding ~ui-h ,.rpa* from urban development. The iiiiionfiiiL-iI .iquiiVrs. are the most vulnerahl-j. and although the aerated earth mantle i= known to be an efficient filter, it is nl^o rpcnftni s-^'d that bacteri i U"»""t icul.»rl\ viru--*) can nrnve con-i derable •U-tinccs under cumlitinns when nutrient laden waiiTs ,,n i ii icrcfplfd during the course o" ;n-in t i.it ii-vn- UtM i-rniLtiations arc made for nutrient?. -u-n.'r
Lhi-ik- an.« m.i.ie ..1 the t-ffluent disposal sitp- ,,f Thn-,.. w.isi^.iu'r plants discharging effluent over
'|rill.sl io h-u.r.1 i-.-iii-r lov.-I .,mi to obtain sa^ls. lot rtn-imral .im! iLirUTidlnyuMi analvs.w. Thi* Te-Ts .,r.> -U'-Lm.-'.! Io di-,i.-i(i-£» evidence of the prf-,.'iici- oi li.u-tci idlogi c,i I con tana nation .di-tunciia or rnlurid.'-. or >,i :h». nutrients nitrou.ni and
Ihe .-iriuenlt. fr«>n \ h.- major trcatmcnl plants arc-' '" t ru''1*"'1 '" lVh"rc inI° tht- "cwn at deep water. .•iilu.-r,! iron, tlu- MILI.IL-.. and Swanbourne Treatment riant- ••.hen M*In,m,n,, bearh^ are patronised. Twice v-.-eKlv. -irij.lr. are taken from nie I rnpo 1 i I an beache- «n he vinnilv .,f i 1». nutf.,!!. bv the I'ublic "ealth Uffxirinicnt. Ihe Ua t e i H.»,-inl ra rrie-s uut an -iiK-ual ucean MIIIVJ umund Ihe outfall, examining' t!l' "van tor the pri'-fnc nf effluent.
In t-MiiLlu.iin«: ihi- r-utvev attention is invited - ..minujh I hi- s,ra, h.u-UU necessary - In the i • nt ri.Mii n.n m.uU* !„• -o many ^cientihts. in the '.",'" .' l''l '/ I'uilUl »^->Itli "iMiiH'orin.j. In 1B4^ '•'vir' *• '" ' J '•-. 11 1^ uroti "Ihe p.-Lmai\ r.nd most Liuportut 1
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116- ijjI- 121* TABLE 2 CRITERIA & OBJECTIVES FOR PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES IN AUSTRALIA COMPAI NATIONAL STANDA1 D&' FOB DR1NK1NG WATER
CRITERIA W.H.O. STAN- FOR CHARACTERISTIC DARDS AUSTRALIAN 1058 PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES HEFERENCES
Physical a Permi- Excess- Treated Un- Chemical ssible ive W . S . j X £ kit* l^U W.E* Wood, Inspecting Engineer, W.S. Railway Department. Colour p.p.m. 5 50 5 50 Increase of Salt in Soil and Streams Turbidity ppm. 5 2'5 5 25 following the Destruction of the Taste ft Odour Unoh- Unob- Unob- Unobiect Native Vegetation. ject- ject- ject- ionable ion- ion- ionable Extract from Jour Roy. Soc. Western able able Australia Vol X No.7 p.35. Total dissolved A.J. Peck & D.H. Hurle solids ppm. 500 1 ,500 500 1.500 Chloride Balance of Some Farmed and Total Iron Forested Catchments in South-Western p.pjn. 0.3 1.0 0.3 1.0 Australia. Zinc p.p.m 5.0 15.0 5.0 5.0 Study of Western Australian Salinity Copper p.p.m. 1.0 1.5 0.3 1.0 Problems - A Preliminary Report for A.U.S.Rp.m.pH 7.O-8.5 6.5- 9.2 7.0 - 8.5, 6.5-9.2 A.W.R.C. Research Project 71/31 Fluoride! F) C.S.I.R.O. Division uf Soils. PR""- Approx. 1.5 1.5 Nitrate (N03) ppm. Approx. 45 45 I.J. 0'Hara B.E.,D.I.C.,M.I.E.Aust., Engineer, Investigation & Design, Toxic Maximum Allowab e Concentrations Metropolitan Water Supply, Sewerage Compounds and Drainage Board, Perth, Chromium Western Australia. (Hexavelent) Perth Water Supply and Underground PRm. 0.01 0.05 Water. Arsenic(KAs) p.pm. 0.2 0.05 The Institution of Engineers Australia, Lp.id(Pb)ppm 0.1 O.O5 AnnuaJ Engineering Conference, Selenium(Se) Perth 1973. Rpjn- O.05 O.O1 Barium(Ba)npm> 1.00 Cadmiuntd) ptfim. O.O1 Cyarmb Radiological Requirements ilpha emitters 30 x 106. uc/n.1 Bui a emit ters As for strontium l>0 10 x 10°. uc/ml W.H.U. Rudeun 22b Standards M.l'.N. Most Probable Number obtained by the nmltiplo tube method of testing 52 Town Form in Hot Arid Areas J. Pavnter ARAIA MRAPI Introduction Climate and Man The problems of development in inland areas are commonly compounded. This paper vill concentrate Before studying closely the means of modifying on the climatic aspects as they effect human comfort the environment in the interests of man a study of man and the forms of urban development most suited to himself is required. This is done under the same hot arid areas. The paper is divided into two parts. headings as before;- Part A first defines the elements of a hot arid climate and their effects on man and then states the (a) Heat and Light. principles of planning town and building forms in harmony with such a climate. Part B illustrates these principles by means of examples from ancient Excessive radiant heat and glare are a real history, from contemporary Morocco and Australia. danger and discomfort to man. Sunburn and Bunstroke are common amongst unacclimatised (Western) man following relatively short The principles form the core of the paper exposure to the full effects of the sun. but the lesson is that planning and design should Sunshading is an obvious necessity here. be in harmony with the climatic environment. (b) Temperature. Man has a body temperature of 37°C but in the air which surrounds him comfort conditions are much lower about 23°C for the average Australian or 18.5 C for Northern Europeans. Variations of greater than plus or minus 5°C are not accepted as comfortable. Comfort conditions are related to various DEFINITIONS, PROBLEMS, PRINCIPLES aspects of the cliinatic environment but within the hot arid zone the shaded dry The Hot Arid Zone bulb temperature is the accepted measure of comfort conditions. The broad pattern of world climate is shaped primarily by the changing position of the (c) Humidity and nainfall. sun in relation to the earth. Large land masses have an additional influence to this primary cause. A wide variety nf humidity «*onditi nms art- Dealing only with the tropic zone there exists accepted as comfortable for the human body from about 20% to 80# RH. firstly a wide band centred on the equator which experiences a warm to hot and moi&t climate characterised by overcast summer skies and high Rainfall has little effect on man's summer rainfall. This is the hot humid zone. personal comfort but the availability of fresh water does of course largely Beyond this central belt both north and determine the pattern of human settlement. south and inland fron the coasts are the hot arid regions characterised by almost constantly clear (d) Air Movement. skies, low rainfalls and consequently a dry heat. Unlike the former region, hot arid areas are susceptible Great advantage can be taken of cooling breezes to quite large changes in temperature both seasonal in the hot humid tropics ulisre they promote and diurnal because of the sun's changing position and bodily comfort by e vaporation. In the hot arid clear skies respectively. Waterless desert regions zone their advantage is much less frequen t. At form the centre of such areas which are found inland temperatures above body temperature dry winds roughly along the line of each tropic latitude. An produce a blast furnace effect worsening conditions. exception is Central Asia where the bulk and altitude of Jand masses pushes such desert regions further THE PRINCIPLES OF TOWN AND BUILDING DESIGN FOR A HOT ARID north. The various regions are best distinguished CLIMATE. by their dxffering vegetation patterns varying from tropical rain forests to barren deserts. From an analysis of.the above some of the following criteria governing Planning and Design in Arid regions will The Elements of the Hot Arid climate may be obvious. Other criteria have been discovered (by others) be summarised as followst- over tlie years following more detailed scientific study but the majority of principles are those re-discovered from a (a) High levels of radiant heat from the sun. study of nature and roan * s early attempts to modify his environment in sympathy with prevailing conditions. The heat and light received directly from the sun are greatest in the hot arid zones, Because some of the following principles combine generally between latitude 15 and 35° north various aspects of the climatic environment they cannot so or south. neatly be subdivided into the headings used above. Instead these principles are taken in order of scale where possible. (b) Variable Air Temperature. Each subheading concludes with a brief reference High day temperatures are followed by low to the Planning/Design tools available to the professional night time temperatures as the air itself in determining the relative effect and application of the radiates heat to a cold clear sky. principles. High summer day temperatures are followed by pleasant winter day temperatures in most areas. Inland areas lose the dampening Within a given area the selection of a site for effect of the ocean on both diurnal and a new town or town extension can largely determine its seasonal air temperature ranges. suitability to the comfort of man. One or two of the following points are purely a matter of choice within an Altitude also has a market effect on existing situation but others such as (b) and (c) may temperatures as in all regions. be either a choice or a matter for further action. (c) Low Humidity and Low Rainfall. Higher sites will have lower air temperatures such These two related factors are what distinguish that a site with some hundreds or thousands of the hot arid regions within the broad spectrum feet elevation should be suught where practicable of tropic zones. Low humidity levels especially in the hot arid zone. allow and demand distinctive design features of the built environment as will be shown. (b) Water. (d) Air Movement. Notwithstanding the above sites adjacent to large bodies of water have o distinct advantage because Winds are generally slight in inland areas of the microclimatic improvement brought about but sometimes dust laden. by natural evaporation. The creation of cooling ponds of various scales should be considered as part of town and huilding layouts. (c) Vegetation. Similarly large a of their transpir, and shading funct a local microclim areas, if any, sh maximum advantage offer large scale besides providing town or section, rainfall figures species will nurv conditions. (d) Orientation. Within the southe to easterly slope exposure. A site advantage of cool 2. STRUCTURE (a) Concentration re the sun and enabl neighbour. Prote is also made easi (b) Solar Orientatlot west exposed wine A grid system gii buildings and mil Sun angle inform; the effects of o: shade. Strictly about 20 E or ni (c) Shade reduces bo public spaces shi shade areas. Wa pedestrian route important to pro contrasts of llg surfaces also sh excessive glare. (d) Vegetation and W mentioned the oa and water can ha cellular pattern surrounded by in 3. BUILDING DESIGN The same princi] as to large in terms of 1. (a) Compactness redi (b) Introverted lay against the sun landscaped cour Other principle and equipmen t take advan t climate:- (c) High heat capac absorb and diss and levelling e This is most itn With new techni effects approac ma. •* explored (d) Lightweight cor night quarters after sunset. (e) Reflective cole improve indoor in conjunction (f) Evaporative cot efficxent in rt it takes advani not guarantee 1 conditioning bi comparison, Tl of 6°C or more are generally : comfort. Pools and foun effective evapi TROPICAL CLIMATE to man. (e) Small external and e x t e rnal s Large openings take advantage HOT HUMID accounts, for t styles require HOT ARID spaces can red MOUNTAINS (c) Vegetation. Similarly large areas of vegetation by virtue of their transpiration, evaporative cooling 00 Convection air currents may be utilised to cool and shading functiuriii have a marked effect on internal spaces by interposing them between one a local microclimate- Existing tree or scrub landscaped and une open cmirtyard with openings areas, if any, should be retained and used to to each. Similarly external shading devices Should maximum advantage," Shelter belt plantations can be separated from buildings to allow convection offer large scale screening from dust laden winds currents to remove localised warm air. besides providing shade and a visual edge to the Inter-relations town or section. If irrigation is not possible rainfall figures will assist in determining which species will survive in the prevailing soil A number of important inter-relations exist conditions. between the principles mentioned above and with factors external to climatic control. (d) Orientation. (a) Introverted courtyard house plans offer complete privacy to occupants. It is debatable whether Within the southern hemisphere a north-easterly Eastern social habits or secluding women preceded to easterly slope is preferred to reduce solar or followed such house designs. exposure. A site on the lower slopes may take advantage of cool convection air flows. (b) Concentration of vegetation conserves scarce water resources. 2. STRUCTURE (c) External protection from heat, glare and wind (a) Concentration reduces the area of exposure to is reinforced where physical protection from the sun and enables each dwelling to shelter its attack is warranted. neighbour. Protection from hot and dusty winds is also made easier by this mutual protection. (d) Concentrations of town form mean officiency of servicing and convenience of movement. (b) Solar Orientation demands avoidance of east and west exposed windows and walls where possible. (e) Evaporative cooling also increases humidity A grid system giving north and south facing which at low levels is advantageous to comfort buildings and minimal end walls is thus desirable. in itself. Sun angle information is useful in determining the effects of orientation and the need for (f) Concentrated vegetation provides climatic and shade. Stric tly speaking a "front" orientation of visual relief - most important in a harsh external about 20 E or north is ideal. environment. (c) Shade reduces both heat and glare. Private and public spaces should have maximum and half shade areas. Walls should provide shade to all pedestrian routes and places. landscape is important to provide half shade and prevent strong contrasts of light and shade. Light paved surfaces also should be avoided to prevent Herein Examples of Town and building forms excessive glare. in hot arid areas are taken from: (d) Vegetation and Water. For the reasons already a) history mentioned the oasis like combination of vegetation !b) Morocco (Meknes) and water can have a marked effect. Thus a (c) Australia (Cootamundra) cellular pat tern of green space s i s required ^i.rrotmded by intensive development. 3. BUILDING DESIGN Host, world history textbooks follow a northwards course in proceeding chapters from the The same principles apply to small unit design middle east to the Mediterranean and finally to as to large in terms of layout:- European Cultures. Modern text more correctly give chapters also to Chinese, Japanese and Islamic (a) Compactness reduces radiant heat gain. cultures and one of the most fascinating aspects of* recent researches is the revelation of more (b) Introverted layouts offer external defence interactions between various and diverse cultures against the sun and focus on controlled than was once though t possible, landscaped courts. Mesopotamia Other principles related to method of construction and equipment take advantage of the peculiar aspecth of the llr uf Chuideea - the city on the Euphrates climate:- dating from over 200O DC had impressive temple buildings where ziggurats or stepped pyramids took (c) High heat capacity or I^avy weight materials advantage of tlie strong sunlight to create an absorb and dissipate heat slowly offering a delayed impressive pile of contrasting sunlit and shaded and levelling effect on daily temperature ranges. surfaces. Of greater relevance to this paper Eire This is most important for areas occupied by day. the remains of houses at Ur unearthed by Sir Leonard With new techniques of earth moving now available, Woolley. effects approaching those of the cave dwellings ma. •* explored. Houses from this period, were of the central courtyard form - often of 2 levels and (d) Lightweight construction is retained for summer juxtaposed with others, facing onto narrow shaded night quarters because of its quick cooling streets. High density living was in vogue, at after sunset. approximately 150 persons per acre. There is a well defined, if irregular, street pattern and a district (e) Reflective colours and insulation can markedly hierarchy of squares and public meeting places. improve indoor conditions especially when used in conjunction with cooling devices. Egypt (f) Evaporative cooling equipment is the most Early Egyptian civilisation is exemplified efficient in reducing indoor temperatures because by the Pyramids but few ruins of palaces or it takes advantage of low humidity levels. It can- residential quarters retaain. The Nile's yearly not guarantee the same temperature' control as air floods have carried all away. An exception is the conditioning but at 1/5 the cost there is no town of Kahun, dating from 260o BC. Here workmen's comparison. The Dry bulb temperature reductions quarters are laid out on a regular dense pattern - of 6 C or more provided by evaporative cooling each house having its own courtyard. Another, are generally sufficient to provide reasonable El Armanah exhibits the same long - regular and narrow comfort. streets. Middle class and royal quarters also exhibit a central courtyard planning theme. Pools and fountains especially arts simply but effective evaporative cooling units long known The temple complex of Amon at Karnak consists to man. essentially of a series of courtyards leading to a (g) Small external openings reduce radiant heat gains and external shading devices extend this function. Large openings are required in hot humid areas to take advantage of cooling breezes and this largely accounts for the marked differences in building styles required in the two areas. Ventilated roof spaces can reduce overall heat gains somewhat. 55 ro—a—ct—«- MAN i i [ffifl lni i'liiiiiiii PLAN m THE PALACE OF SARGON : KHORSABAD. Typical of ancient West Asiatic architecture the palace is planned around a number of courts. THE B4LACE (RESTORED) 56 i - ii - 10-" ! •< I 1 I 1 km L ttrm.tzsfi.'w ;«it«z. ti&vr/t ANCIENT EGYPT. TWO EXAMPLES OF WORKERS QUARTERS. Top at Kahun and above at El Amarnah. 57 _.=__ «s. THE PALACE OF MINOS, KNOSSOS, CRETE. A central court is surrounded by a compact and confined palace complex.3000 to 1500 BC. 4 l I ' -£3&S~t!'lj|HK'« K?iiK THE TEMPLE OF AM0N, KARNAK0 Alternate narrow gateways between massive pylons and open courts lead to the central cult chambers. 58 PRIENE, THE GREEK COLONY. An orderly town plan contains colonnaded agora, narrow streets and courtyard houses. l-l I I I I J l-l I I TTT-T iiJi'l I *i* I I I I I I p set ~^£ Pi SK=£s r ITTTT S5 - "4 • 1 ll I I I I l T 10 310 5O 7D 59 The town of Meknes was founded by a Berber columned hall. From this Hypoatyle Hall with its tribe in the 10th century as a rural market centre* high clerestory windows one progressed between Since the Arab conquest of the 7th century the nearby further pairs of massive pylons to an inner court- city of Fez had been the capital of the Sultanate yard and cult chamber surrounded by a labyrinth of but Moulay Israael, second Iman ox' the present ruling minor halls. This complex,currently being restored, dynasty, transferred his capital to Meknes. is one of the most impressive architectural compositions under the sun. Portions of the royal city remain. Over half of the old town is occupied by the grounds of Moulay Israael*s palace which included a 10 acre Just as the sombre Nile had maintained rectangular lake and 25 miles of massive walls. The palace rivalled that of Louis XIV at Versailles in and governed her people's endeavours, so too the scale but in layout retained the Eastern concept of rugged Greek landscape matched and encouraged Greek separately enclosed spaces arranged around numerous concepts. courtyards. Aegean civilisation developed partly in parallel with Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures The remainder of the old town is based on and there were numerous instances of interaction pedestrian traffic and on a simple heirarchy of between them. buildings. Two or three storey courtyard houses and small shops, open into narrow irregular streets The palace of King Minos at Knossos in whilst only the occasional mosque or medersa (school) punctuate the close knit scene and skyline. The town Crete again employed the monumental open approach wall forms a definite edge to development and gateways through successive courts and passages. such as the Bab Hansour assume a significant aspect. The similarities between the Meknes Medina and Ur The planned city of Priene (300 BC) of the Chaldees some 3,000 years earlier are consists of extremely orderly streets and blocks immediately recognisable from a comparison of their of houses having blank external walls and colonnaded plans. courtyards. The colonnaded square or forum was the focus of civic life. During the French protectorate period, Rome 1912 to 1956, Morocco saw the expansion of many towns in the French mode. The contrast between old and Once we move north to a study of Roman new at Meknes is typical. In the Ville Nouveau the architecture we notice that the courtyard has begun wide radiating avenues of Paris are reproduced. As to disappear, except in the planning of residential with most plans laid down by a foreign colonising power these show little regard for prevailing local palaces where its use was still valued. A temperate conditions. The banks, offices, hotels and apartment climate allows a more open plan arrangement yet the buildings all impose a new scale and a character House of the Faun in Pompeii is but one example of largely unsuited to the hot arid climate. the importance which the central courtyard had attained. Recognition must be given to the introduction Islam by the French of a civilised urban infrastructure; electricity, telegraphic, '•oad and rail connections Returning to the tropic zone, the mosques and in the new towns, water supplies and sewerage and palaces of ancient Islam retain the central systems. colonnaded courts with a pool or fountain as a common feature. One of the most notable examples More recently recognition has been given surviving is the Alhambra Palace at Granada built by foreign architects to local climatic conditions. during thp Islamic occupation of Spain. Agadir the town destroyed by earthquake in 1961 has been largely rebuilt with external aid and expertise relevant to the hot arid environment. The history of Morocco is as varied and Nevertheless it is still to the old cities colourfuL as its topography, from the coastal Riff of Fez, Meknes and Marrakesh that one turns for the and central High Atlas Mountains to the edge of the inspiration of forms in harmony with the sun. Sahara Desert in the south. ir'.-r* UR OF THE CHALDEES above had a similar town form in 3000 BC to old Meknes or Marralcesh (below) today, 1947 MIIU AN M1KIM. l>IIUTIlRKM>irilI> Cette mcdgra constirue Ie type le plus complet mals aussi Ie plus cralue, ce qu; Ie rend quelque peu exccpdonnel • La medena, a I'origtne hotelleric pour Ies ctudiaus etxangers ou proTtnetaux groupes par pays, attires par les coins i la gtande motquet, puia college prevu cgalcraeDt pour Ics ctuoianrs pauvrcst est con^uc sur un programme qux va rapi * dement se nrcdsaot ct qui baigne I'etudtant (taleb, tolba, professcur- "fen?!! Janj uoc ambiance rflliyfcmic ffv>fintif I1#^ TCJUJSC 1/2000 THE BOU ANANIA MEDERSA, FEZ Location plan, plan and section (surface oecesnife,oouTeaucefltte),pti» de« porta, Bou Jdood(XI ct 191;) arec i l'O. unc petite place ct au S. une wj««» kaaba. (XI, XII}' resi- dence mcrinide. pret d'un soak (brie i bnc « denrees), ptes da petites mosqueea Sidi Le22az(O.>, Abou el Hasone (E., XIV-j eczaoula Tijaoia (N.) 2 iti construtte de IJJO 1 IJJJ par Abou Inan, concue sur ua pio- geunme iadepeadant (salle de prieie arec chaue i sennoni ec nunater commandant ceux de la r'tssiiz st cess dc Is ncarclle villc des Merinidcs, asribun de mosquee • caihedrale; ecole coonlque votstne et complcmcntaire STRONG IMAGE ELEMENTS of the Moroccan Town include the Medersa (above) and gateway (below) both in Fez, PO DPJODdPODQtlD nuy NEW MEKNES, above, has grand buildings set in grand avenues, in strong contrast- to the old town where streets are designed for foot traffic only. CONCENTRATED central portion of old Cootamundra (above) and Quezzane, Morocco (below). 65 Australia single storey neighbours and hospitals, abattoir and showground buildings each dominate various outer The early history of Australia parallelled quarters. The railway provides a distinct edge to closely that of America. Colonisation began on the some parts but little protection of course from" hot cast coast and moved westward overland, but unlike dusty winds. Most edges to the town are indistinct America's rich hinterland Australians found a dry with spotted developments still occuring. Applying tho basic principles laid out Australia is in fact the direct continent; in the first part of this paper improvements to the 7U«6 of its area lias a rainfall less than 20" per Cootamundra town form might include the following: ann i.u and the total continental runoff is about 200 million acre feet per year or less than the (1) Concentration of now developments within discharge of a singte European river such as the areas alveady serviced in the interests of general Danube. Australia has.no Nile to bring life to its efficiency and improved microclimatic effects. desert heart and its major stream the Murray runs through the fertile S.E. corner. (2) The establishment and reinforcement of The very aridity of the inland has strong edges to the town by planting and possibly restricted its development to a few important solid walls of new buildings where appropriate. mining centres and several buL generally smaller settlements serving vast sheep and cattle runs. (3) The creation of oasis conditions in the heart of town by means of pools and concentrated Early settLers brought with thorn - the plantings and, the reduction of broad paved surfaces. forms oT their native England but minor modifications were soon adopted. Georgian mansions became Colonial (4) The introversion of building types. The cottages with the same fine proportions plus a wide design of all new buildinga and even the adaptation shady verandah well suited to the warmer climate. of old should focus on creating central courtyard Because of a lack of experience in the hot arid areas where again vegetation and water features can tropics concessions to climate rarely went further be used to improve the microclimate. East and than this. The social custom of the settlers especially west walls should be both shaded and of prevented the clus tering of houses in the Eastern solid construerion• manner. Two storey row houses were built in the c i ties but only because of economic pressures. The (5) All daytime areas should take advantage full advantages of this form were not and are still of heavy heat absorbent construction with minimal not being realised in the layout of inland towns. and shaded openings. A partial explanation may be found in the (6) Nightly occupied areas may he of light fact that the Aboriginal people had no permanent weight construction to take advantage of lower homes. The sparse game on which they survived night temperatures. demanded a constantly nomadic existence. Thus there was no indigenous architecture to guide us. (7) Evaporative cooling methods should be employed. Most 'efficient are small window units This does not explain our more recent Tor the tiome and larger units for offices and failure to learn from scientific evidence which schools, the latter being isolated from the space clearly points up the unsatisfactory nature of which they supply to prevent noise interference. most building and loun forms in inland Australia. (8) Shaded areas and narrow paths throughout Recent oil and mineral discoveries make the town could provide protection from the sun's i t imperative that new solutions are quickly found glare. A close pedestrian network is more feasible ' to providing a pleasant living environment within with the concentration which the climate demands. a generally harsh natural one and certain tentative stops huve been taken along those lines. (9) Orientation control of new developments and infill areas, possibly associated with street Cooianiuiidi'a closures to provide improved traffic arrangements, would allow a north and south orientation for Despite early government at tempts to limit building facades and openings. land settlement to areas close to Sydney the Contamundra distric t was sett led in the 1860s and Surveyor Adams set out the grid-iron iown plan on The above suggestions relate to an existing situation in order to point up the deficiencies of the banks of the Cootamundra Creek in iSfaf. The past and current methods. They may yet prove to be nearest permanent river is 25 miles lo the south less optimistic than would currently appear. He in from which water it. pumped to supply Cootamundra Australia are bound to discover, as the English have and west ward t o several other tuwns. done only recently that new town developments are •iften less efficient than town renovation, infill With a population of 6000 Cootamundra and expansion schemes. •ic i i> ;is a service centre to surrounding sheep and whent s La t ions, its main industries are an abattoir and an I eyards rt>l a ted to the rail centre. Conclusions With few exceptions inland Australian Town A Ititude Average Average Average U it Ltude towns have a form singularly unsuited to the harsh Max. Mia. Annita I cl itnatic conditions. This is largely duo to our Summer Winter Rain- social and economic background but the continuation Temp. Temp. fall of such forms is inexcusable. The alleviation of (wannest (coolest climatic discomfort can be greatly assisted by month) month) sympathetic planning and design. It is all the more urgent in view of the other hardships facing UUL.HU uiuir.i IUHU' 89 "v 35° F 23" 3<>.5° inland dwellers; insect pests, problems of water .*.V. south supply, feelings of isolation, transport and service costs, to mention a few, M IH til' 93 °F '10° F 23" 3'.° A closer study of nature, of history and north of scientific evidence is warranted, but more especially a willingness to apply the principles thereby revealed. Muhtirttcd in the abuve table (a) Mature i-1 im.-ite is remarkably similar to that Several aspects or the inland climate il! \ b<* imagined . are of positive advantage to man. We should recognise and capitalise on these. IM» rnIunin I settlers in Sydney made !•• Hicir house* designs to suit a warm Northern Territory ants for example build I.I i »• ii u 1 tirther modifications were their nests wi th constant solar orientation to »i'i i lffs moving inland from Sydney. equalise heat gains, and the foliage of plants the vor.iiidah has disappeared. The differ* narkedly from climatic region to region. •; i '••, ;ind largo windowed, unshaded . s 'im. repeiiieu throughout the country. i .1= t Lu the con tai ned and The older settlements of the East including t tit Mckncs, Coo t aniundrr. is dispersed. Morocco and even some early Australian developments ih.- h.i i .it i'hy ol bin Iditif, lurntb La i.til V Considerable research has been carried out MILi I I towns and Cootaniundra is no in America, South Africa, India and Australia in I'iis t "I rhp c lock tower and (before this field but seldom applied here. The recent tho Uiwu il.iLl l':icitdc> tloniinHtcd the announcement of a Commonwealth funded study on Mich bn L lii Liifta rise wcl 1 ,ibuve thoi r harnessing solar energy indicates a return to the other practitioners pioneering initiative whic Balwant Singh Saini might attempt to emulate. Incentives and. opportunities ngw exist 1 " - -""is— ~.IH dnsiea techniques Tropictil Architecture Maxwell Fry, B.T. UataTord Utd, London 196^ Jane Drew World Architecture Trewin Copplestone good Paul Hamlyn, London 1966 extreme (editor) DiiSipn with Climate Victor Olgyay Princeton University Press 1963 Trupical Houses David Oakloy U.T. Batsi'oiti I.tu, London 19G1 67 ••'-/• OLD and NEW COURTYARD HOUSES from Ur (above) a THE C restoration and (below) Architect Amiram Harleps To av project in Negeb, the latter using alternate the f sunny and shaded courts to promote convection (belo currents through living areas. form cliraa 68 THE COURTYARD HOUSE To avoid the monotony of regular layouts (above) the free form arrangements of J. Utzon at Elsinore (below) allow landscape penetration. The courtyard form is suited to both hot-arid and cool-temperate climates. Citf administrate E. Azagury, architecte CK« omrllre. Quarter todustriel and J. P. Ichter, architecte AGADIR the new city in southern Morocco. Administrative and Industrial sectors (above), residential (below) and Town Plan (overleaf). :< Logemtntt. Qoutkr rMdentlel J. F. Zevacco, aichitecte 70 I Tl A hypothet-ical HOT ARID ZONE TOWN PLAN from V. OJgyay's book Design with Climate, 72 COMPARATIVE PLANS of MEKNES in Morocco and COOTAMUNDRA, N.S.W., Australia are shown in the following pages. The two towns have a similar climate and a similar town area but populations of 150,000 in Meknes and only 6,000 in Cootanmndra mean vast differences in density (300 persons per acre compared to 12). 0 rez • Meknes fer MOROCCO r' o --- -r" 'S NORTH WESTERN —S' \ AFRICA 74 <£f -_-"- -I-' \ EASTERN AUSTRALIA 0 100 miles 500 scale 1 : 16.000,000 ^ */rA *> >vv p ar ,,•1,1,1.. l-h.. chm-cli l,,iildiii,:s rise well above their Harnessing solar energy indicates a return to the 66 COOTAMUNDRA I FEZ, MOROCCO. 1 acre of residential quarter. COOTAMUND: 69 I L COOTAMUNDRA, AUSTRALIA. 1 acre of residential quarter. ba in Po; to an imp Par vhe Plai the rest H4 Modifying the Environment An Agricultural Scientist's Viewpoint by C.V. (ialcolir. In Britain recently an Agricultural Advisory Council on Soil Structure and Soil Fertility produced a 119-page report on the effects cf modern faming on the soil. It was observed that icany practices and rotations were adopted unwillingly There iu an Australian Fanner's Fireside Ditty which runs as by farmers to maintain a profitable concern in a tight follows economic situation. Economic analyses used to advise farmers were often too narrowly based and should not have When woodmen cut their trazy wood, ignored the links between past, present and future in any And stately gumsand cedars fall cropping programme. The result of straining the system was And groaning teams the fencers load frequently felt when rcajor changes had to be made in later And jocund herds their lambkins call; years. When trees are split with wedge and traul. And rising cots the settlers see All this does not mean that there are no possibilities to And acres cleared give joy to all. increase agricultural production without dire consequences. Why then 'tis "Key, Boys! l-p go we!' The possibilities are considerable and have been reviewed by the FAD in its Indicative World Plan for Agricultural without doubt a great thrill in agricultural development Development, dated 1970. A combination of increasing the issues from the clearing of forest and its replacement with area of land under agriculture and increasing the production productive crops and pastures - a major environmental from present areas is recommended. The magnitude of the modification. But today's cry is in many cases for the world food deficit calculated by the U.S.D.A. for 1970 will forest to be saved. And I myself have matched in horror as give some idea of the changes necessary to feed the world. the wildf lower resources of the central wheathelt in this State have been almost wiped out in the last twenty years. calorie gap equi\r. to 54 0ullion metric tons of grain The world is facing at this very [content a food crisis of animal protein gap " 6.5 " " " non- unprecedented magnitude, but we are told this is only cne of fat dry milk several crises equally as daunting, ir. particular the pulses G other protein gap • 3.2 • soy- environmental crisis is exercising our minds today, and there gtits appears to be increasing acceptance that nan's numbers and fat " 3.1 " " veg. activities cannot continue to increase unchecked without oil serious consequences. The agricultural scientist is there- The total cost cf the food deficit for 1970 is estimated at U.S. $6.8 billion. fore caught on the horns of a dilemma - en the one hand he is being urged to maxitrJ.se production and on the other to In the Indicative World Plan it was estimated that the arable conserve resources and both horns are sharpened with the area in all developing regions could expand from 563 ro.ha. in threat of catastrophe. 1962 to 660 ro.ha. in 19E5. To the agricultural scientist modification of the environ- Hates of expansion ranging from 0.15 per cent/year for ment is a means to an end. In some cases, for example on Taiwan, India and Pakistan to 1-1 per cent/year in Latin the bluebush and saltbush pastures of the pastoral areas a America were proposed. The possibilities for increased minimum of change is desirable. On scrub covered san£plain yields varied with regions and different methods were soils on the other hand the vegetation is usually completely appropriate to different countries. replaced with introduced species, even Cor shade end shelter. Always, however, the agricultural enterprise is designed to Despite all this forward planning in 1970 and earlier, and be conducted in perpetuity by building in safeguards for the the expressed hope that quotas would be met, the Director conservation and/or improvement of the resources involved. General of FAD now informs us that the world food situation Sir Macfarlane Burnett (1972) defined as one national is causing considerable alarm with the world facing a objective for Australia, that we should "concp-ntrate possible overall shortage of grain by the first half of 1974. agricultural and pastoral activities in areas which it is All countries have been called upon to build up international practicable to maintain indefinitely in production." feed reserves as an insurance against famine, it is interesting that Platt in 1969 wrote in the Journal of the The agricultural system may be described as in Diagram 1- The American Association lor the Advancement of Science (Science) elements of the system, as they concern the environment, will that types of crisis which nay reach explosion in the be discussed in turn. following ten years included famine. So much for the demand section of the agricultural system. In the shadow Demand, of its imperatives let us consider each section of the system and the implications for modifying the environment. Now I am not going to discuss the implications of the feed back loops which operate if agricultural production is The Farcer increased, so that irore people live and have babies and population increases even faster and so forth. I will have Fortunately tor the farm B rural environment Earners are not in to assume that if there is a demand for agricultural products general avaricious business men prepared to mete the last an effort will be made to produce them. There is however an dollar of productivity from their farms at any cost. Living important aspect of demand with respect to the environment. close to the land they sos its infinite variety and experience its unpredictcd responses, bo.th hatsh and Farmers being men and not saints there is always a temptation beneficial. They have a built-in resistance to innovation when demand is intense to stretch the tolerance cf the soil, Lecause any panacea seems unreal in such a complex situation. plaiits and aniirals to the limit. I do not believe it is in Trusted and proved methods arc always preferred unless promised the long term interest of mankind for the basic agricultural benefits are spectacular, clearly demonstrated and well resources to be impaired by 'land mining.' authenticated. As spedding (1971) puts it "Most, if not all, farcers wish to achieve a satisfactorylevel of profit. Way of life, family and peace of oind are usually high priorities. Farmers like their farms tc be pic tisar>t places tc live (.r.c The use oi tructcrs has caused drastic changes in land use work and will sacrifice time ana trone^ tn this err!. in POISE. Fiddle Lust ce-untrirs. In Turkey a 60* imrease r Farmers in this State frequently are nore concerned ahc-t in cereal v acuctiuJi has cccurrvd sinct 192E (P There are numerous examples in the literature of intriguing Another environmental snake accused of lurking in the relationships between insect pests, their predatoro and agricultural grass is inorganic fertiliser. Miller (1970), who alternative hosts. An example fror. Californian vineyards declares that agriculture as one of the greatest land users has will suffice to illustrate the importance to agriculture of a great responsibility to the environir^nt, studied the maintaining a diverse ecosystem, vignerons normally plant contribution of fertilisers to pollution, once again in their land to a monoculture of vir.es, a practice greatly U.S.A. He concluded that their ccr.tribution had been appreciated by one key pest, the grape leaf hopper. It so overstated, of 750,000 tons of phosphate entering the happens that enemy number one for the leaf hopper is a Mississippi each year in sedirrents the majority was native tiny parasitic wasp which normally survives the winter by to the soil. He suggested the finger should point to parasitising a different non-economic leaf hopper which lives afceut two billicn tons of animal waste added to the U.S. or. blackberries. In the absence of blackberries the wasp environment each year rather than 40 million tons of populations are too low after winter to control the crape fertiliser. For the O.K. Tomlinson studied the problem of leaf hopper. The lesson has been learned and patches of nutrient losses from agricultural land and concluded there blackberries are now planted in the vineyards, (Cooper, 1970). was not a major tw & K problen in t'.K. rivers at present. In this host-parasite type of situation pesticides irust be Of the nutrients present sewage contributed the most P and introduced with caution. In the San Joaquin Valley early agriculture the most NO,-, pesticide treatment for lygus bugs may result in an There are numerous other technological inovations and explosion of bollworm. Delaying bug treatment however allows techniques used by the fanner but pesticides and fertilisers parasites to check bug numbers and avoids the bollwcrtr are the most likely vf constitute an environmental threat. effect, (Byerly, 1970). The consequences of tight cropping rotations have already been discussed. Pearse (1971) reports that improvements Pesticide use has of course been criticised frcm the point of in veterinary medicine and supploriental feeding in the view of environmental pollution, although as Ilaodon (1971) Middle East, cerely s«rve to keep more animals alive to points out they consitute less than three per cent of annual overgraje the range. chemical production and are applied to well defined relatively small areas. Environment Nevertheless pesticides are used extremely widely on crops and One of the nost significant realisations of the present age their use nay constitute a severe hazard to operators and is summarised in the spaceship earth concept. We have so an appreciable hazard to some wildlife. In Table 2 is an much land available and no more, and the implications are analysis of the use of pesticides on various crops in L'.S.A, far reaching. Figures for world land use from the President's Far more use is made of pesticides on intensively grown Science Advisory Ccranittee (19C7) are quoted by Wilson (1970) crops such as fruit, vegetables and nuts than or pastures and appear in Table 4. However, these are stated to be and range. Walker (1970) in discussing the figures reports optimistic upper limits and figures in Table 5 may be a that, in the four years prior to 1970, legal tolerances of better indication of the degree of environmental change pesticides in Food 6 Drug Administration samples of raw likely to occur due to increases in crop land or decreases agricultural conmodites were exceeded in less .than three in range and forest. The best agricultural land tends to per cent of samples. Consumed pesticides in rrarket backet be in use already and any expansion is likely to be tests over the same period were well below accepted standards. complete by 1985 according to the Food s Agriculture For humans theiofore it appears that the pesticides on crops Organisation. do not constitute a major direct threat st present. The hard truth as put by Spedding (1971) is that since about 71% (his figure) of the land surface of the earth is used Wildlife is in a different predicament d*:c to the phenomenon for crops, pastures or forests, agriculture nay have to of biological magnification. (See Table 3). Minute share or give up some land. Fast and possible future concentrations in the environment can be ccncentrotec aicru iragnitudes of some of the competing uses are shown in food chains to the point where levels in the terminal Table 6. anircal are sufficiently high to cause problems. Bird numbers are reported to have dropped due to the production It is not surprising that agriculturalists are beginning of thin shelled eggs associated with high fat levels of to talk turkey with other land users. Crowe (1971J reports chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as D.C.T. Unfortunately that in England landowners in the past planned deliberately pesticides have the insidious ability Lc be spread all ever to combine husbandry, sport and landscape beauty. Only the globe, in a similar manner to the lead in pptrol, by minor sacrifices in operational efficiency are necessary various natural agencies. The true effocts are therefore she claims to rcaxind.se aesthetic values in farm landscapes. extremely difficult to determine or predict. A great deal In Germany and Denmark rural reconstruction plans are is heard of the importance of pesticides to wildlife, but allowing for woodland and shelter belts when resurvoying Madden has pointed out that the balance of nature had viable frora uneconomic units. Latest plans for the been seriously upset by man before pesticides were expensive land in reclaimed polders in the Netherlands invented, and suggests that urbanisation may fee a far allow B-20 per cent for shelter belts, woodlands, nature greater hazard- to wildlife than pesticides. reserves and recreation areas. Spedding suggests that a systems approach should be used to arrive at agricultural Scientists working on pest control always prefer managerial ecosystems which conserve resources and remain in balance methods(biological control, varietal resistance or other with the environment and the whole cotranynity. measures to the use of pesticides which are regarded as a The European Conservation Year meeting in Strasbourg in last resort. Same of the most ingenious control rot hods 1970 recommended that intensive fanning should be kept to involve the release of sterilised irale insects and the the best lands and pcorer land used for diverse activities use of sex attractants to lure insects to insecticide baits. thereby strengthening the farm ecosysten. It has been We are nevertheless very dependent on pesticides. Strutt suggested by Crowe (1971) in England, Prillevitz (U7J* (1970} states that theirs is a running battle between pests in the Netherlands and de la Pena (1962) in California and diseases and scientists, with specialised cropping that farners could have the use of their land restricted making it increasingly difficult for scientists to keep for the public benefit in return fat certain dispensations. the upper hand. Spedding (19711 observes that continual The California Land Conservation Act 1965 in fact makes plant breeding and veterinary research is needed even to provision for the creation of agricultural preserves for keep pace with pest and disease organisms. the outual ber.'-fit of agriculture and wildlife, and as areas of scenic and open space value. A close parallel can be drawn between the preservation of the catchnunts was permitted. Fivers such as the Illackwood vineyard areas as open space in the vicinity of San Francisco and Muriay IW. Aust), which have appreciable areas of (de la Pena, 1961; Kent, 1970) and the preservation o£ the agricultural development in their catchments have became Swan Valley vineyards near Perth- In Sacrairento Country too saline for donestic use. near Los Angeles, urban development has spread over The contributions of agriculture to environmental agricultural land. However, Harris and Allee (1963) concluded modification are not all negative. Mining companies have that the best agricultural lands would be relatively safe in some areas established productive and profitable because they were flood prone and con-prised soils rich in agricultural enterprises on old mined areas. Cattle, pigs, peat. The effect of urban sprawl is to cause land to be apples and a country club are amongst the establishments on withdrawn from agriculture and lie idle and untidy. mined areas in Illinois. In Western Australia pastures Prillevitz (1971) urges thaC planning should be completed have been established on areas filled after mining for in time to allow the agrarian functions to be kept sound mineral sands and have been suggested as a possible and retained as central area open space. Single land-UEC treatment for bauxite mined areas in the Darling Range. he claims is under-use. Problems of revegetation of mine dumps, road verges and Realisation of the importance of pressures for multiple other difficult sites are included in a major programme use of agricultural land is spreading, and will undoubtedly of testing salt tolerant plants by the West Australian have a major modifying influence on agricultural attitudes Department of Agriculture. and environments. In the March 1972 issue of the Journal The air environment has in many areas been polluted to the of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science, Polnar degree that agriculture is affected. One of the worst hit reports on outdoor recreation in the rural areas of areas is in the districts surrounding Los Angeles. Table Melbourne. He proposes two approaches tc the serious 8 shows the estimated losses for crops grown in various shortage of areas for outdoor recreation near Melbourne; countries around Lcs Angeles. As an indication of the acquisition and afforestation of freehold agricultural land, spread of pollution it is worth noting that Riverside and development of farm land for recreation on a full-tine and San Bernadmo, two of the worst hit counties, are or part-time basis. The latter proposal may even be useful about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. For specific crops as a rural reconstruction measure. As predictions indicate yield decreases may be spectacular. Thompson S Taylor that all national parks within 100 miles of Australia's (1969) report yield differences for navel oranges over major cities will be fully utilised within ter years, an a three year period of 66.7 kg of fruit for filtered alternative such as farm based recreation is urgently needed. air as against 23.9 kg for ambient air. For grapes in 1969, Thompson fi Kats obtained 8079 g/vine in filtered So much for the availability of land for agriculture ant: the air and 3123 g. in ambient air. environmental ir.od.ifications foreshadowed for alternative uses. What of the effects of agriculture and. pastoralism therselves Fortunately agricultural air pollution problems of this on the land resource - soil and water. magnitude have not so far been reported in Australia. There is however clear evidence of severe leaf scorch The most widespread and severe alterations tc the world's land on nany plants near brickworks due to fluoride emissions surface have been made by its use for cropping and grazing. and fluorosis has been detected in cattle grazing In USA (Walker, 1970) soil erosion is reported to be a pastures near brickworks. Plants are a valuable guide predominant problem on 179 tn.ac. and a significant problem to the condition of the air and selected plant varieties on a further 50tn.ac-. The situation ir Australia is nc r-ore- can he located at strategic points as biological monitors comforting. In Table 7 the results of some surveys of soil of air pollution. Gladioli and beans are very sensitive erosion in Australia are presented in trief form. Tre to fluoride and the cause of leaf burning can be readily significance of these figures is highlighted by the verified by leaf analysis. Cotton is sensitive to sulphur recommendation for the Gascoyne catchment that stock dioxide, petunias to PAN and tobacco to ozone• Characteristic numbers should be reduced tc two fifths of the present leaf symptoms are produced in these plants at critical air level (Wilcox, priv- com.). As a result of a survey cf pollution levels. Fortunately sensitive plants are adversely erosion control needs in 19SS-59 ir. the Western Australiar. affected at about the lower threshold of effects on humans. wheatbelt, Marsh (1971) estimated that soil conservation Climate and topography are not resources likely to be staff would take 100C years to carry out the necessary significantly modified by agriculture but rather they surveying. influence agricultural use. The effects of rainfall Subsequently Harsh (priv.con:.) has developed several intensity on erosion or drought on pastures and soils may inqenious methods of assessing the degree and agricultural be drastic. Hcfarlane (1969) has suggested that motorized significance of soil erosion. Sampling of crops across soil road trains should be used to facilitate a form of neo- areas scraped to fill gullies in the past showed that even nomadism in the arid, areas of this country in order to after 16 years soil losses cf 1-E inches could be associated preserve the arid ecosystems. with 10-50fc yield depressior. On plots of soil swept with a mechanical road broom 1-4% loss of yield per millimetre of GENETIC MATERIAL soil loss was found to result froir soil teir.oval up to 8 nor.. I have ussd the term genetic material rather than plants and Measurements of soil material lost and its nutrient content animals because the concern of agriculturalists is that as are being made frop swept plots and from plots vacuum large a gene reserve as possible should be conserved. cleaned to remove detached soi1 particles. The vacuuming technique is being used to assess soil detachment by grazing Continuous plant and animal breeding programmes are, supported stock and clover harvesting. throughout the world to maintain production, to resist pests It is hardly necessary to discuss before engineers the and diseases and to suit special requirements such as significance of water and silt from agricultural land to mechanisation of harvesting. The best source of new genes public works suet- as roads and dams. The threat cf for building into varieties is in the areas from which the siltaticn of the Ord River dam has resulted in the spending agricultural crops originated. Many of these areas are in cf about ,i million dollars to revegetate soils which once countries such as Turkey where new high yielding varieties went stable on the catchment. A less widely appreciated are replacing the diversity of locally grown material. A phenomenon is the change in soil and water salinity which recommendation for the conservation of the genetic resources tallows agricultural development in come areas. About half of domesticated plants, animals and micro-organisms and the a million acres of developed agricultural land in Western preservation of species in the context of their communities Australia has became salt affected and constitutes a major was wholeheartedly supported by the Stockholm Conference on problem for some farmers. Of siqnificance to more people the Human Environment in 1972. Surveys have shown that the is tho increase in salinity of streams used for domestic number of potato varieties in Peru 6 Bolivia has been water supplies ir. Perth. Fc-rth's dammed water supplies uould depleted alarmingly in the last 32 years and in fifty years since become too saline for us« if sgrici-ltural development of Vavilov's pioneering work variation in flax, wheat & rosaceous COKCLUSIOliS fruit trees has declined markedly (Fawkes, 1971). Agricultural modification of the earth has resulted in profound changes. Although the comfort of mankind through It should be remembered that the best genes far a factor food and clothing ras bten a primary aim of agriculture, such as disease resistance are not always found en the best life has also been enriched through varied agricultural plants, or even on plants that have any economic potential themselves. Some rootstocks for example would certainly landscapes and the greater'opportunities for travel and be overlooked as fruit producers for their own sakes. recreation flowing from agricultural development. Moreover it is not always the parasite cf an annoying insect The demand for food places a severe strain on the that needs to be preserved, it may be an alternate host to environmental and gtnetic resources exploited for allow the parasite to over-winter. We cannot therefore afford agricultural production. Serious impairment of resources to deplete the world's genetic diversity because it is of re- has already occurred over vast areas, thereby placing a immediate economic significance. Who 100 years ago would heavier strain on remaining areas. have given a hcot about destroying the penicillin fungus? If agriculture is to meet the challenge of threatening world The threats to genetic resources from nechamsed agriculture famine a number of policies relevant to the environmant must and overgrazing have beer, discussed but the importance of be adhered to : fuel gathering has not. in the Middle East fuel gathering 1. Agricultural resources of all categories will have results in denudation of shrubs, herbs, animals and even to be utilised to give the maximum productivity manure within a radius of at least two kilometres and up to obtainable on an in perpetuity basis. 20 km. I have seen in Turkey donkeys piled high with scoLch 2. Agricultural ecosystems will have to be conserved in thistles gathered for fuel. a heaLthy condition. CCOSYSTEM 3. Gene material will have to be preserved for breeding programmes and future biological control programmes. In a sense we have been considering the agricultural ecosystem all through this paper. Because the farmer and agricultural 4. Agriculture will have to be given priority use of scientist rely on biological processes for production they prime agricultural land. must work within an ecosystem. For any crop, the ecosystem 5. Multiple use systems will have to be developed to includes the physical, chemical and biological factors which enable agriculture and other uses of land to be operate on and with and at tines within the crop (plant or combined without detriment to each other. animal) to influence its growth and development. For any 6. Determined efforts will have to be made to return ecosystem the effect of different modifications varies and degraded land to production. it is normal for modifications of one part cf the ecosystem to have wide repercussions. Whether the repercussions are 7. Agricultural wastes will have to be turned to drastic depends on the stability of the ecosystem. As productive use. Spedding (1571) puts it, stability in an agricultural systen & 8. Korld population growth will have to be stopped. is a desirable attribute in many ways and indicates not Initiatives must be taken, people must be educated and constancy but ability to return to a mean position after there will be a place for incentives and controls. disturbance. Inherent in many of these policies is the need for farmers It is vital that civilisation respects the agricultural tc become responsible stewards of the land, and for all of ecosystems of this planet for as Harlan (1970) states us tc become responsible stewards of this planet. If we do "In a very real sense the fate of the human species depends not, famine will not be the worst disaster that will plague upon our ability to understand and exploit the germ plasn us. of cultivated plants". WASTES Unfortunately food and fibre are not the only products of agriculture. The system churns out colossal amounts of waste material, most if it in the form of animal manure, while animals are on the range manure forms a r.onral part of the ecosystem and is conveniently distributed ever the paddocks free of charge. Bring the animals into a limited area for intensive production however, and manure disposal becomes a major problem. Wilson (1972) has calculated that for one acre of 'beef lot' 418 acres of agricultural land is needed for adequate waste disposal, if an effluent plant is not to be used. An acre of caged birds needs ZOO acres of agricultural land. It is questionable if the public should be expected to build and service effluent plants, but Wilson doubts if British agriculture could support either the land disposal or sewage plant methods with its present financing. Raising anin-als intensively, instead of in a paddock ecosystem, in U.S.A. is estimated by Byerly (1970) to result in a waste disposal probletn equivalent to that pesed by a human population of 201 million. In areas used for disposal of manure significant amounts of nitrate may reach the groundwatcr. PRODUCTS In this paper the environmental problems posed by the processing of agricultural products will not be discussed, it is recognised however that abattoir, wool scour and canning wastes are a very significant problem. REFERENCES Anderson, W. 1970 Molnar, l. 1973 The world food budyet 197C. Outdoor recreation in the rur^l areas cf Melbourne. USDA Foreign Agricultural ccoi\air.ic Report No 11 J.J.ust. Ins t. Agric. Eci 39(1) 35-40 Anon Osborn, u. 1368 Illinois site of mir^d area development cocunittce tcui . Lend principles. J. Soil & Water Cons 25(4) 15K. Graduate School Press t'SDA Black, J.N. 1971 Energy relations in crop production - a preliminary survuy. 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The United Nations Conference or. thu Huir^n Enviroi.ntr.t, Gull, litiiv. Arkansas agr.exp.stn. 507. Stockholm 5-16 June 1972. Search 3: 406-409. Spedding, C.H.W. 3971 Agricultural ecosystems Harlan, J.R. 197C Outlook en agric. 6(6) 242-247, Evolution of cultivated plants. I.B.P. Handbook No 11* Genetic Resources in Plants 19-12. Strutt, l,. (Chairman) 1970 Modern faming and the soil. Harris, C.C. Jr. & Allee, D.J. Pepcrt of the Agricultural Advisory Council on Soil Urbanisation and its effects on agriculture in Eacr^mrntc Structure and Soil Fertility. HMSO London. Country, California. 1. Urban growth and agricultural land use. Thompson, C.P. & G. Kats 1970 Calif. Agric. Expt. Str.. Ciannini Fndn of Agric.Fcons=. Ar.tioxidants reduce grade yield reductions from photo- Giamuni Fndn Res Rept Ko 268. chemical sircg. Calif egric 24(9) 12-13. Hawkes, J.G. 1971 Conservation cf plant genetic resources. Thompson, c.R. & Taylor, o.c. 1969 Outlook on agriculture 6(6) 246-253. Effects of air pollutants on growth, leaf drop, fruit drop, b yield of citrus trees. Kent, T.J. Jr. 1970 Environmental Science and Technology 3: 934-940. Open space for the San Francisco Iiay Area: ore-arising to guide metropolitan grewth. lust, cf Govt. Studies. Univ. of Calif.Berkeley. Totrlinson, T.E. 1971 Nutrient losses from agricultural land. Outlook on agric 6(6) 27Z-278. Madden, J.L. 1971 Pests, pesticides and pollution. Walker, C. 1970 J.Aust.Inst.Agric.Pci. 37(2) 168-174. The effects of horticultural practices on man & his environment. Mcfarlane, W.V. 196B Hortsci 5(4) 239-242. Protein from the wasteland - water ard the physiolecical ecology of ruminants. Wilson, C.L. (Director of Study) 1970 Aust. ?. Sci. 31:20. Man's impact on the global environment. Report of the study of Critical environmental problems. Killer, F.P. 1970 Kassachusetts Inst cf Tech, Press, 1970. Crops 6 Scils 22f9) 15-20 Wilson, P.N. 1972 The need rcr intensification in animal production and the consequent pollution problem. J.Sci. Fd Agric 23: 1393-1398. emand for agricultui al products Famcr I 1 V Farir- Infrastructure Technology Environment Cenetic Material - capital - pesticides - land - plants - labour - fertilisers - soil - animals - irachincry - rotations - ait - veterinarv - uater - fungi iredi cations - clin'ate arming knot-ledae - topography j I I 1 "Tlir AGRICtLTL; ' L SYETEP" TABLE 3 Eiclugical naqr.iflcatior. of D.D.T. Efficiency of energy use in growing a crop L.I. Sound, New York Power source Crops Efficiency ratioir&mjc) Human Rice, maize, Run-off water millet, sorghum, 3-34 Digitaria Zocplankton t x 10 ' Minnows 5 x 10"1 Needlefish 2 Animal Rice, maize 6, 14 Ccrmorants 25 Mechanized Wheat, barley, rice, oats, (frcir Madden, 1971) sugar beet Black (1971) Per cent of crop acres on which pesticides, fccie usoi? Present andPotential uses of the land surface of the planet (48 U.S. States in 1SCG Agric.Eccn.Sept.Vo. 147) Total Cse Present Potential Herbicides Insecticides Fungicides Acres 1! Cl iCOOJ Croplands 24 F.angelancs 20 26 Irish potatoes D9 09 24 1,497 Other veges 28 E6 20 3,£OD llanaaed Forests 10 15 Citrus 29 97 71 1,179 reserves (B01 forest) 26 D Apples 16 92 72 675 Kot usable 33 33 Other decid.fruit 13 71 5E eoc Other fruit & Nuts 18 59 39 1,807 All crops excluding 27 12 1.2 246,2BP Wilson (1970) pasture fi range 0.5 890,800 All crops including including pasture and range Past and projected wcrld land - use changes of some surveys of sell erosion in Australia (Per cent of total land area) Degree Extent 196F-2000 Eastern & Central Div.NSW some erosion 136,000,000 ac. Cropland + 1.5 4 0.4 Rangeland + 5.2 - 1.3 Western Div. NSW evidence of damage B0,000,000 ac. + 0.2 - 1.1 Hundred of Belalie,£.Aust. 25* topsoil gone 42? 25 to 75% topsoil 53? Wilson 11970) gone more than 75% n sut]ect to water 1/3 all cultivated erosion land Larlmq Covns, abandoned gullied 40,000 ac. areas other erosion 500,000 ac. 10-25% of plant cover remaining Ortl Ruet Valley seriously eroded 1450 sq. ml. tlT.BCO sq ml) Catchment badly eroded 4,912 sq. irl. (wxicox pnv.ccm.) sane erosion 11,525 so. ml. acceptable cond- 7,944 sq. ml. ition Area (iri] liens of acres) 2000 (Projected) Urban TABLE 8 Public recreation Wildlife refuge Estiratcd crop ICQETS due to air pollution in 1970 Water Management County Loss US S Alcmeda 37,020 Ccrtra Cosla 3,060 Eern 21,290 tos Angulci- 2,855,400 Mar in 2,756 Kcrtcrcy 256 (isnee 1.598,579 Riverside 5,231,115 Jar. Dernadino £,610,595 San Dlegr. 1,060 B0 ficin Katec 738 Santa Clara 604,E0O Santa Cruz 250 Ventura 10,723,590 The Mining Industry and Environmental Modifications by £,. C. 3rodie-Hall stockpile the overburden and as mining proceeds to pro- gressively replace it and reconstitute the whole area. The mining industry considers the comfort of The storage of overburden frequently requires an man botti directly and indirectly; directly, through- appreciable area. out all\Vj»perations; indirectly, by supplying the basic materials required by hoth primary and secondary Examples of strip mining are to be seen in industries to fulfil the insistent consumer demand. many parts of the world, especially in the U.K., Europe and.U.S.A. where for many years extensive areas of land ^o facilitate the production of these com- previously mined for coal have been effectively restored modities, which are indispensable" to his present way and rehabilitated. Usually the areas are returned to of life, man has turned increasingly to the use of their former use whether woodland, grazing or agricul- metallic minerals. They are the essential prerequisite ture. Very often it is possible to in-prove the site by to his existence; the basic ingredient to the produc- landscape planning. There are examples overseas where tion of power, tools, machines', appliances, implements, artificial lakes have been formed and the surroundinas transport and communications equipment and all the developed most successfully for recreational purposes. goods and services which are so frequently taken for granted in this modern age of advanced industrialisa- tion. If the deposition or depth of the orebody does not lend itself to open cut methods, access is usually gained from a vertical shaft or an inclined shaft for - The growth rate in the demand for minerals conventional haulage by winder or by inclined road is high and will continue to increase. It offers to access similar to a steeply inclined road tunnel. With , countries plentifully endowed with metallic resources these forms of underground mining, the surface disturb- the opportunity to reach high levels of industrial ance is limited to a small area for surface plant, development in the shortest possible time with the machinery, ancillary buildings and storage areas for resultant benefits of improved living standards. ore or waste rock. In countries such as Japan where the mineral resources are limited and population density is high, THE PROCESS PLANT it is necessary to develop and use the skills of the people in manufacturing industries, alternatively in The process of extracting the useful metals Australia where the mineral potential is high, the from the ore can involve any of a number of successive emphasis should be on mining and mineral processing.* stages, concentrating, smelting, converting and refin- The planned development of a country's mineral ing. These processes may or may not be carried out resources, commencing with prospecting and explora- adjacent to the mine site. Often various stages of tion and extending through production, processing processing are established at different sites depending and fabrication to the establishment of auxiliary upon a number of inter-related factors, such as trans— industries, is of vital importance to the development port costs, the availability of power and water, the of a sound economy integrated with the structure of products used in the process and the location of final international industry, without which a high living markets. standard and the opportunity for cultural advancement and personal social contacts cannot be realised. It is obvious that it cannot be achieved without sub- Mineral processing plants are not unlike any stantial modification to the environment. Mining is other industrial or manufacturing establishment. They one of the many primary industries which utilise the take up a particular area of land which is then com- earth1s natural resources to produce a wide range oF pletely changed and adapted to the required purpose. goods and services for the comfort and convenience They are a potential source of pollutants although of mankind. gradually, as the problens have become apparent, tech- niques have been developed to minimise the detrimental effects caused by gaseous and particulate emissions, The Australian Mining Industry Council is waste disposals and liquid effluents. Electrostatic a national association of mining companies who collec • precipitators can effectively eliminate particulates; tively produce about 95% of Australia's minerals. T'v^ sulphur recovery processes have overcome the SO2 Council believes that: nuisance and provide a valuable source of sulphuric e acid for fertiliser manufacture? liquid effluents can "The nation s mineral wealth can be utilised in be neutralised and recycled and residue disposal prac- the interests of all Australians in complete tices are being modified to avoid the creation of harmony with the needs of conservation and unsightly tailings and slag dumps. recreation. The Council also recognises a res- ponsibility to assist in the development, THE TOWNSITE adoption and implementation of appropriate environmental criteria and regulations .... the Council believes that -.:hilst man's desire to The position of a townsite developed for min- improve material veil being is a worthwhile ing or associated activity will usually be determined goal, he has a fundamental right to expect that by its relationship to the industry. The advantages ~" this development vrill not unduly jeopardise the of siting a town in an area sufficiently remote to maintenance of an optimum 1-3vel of environmental exclude noise and uhera the existing landscape provides quality. an attractive setting for the town has enormous prac- tical and aesthetic advantages. "TIIQ area of land disturbed by f-.h-.» rining industry in Australia would Ke comparable in relative size to one postage stair r. on one wall of an ordinary The devalopnent of a town anywhere is in living--room, yet from this area (less than 0.02% varying decrees destructive to the natural vegetation. of the total land surface) Australia hau gained The siting of houses and the associated roads usually tremendous economic strength. This disturbed can be adequately controlled but the current methods area is less than 1% of the area taken up zy of installing services arG ruinous to a fragile environ- roads and a minute portion of the area being ment. utilised for agricultural and pastoral pursuits. 7h" installation of power lines either over- 'The Council strongly supports the principles head or underground, tne trenches necessary for involved in the establishment of sound land ust> sewerage pipelines, for water supply lines, telephone planning procedures. ' cables and frequently nas lines, all essential services, severely reduces the undisturbed ground in the developed area. Hopefully in the future it will he possible to Modification of the inmeciato environment ensure that they are all carried in one common duct occurs in two main areas oZ the industry's activities. under footpaths. At the present time the concert, of common ducting is not acceptable to the relevant 1. The actual mining operation and its extension in authorities. to processing facilities, their establishment and operation. The area of land required for the development 2. The tovn, which is frequently required to ^>rovif?e of an isolated town of approximately 4,000 people with all attendant services and facilities is approximately accommodation for thn workforce. 1,000 acres, i.e. the size of the King's L'ark Reserve, cf this total area, in general terms 200 acres become residential lots, 200 acres are required for the road system, 200 acres are necessary for recreational facilities and the remainder is taken up by public open minerals can only be mined where they occur - space and service lanes, commercial developments, consequently the site of a mine is predetermined. The religious ant? educational purposes and other require- method of mining will vary depending on the nature, con- ments such as caravan parks, rubbish disposal sites figuration, extent, attitude and mode of occurrence of and stormwater dams. the orebody. I- i^ is a flat bedded surface deposit, it mav involve open cut, drsdging or sluicing techniques. stomwater catchment areas may cause an If it is a steeply dipping vein it will be mined under- increase in the surrounding vegetation, there may be ground. The subsequent changes to the site vill vary some variation in the species and due to the increase according to the method used. in available water, sections of the vegetation may not persist. There mav he a variation in the ground water Ooen cut mining, which creates most disturbance table which will affect-the vegetation; raised levels to the landscape, involves a complete but often progres- may be caused by clearing and subsequent domestic cul- sive renoval of the overburden during the course of gain- tivation of house lots or* a lowering of the watertable ing accass to the mineral deposit. It is usual to may result from drainage necessary to provide well drained areas for housing or working conditions. 93 EXAMPLES OF MODIFIED ENVI P.ONHENTS can be produced from the 25,000 tons of bauxite mined from one acre compared with less_ than one timber Reputable companies accept the environmental framed house from the average acre of forest. responsibility for their projects and at the present time there are many examples to show the involvenent Aluminium i-s also used in a great variety of of companies and their interest in effecting environ- industrial applications, domestic appliances, elec- mental changes for the comfort of man. trical apparatus, motor cars, aeroplanes, trains, furnishings, and a myriad of other commonly used AS early as 1935 Central Victoria Dredging goods. Companyf an associated company in the W.M.C. Group, dredged for gold over an area of 470 acres of grazing Vorth east of Pinjarra, Alcoa of Australia land in the Lodden Valley, in Victoria. Previously (W.A.I Ltd. has established an Alumina Refinery. The the site was used for grazing and following the extrac- plant is surrounded by an operating farm of 12,500 tion of the gold by dredging to a depth of 60 feet the acres which provides a practical buffer zone and an pasture was successfully re-established and the area aesthetic setting for the processing plant. reverted to grazing. In the mining industry this result would be referred to as "Good Housekeeping". To house the workforce, a townsite five miles to the west of the Refinery was selected. The town Broken Hill is a well known example of re- has been planned by a team of experts with additional vegetation of a denuded area. The town of Broken Hill specialist consultants as required. Part of the first is situated in the Barrier Ranges about 700 miles due stage has been completed; housing to accommodate west of Sydney, at an elevation of 1,000 feet above 200 people has been constructed and is sold to employees sea level with an average rainfall of less than 10 inches and others at attractive rates. and a shade temperature which can rise to a maximum of 48°C. The soil is largely composed of red sandy loam The town has been planned on a modified pedes- and red sand with calcareous ridges and saline flats. trian traffic segregation system and 17% of the land is allocated to public open space although the required Grazing commenced in the area in 1860 and allocation is 10%. In this case the company has fully was followed by the finding of silver-lead deposits at developed the open space throughout the existing Broken Hill in 18B5 and the subsequent development of development and in addition is accepting the respons- mining operations. ibility for the total establishment of the open space far a period o£ five years. The dust problem became acute over the years and in 1936 the manager of the Zinc Corporation sup- The project has changed low lying, poorly ported and encouraged Albert Morris, a resident metal- drained farmland into a well planned, adequately lurgist and an enthusiastic amateur botanist to drained townsite, providing comfortable, safe living establish his dream of a green belt by natural regenera- conditions for residents. tion to overcome the problem. The half-mile wide strip adjacent to the town was established as seven regenera- Western Mineral Sands Pty. Ltd. are producing tion areas by the three big mines. North Broken Hill, ilmenite from a dunal sand deposit at Capel. The Broken Hill South and Zinc Corporation followed by an percentage of minerals contained in the dunes is small eighth area with funds provided by the ::.S.W. Government. and during the operation the total volume of the sand The project has been rcost successful and an enormous is only slightly reduced. benefit to all residents of Broken Hill. Before mining commences, the area is stripped Alcoa of Australia (W.A.) Ltd. is currently and topsoil stockpiled and following extraction of the mineral the topsoil is replaced, fertilized and planted with stabilizing pasture grasses such as veldt, serra- della and clover. The present rate of mining is 20 acres per year and over the past six years the Company has topsoil spread over the surface by the Connany mined and re-established pasture on 120 acres on which it runs a small commercial grade beef herd. The Company havo by t-.heir own initiative exceeded these statutory requirements. They now carry Western Mining corporation Limited has opera- out a comprehensive ground preparation programme in tions in many isolated areas * Mining for iron ore which the steep quarry faces are broken down and is carried out at Koolanooka, talc at Three Springs, graded to blend with the surrounding undulations; the gold at Norseman and Kalgoorlie, nickel at Kambalda, floor of the open cut is ripped to a depth of four and exploration centres are maintained at Kalgoorlie, feet on 2'6" contours and contour weirs are constructed Wiluna, Meekatharra, Leonora and Wittenoom. where necessary to control run off and prevent silt- ing of water courses. Kambalda Nickel Operations, with a workforce of 1,600 persons is an example of a development in an Subsequent tree planting at the Jarrahtialc isolated seiK-arid area. The average annual rainfall site is carried out by the Forests Department using is 974 points and drought is a natural recurring species which are not only resistant to ''hytophthora factor. cinnamomi, but whicii will later yield commercially valuable tinber. In 1966 the decision was made to establish an industry, house a workforce and provide the neces- Since mining commenced in 1961, 2,000 acres sary supporting infrastructure at Kambalda. have been cleared and mined, and 1,000 acrcr, have been reforested. Th- local topography is generally undulating falling to I^ke Lefray (a salt lake 200 square miles The Company has worked in association *:ith in area) in the east, with low country interspersed the Forest Pepartmsnt, and in addition they have with salt pans to the west. Throughout the townsite employed a consultant forester, a staff forester ^nd area a shallow layer of sandy loam overlies a traver- are presently enqaged in researc1. in association vith tine subsoil. the CSIRO into the affects of bauxite ninincr on the environment, with particular reference to the hyare- "he vegetation is woodland with Eucalyptus logic balance. species predominating and an understory of Acacia, Eremophila, ftriplex, Kochia and Melaleuca. There are several alternative u-ses for tVie land covered by indiicnous forests and it will become Follouinrr the initial investigations it was necessary from tine to tine to reassess the value of decided that minimum disturbance to the existing forest retention against alternative forms of land landscape would be Company policy, and that the use and their value to present and future generations. indigenous character of the locality should be retained and vhere necessary re-established. Most of the water catchment areas are within the Forest region and although they provide good 1 This decision allows planning to be carried quality water there are appreciable losses due to out within the ecological framework of the area and transpiration and soakans. nearly one half of the allows the maximum intearation of the town and the available water vithin 100 milts of Port'^ has been site. committed and the lr.ck of water ma.- ultirately prove to be the constraint -vliicn './ill liinit the development The Governor-General, in his foreword to of this area unless more efficient forms uf vater George Seddon's "Swan River Landscape" writes, "If catchment are devised. we learn mote about the treasure we possess we may become less careless and try to be less clumsy in Already much of the forest areas has been our handling of it,' - and the same is true of the cleared for agricultural and pastoral purposes. arid areas. "Vppreciablc quantities of tinber have been removed to provide buildino materials, sleepers, fencing anf- Man's requirements, that is the average firewood. employee in a workforce, demands as his right the opportunity to live a "suburban" life - to occupy a Aluminium resulting frorr the nininq of bauxite single dwelling unit, to plant lawn and roses - what- is in many cases uned as an alternative to the timber ever the locality, and to vanquish the gum tree. The for window frames, door frames, wall sheeting anc aim of an isolated industry must be to establish a st I'uctural members. Alcoa produce a complete house contented workforce. f rfime known as ' Al frame' from extruded aluminium sec- tions which can be used as an alternative to tinber The alteration to the environment for the framing for domestic dwellings. The 'Alframe' struc- ture weinhs only 1,400 pounds and 5,500 such frames physical comfort of man need not be as extensive as the alterations demanded by man as his right. 94 •\t "'.ambalda a compromise has been effected, COHCLOSI.}.- "an's impact on the locality is marked, he has been provided vith not less than the standard siz-2 suburban Industry, superimposed on the environment has - house lot, all standard suburban services and facilities, altered a small section of t!:e visual landscape entirely. standard housina, an unrestricted choice in garden Utilisation of minerals has altered man's way of life"- planning and implementation, with the provision that aid frequently the benefits are taken for granted. With- no indigenous trees or shrubs are to be damaged. out minerals there would be no cars, domestic appliances, railways, ships, aeroplanes, television, radio, elec- The current landscape is a suburban land- tricity or machinery. Without quarrying there would be scape -'Jith the indigenous Eucalyptus species predominat- no road metal, concrete or bricks. Mining provides the ing. The planning seeks to modify the climate by basic materials on which we depend for our present com- minimising direct heat radiation and re--radiated heat forts, goods and services. from the earth, provide micro climates adjacent to buildings and pedestrian areas, to minimise wind blown Tha industry nakes a significant contribution dust and sand and establish a self-sustaining landscape to the national economy, provides employment for over adapted to the area. 100,000 persons, aids decentralisation and supplies the major part of the minerals required for Australia's needs. Over the centuries man has learned to utilise mineral resources to make his life more comfortable. The majority of Australians live in an almost totally artificial environment, an urban community, and I doubt that many of us would, if given the opportunity, revert to the way of life experienced by our forefathers. The Transition To Manager Leo R. Parker The Australian Administrative Staff ColLeye exercise their own discretion without generating in himself an intolerable insecurity; to concede that others will possibly perform nrofessional tasks with loss distinction than he The Three Crises would und still to be grateful to them for their efforts. Indeed it is part of the folklore of business that the hardest As I see it a professional man on his way to the top in an job in the company is whichever one the boss last occupied. enterprise has to face three occupational crises. His first He just can't leave the new incumbent nlone. This Is a as a young professional will be concerned with his compet- situation you may have suffered under yourselves. ence as an individual practitioner. His second will come- when he has to get results out of a group of fellow practitio- Skill in communicating with others will now assume an added ners, but here an entirely new set of skills is called for. importance for the new supervisor. Skill in communicating Hib third lurks in the future where he will be expected to his expectations, his priorities, his standards, his deadlines, get results from a group of people whose expertise he does his praise, his censure, his reassurance £o his subordinates not share. Once again new skills, new insights and hope- will in large measure determine his performance in his new fully some wisdom are called for. role. 1 propose today to examine the problems that these two tran- He will have a new appreciation too of the importance of sitions pose for an engineer. In the first place the transition upward and lateral communication throughout the enterprise from individual performer to supervisor of other engineers and in which he works. secondly the transition from supervisor of other engineers to generalist status where people other than engineers - perhaps Our new supervisor has yet to develop full insight into how accountants, marketing men or the like - work under his people behave in their employee role, and how to generate a direction. social climate in which they will be motivated to perform efficiently. This he will find especially teasing when the The Initial Success work being performed is by its nature difficult to measure, or where his people are not faced by some external challenge Let us look first at the young professional engineer who has such as competitor activity. embarked successfully on the first phase of his career. What does he get out of it? Leave aside the economic considerat- He will find now that an increasing amount of the work that ions. What personal satisfactions does he get from his work? he personally discharges will he concerned with yetting co- What psychological dividends rather than cash returns does operation from people not under his direct authority. To deal he enjoy? with this sort of thing he has usually to lean on what ho has learned in his non-professional capacity - on the sporting For a start he is probably working in a vocation which he chose field, in community activity, in church and club,in lodge and rather than one which the pressure of circumstances forced pub, and indeed in the household situation. For tills vital upon him. By mere accident of age and recent training he will human relations component of the supervisory task we seldom probably be more up to date in his thinking and reading than have any specific training. It is virtually left to chance, and the average member of his profession, but of course he will we must needs play it by ear. also be less widely experienced. By this time he will have had some success in the practice of his profession. He will The Transition to Generalist know by now just what is expected of him in day to day practice and he should know how he measures up against the standards As he continues his progress upwards in the enterprise the of other people in his profession. He will have achieved engineer will be asked t<> undertake activities which involve some sense of timing in it and will be aware by now of those more general functions. He will find that much of his time is areas of it where additional time and effort will show some concerned with goal setting, with resource procurement, with return in added excellence and those areas where it will not. co-ordinating the efforts of teams of people of diverse skills and outlook - accountants, marketing men, psychologists He will, m most cases, be working happily in a field where perhaps, and lawyers. The representational role will loom the matters important to him can be quantified and measured larger in his life (and perhaps in his wife's too), and he will and so held under control. He will h^vc become identified not only be expected to project the image of his enterprise to with his profession as a way of life, a worthwhile thing to the outside world, but he will also be expected to get results, do and he will be drawing some support from his own fellow by persuasion and negotiation, from people outside his enter- engineers. These will be people whose wori; he understands prise and over whom he has no authority whatsoever. and with whom he shares a common set of standards for technical competence and for professional behaviour. He He is rarely trained for this sort of role, and indeed often will be able to communicate effectively with them and will brings positive handicaps with him into tho job. He will look to them for sympathy and support. H« will be oriented often for instance subscribe to the beKef that one should not in their favour in situations of interdisciplinary tension AH ask suboiclinates to do things one cannot do oneself. (Stud- have been known to occur between say, engineers and masters know hotter, of course.) He will often hove such an accountants. In the eyos of this group with whom ho identifies exaggerated -aspect for technical excellence that it clouds success is equated with professional success and the fact ' to his business, judgement. He will often side, as n matter of member occasionally leaves the practice ol the profession course, with his former professional associates when he undertake more general and loss professional responsibilities should be holding the scales o[ justice with some sort of is not necessarily regarded as meritorious „ impartiality. The Transition to Supervisor He will find in this role nf gonrralist manager that he is increasingly concerned with thr enntoxt in which his enterprise This same man, on first taking up responsibility foi the super- operates. vision of other engineers often finds himself singularly ill- prepared. He has reason to feel insecure, of course. The He must. If he is to manage effectively, br awarf of the knowledge and personal skills which brought him success .is changes qoing on in that cont- xt, whether they be social an individual professional worker have not necessarily any changes, political or economic; whether thoy be brought relevance in his new supervisory role tiny more thnn .in out- about by administrative decision, by legislative act, by standing personal performer in a sport automatically bpcoi^-"-. judicial interpretation or by competitor activity. an outstanding coach or un impeccable umpire. They are jusl different jobs and make different demands upon the man who He jnust bo forever prnbing: to senso and respond to the undertakes them. trends; to recaqmzn the discontinuities, whore tho trends stop and a new sot nf cir nun stances beqin. The new supervisor of professional men, whether an engineer or not, has usually had no specific preparation for his task. The Ho will find that he is being driven from the day to day satis- knowledge, skills and attitudes that make up the exacting craft factions of achicvemnnt in concrete terms into qrapplinrj with of management are assumed to be in him, and they usually ire the expected problems of an ijncfTt-iin future. not; not yet anyhow. He usually has to lnarn how to delegate- effectively and this rarely comes naturally to anybody; to Accordingly it will become more and more difficult for him to manage, and yet not to interfere on detail; to permit the othnr review and so improve the quality of his decisions. Whether man his own personal way of doing things, yet not to lose they were good or bad will be decided many years ahead control of the job as a whole; to allow I.is subordinates to rather than in the here and now. More and more nowadays he will be concerned with setting strengths are being built upon and his weaknesses minimized. the climate within his enterprise - the social and managerial The employer can so arrange the work that he is always faced climate within which ideas are traded, decisions are taken, with a challenge, and keep him working in a situation where negotiations are conducted and objectives are attained. He success in an assignment Is probable, but by no means will be concerned with ensuring that talented and determined certain. He can share the big picture with him. The whole groups within his enterprise co-operate in a mutually suppor- picture is never seen by people at the bottom of an enterprise tive manner rather than competing in a destructive fashion. and his employer is in a position to put things in perspective forhinu-He can provide him with a series of non-engineering From here on he will be deeply concerned with that most assignments of increasing complexity so that he begins to rewarding of managerial tasks - the nourishing and encourag- work with confidence outside his speciality. He can give ing the human talent that is drawn into his enterprise. him broadening-assignments, such as cost reduction co- ordinator, rwhich take him across a number of divisions of The Young Graduate the enterprise^ He,can make him privy,to the more teasing decisions he himself faces and share with the young manager- I was privileged a few years ago to conduct an investigation to-be the alternatives that were available and the .grounds on into the attitudes of young graduates in industry and the way which the final decision was taken'. He can make him a junior in which their employers appreciated the services they hand in top policy teams, really an observer witfi a face saving rendered. It was made under a grant from the CommoriV/ealth role. He can have him represent the company at conferences, Advisory Committee on Advanced Education. minor at first and as an assistant at major negotiations. He can make an opportunity for him for personal renewal from time The young graduates were somewhat surprised to find that to time by involving him in In-house training, in management their employers were reluctant to tell them how they were education programmes or in overseas visits, exchange postings performing. They were surprised too to find how important and similar arrangements. Some enterprises go to heroic lengths articulacy and the quality of one's inter-personal relations in this respect. One for instance provides the professional were, once one had assumed a supervisory position. Further- staff for a project in Ethiopia. Another gives an opportunity more, they did not expect to meet with any resistance to for men in their thirties to visit people and projects overseas. ideas that were logically sound and were surprised at the All they offer is two weeks leave and a bag of money. The vigour of the resistance they encountered from other people sense of responsibility of the young engineer seems always when changes to established systems were foreshadowed. to be equal to the occasion. Indeed the fact that an engineer is often an agent of change was a novelty to them. The University and the Professional Institution They were surprised to find that the training that they had And how abcut the university? What contribution can It make been given made no concessions to the fact that they were to easing the shock of transition? Well fora start under- shortly to be translated from the role of pure professional graduate courses could convey some insights into the into the role of supervisor of other professional people. They behaviour of people as individuals f and in groups. It is as felt that a certain amount of this training could be given in yet too early for detailed coaching in interpersonal skills to the university course, and some of it would be relevant after have any reality for the young engineer, and this should be perhaps 4 or 5 years work as a professional, by which time deferred. When he Is in the age band 25-30 the professional they would have one foot firmly on the first rung of the institution in conjunction with the university could well arrange managerial ladder. seminars on the skills and techniques required of the engineer in his managerial role. Financial analysis, developing inter- The employers in this study saw as an important pointer to active skills and industrial relations would be subjects that the readiness of a young graduate for a supervisory role the would be stimulating and productive at this stage, whereas they quality of the co-operation he evoked from others in the would have seemed unreal If presented earlier. Indeed there assignments he carried out. Furthermore when they did could well be gains on both sides in such a process. promote the young man to be a supervisor of older people they made sure that he knew what to respect those older workers There are other facilities in the community especially for. They were, however, so inarticulate about the sort of designed to assist the young professional in bridging this person that should be inducted early into a supervisory role transition to manager. The excellent MBA courses in some that I made it my business to draw up a check list which universities come readily to mind. The institution with might help in this respect. It is attached as an Appendix to which I am most fcmiliar is The Australian Administrative this paper. (Parker, 1968) Staff College. Reducing the Shock of Transition The Australian Administrative Staff College What then can be done to reduce the shock of transition? For This college is concerned with the process of building up a start can the young engineer help himself? In my view he the administrative skills of managers from Australia and can. He can became involved in community activities. The abroad. The Advanced Course in the College Is concerned experience he gains thereby in getting results Gut of people with senior managers in their mid forties and I have des- over whom he has no real authority will be invaluable. He can cribed it elsewhere (Parker, 1967). My concern today, set about building skills in communicating his Ideas - however, is with the Intermediate Course which caters for especially to people who do not share his engineering back- younger men. Twice a year a group of men in their early ground. And as you know this is not always a strong point in thirties! about a quarter of them being engineers of some engineers. He will find JayCee and Rostrum useful in building sort, enter the College for a 4i week residential course. up his ability to present his ideas and some very good reference works are available e.g. Brown (1971) and MacKay (1971). He Our philosophy of education leads us to provide conditions can set about improving his insights into human relations. suitable for accelerated growth rather ihan attempting to There is also quite a deal of useful reading available e.g. Byrt force people into a particular mould. The emphasis of the (1971), and the Institute of Management in most States runs course is on learning rather than teaching and through it all effective courses of training in this area. we aim to press each man away from the safety of his speciality, whatever that may be. The work is carried out On the job he can set about getting the bigger picture by in syndicates which comprise as diverse a group as possible. seeking to understand his boss's role and to think his way We make a point indeed of not placing any man in a working through the problems his boss faces. party where his skills will overlap the skills of any other member of the party. Each man lakes his turn at leading a He can set about training his own replacement, thereby making working party investigating and reporting on some substantial himself available to be promoted or fired. issue. The leader of the group is in a position where he has a team of specialists answering to him, whose skills he does He can seek representation on productivity committees in his not share - There could well be a factory manager engineer in own industry. He can make a contribution in his own professional charge of the party for a particular subject and the team institute. But for any of these things to be effective the young helping him might comprise a banker, a scientist from a engineer must see his ultimate role as that of ex-engineer government body, zn insurance sales manager, an accountant manager, working outside the safety of his speciality. from a machinery company, the exploration manager of a mining company, an indigenous police commissioner from Can the Employer Help? Papua-New Guinea and a food ractory manager fromNewZealand. With these assorted resources he will have to drive through to What can be done by his employer to reduce the shock of completion a study culminating in a report on some subject with transition? For a start he can arrange regular constructive which he is not particularly familiar, such as the contribution progress discussions with the young man to ensure that his that the behavioural scientists are making to the practice of management, or the problems that the States fece in our federal ses minimized« s always faced ituation where no means system of financing those things that they are charged to . Ihe whole do. Ihe report that this working party produces will be of an enterprise examined by the other working parties in the College, in perspective criticized by them and defended in public by the team Brown, Maurice (1971) Getting Across. Sydney. non-engineering that.wrote the report. Angus and Robertson. he begins to Byrt, W.J. (1971) People and Organizations.-Sydney. He can give Ihe course of studies gives roughly equal emphasis to the ~' i: McGraw-Hill. Ti -.-H=^=pif;.-, .;— uction co- development of personal skills; to examination of the Hall, Sir Noel F. (1958) The Making of Higher Executives. dlvlslons of process of management, arid to a study of the context in lecture New York University: ' - - more teasing which it takes place. Hetherington, Sir Hector (1945)... Letter in 'line LbhdoK •• young rnanager- "%Tlmes" 7 November.V'- ' " the grounds on Seven Grits in the Management Machine MacKay, C.N. (1971) Speak for Yourself. London. make him a junior Directors' Bookshelf. with a face saving You may be Interested to knowjthat the founding father of Parker, L.R. (1967) Australian Psychologist 1 162-170. Parker, L.R. (1968) Training and Work. Melbourne. at conferences, this particular system of management development. The Australian Administrative Staff College. gotiatio'ns. He Sir Noel Hall, said that in devising the.system he had renewal from time observed that there were77. grits .in thermanagemeht , in management machine. The first of these was the time absorbed on exchange postings promotion before the promotee felt able to handle all Appendix: go to heroic lengths elements in the range of his new duties with equal firm- Selection for Middle Management - e professional ness . Second, too many of them were awkward in the use an opportunity of experts: they could not sufficiently clarify the issue rejects overseas. upon which they wanted expert advice and got'confused In In my experience the following questions provide useful fmoney. The discussions with experts between Issues of policy which indicators of success in the managerial role; r seems always were for otuers to decide and the analysis of facts and their rearrangement which was the proper concern of the expert (a) What has he done with the opportunities he has had? adviser. Third, they were slow in acquiring skill in using To what extent has he put to use his own natural.talent? other men as their eyes and ears. Fourth, there was (b) Do other people concede authority to him? Do they " ~ on permanent difficulty in getting on to paper the highest level permit him to lake the lead; to act as iheir spokesman?: of the deliberations of a talented group. There was a further (c) Does he back down too easily, or does he persist and utlon can it make do full justice to the merits of his argument? a start under- difficulty - an unwillingness to differ - a misunderstanding (d) Does he use his authority to the full? (It might indeed s into the of the distinction between quarreling and genuine intellectual be considered a good fault if he takes a little more roups. It Is as differences of opinion arising from uncertainty or inadequate authority than he is entitled to, to get a job done.) ersonal skills to information. Sixth, there was an unawareness that the art (e) Can he tolerate insecurity? In particular, can he this should be of expressing the views of the group in their presence to a wider group Is quite different from academic lecturing or tolerate the insecurities generated: 0 the professional after dinner oratory. Finally, and most important of all, (i) by having really talented people working could well arrange there was an unawareness that the best decision that you under him; d of the engineer could reach at the time when a decision is wanted and (ii) when he lacks authority or has to operate in , developing Inter- within the limits of the resources available to you at that an ill-defined situation, e.g. 'down the be subjects that time, is in administration and management the right decision. crack' between two departments; ; stage, whereas they (ill) when confronted with unfamiliar situations; Her. Indeed there (iv) when short of resources, e.g. manpower, 1 process. Nothing is to be gained by shilly shallying, by holding off materials or time; until perfection of information has been secured. There is (v) when he has taken a chance and has to sweat especially a profound difference between what administration, that is It out. in bridging this to say tiie application of knowledge requires, as oinpared courses in some with the advancement of knowledge. (Ball, 19S8) (£) Is he recognized as a source of new ideas? Is he stltution with capable of accepting new ideas from other people, Administrative These were the 7 grits that Sir Noel Hall saw in the machine e.g. subordinates, rivals and people outside his of administration and it was with these grits in mind that he division. devised the system of management education at Henley-on- (g) How widely do his ideas range? Does he think Thames in Britain from which the practices at the Australian purely in the tactical arena or does he look well Administrative Staff College in large measure derive. ahead and think through the broader implications s of building up of his actions? Australia and Outcomes of Management Education (h) How well does he communicate his expertise, ege is concerned especially to lay people? md I have des- Prominent amongst the outcomes that we observe in men who (i) Is he concerned to develop the skills of other oncem today, participate in the Intermediate Course are a greatly increased people even though they may in time become his which caters for tolerance for the ideas of other people; an acute awareness rivals? n in their early of the manager's responsibility for setting the social climate 0) Does he keep up the morale qj those below nlm? 3ineers of some in which his activities will be conducted; an acceptance of This will be seen especially when he has to reject dential course. his responsibilities for developing the strengths of other the bright ideas of a subordinate,* or can give Mm people; a sharpening of his interpersonal skills and a only half the resources they both believe he needs, irovide conditions resolution to hone them still further; a new awareness of or has to convey (and be identified with) an un- n attempting to how Important it is for him to sense and to respond to changes favourable decision from above. ! emphasis of the in the context in which he manages; a new confidence in his (k) Does he align his activities so as to act in concert I and through it all ability to work outside the confines of his speciality. Indeed with other departments so that aU may pursue safety of his one might say that for many young managers a period of effectively the objectives of the enterprise? ark is carried out management education has led them to see their world in a (1) Has he the fault of cornering more resources than a group as possible. new light. he needs? y man in a working (m) Is he too frequently or too rarely in conflict with his associates? How constructive or destructive Ills of any other A distinguished vice-chancellor thus suras up mid-career are these conflicts? turn at leading a management education: "A time comes in eight or ten or (n) How quickly does he recover from a rebuff? Does he on some substantial fifteen years, when having learned and practiced his calling, harbour resentment? When he discusses an issue, isitlon where he has a man does well to cease for a little from action, and to dees he keep throwing up what happened on some whose skills he does think what he is doing and why and how he is doing it. This other (irrelevant) occasion? manager engineer in is apt to be the most fruitful educational phase of all. The A and the team best thinking springs from practice, and a man who by thinking (o) What is his energy level, his durability? scientist from a has more thoroughly possessed himself of what he is and does, (p) Has he clearly worked out what he stands for - nager, an accountant is ripe for greater responsibility." (Hetherington, 1945) what he is committed to? Is this also evident to on manager of a other people? smmissioner from (q) Does he recognize the state of 'health" of the organi- nager from NewZealand. zation and its management? Is his view superficial ive to drive through to or in depth? rt on some subject with (r) Can he come to realistic terms with any tendency zh as the contribution towards perfectionism in himself or in subordinates ? lg to the practice of (s) Can he keep control of his personal time? ates face In our federal (t) Does he have activities outside the enterprise, or is his time so fully committed to the work situation that he cannot 'take up the slack' in an emergency? The Woman Engineer in Society H.A. LOCKETT INTRODUCTION VACATION H-IPIflYMEUT This paper is used as an opportunity to express seme of the difficulties that face wanen in engineering; to suggest sane Most Universities encourage technical students to work in of the reasons for such problems and to point out that the industry during vacations and having adjusted to a univers- records open to those willing to face up to the difficulties ity environnent rhe girl is now faced vith the problem of are well worth the effort involved. finding a job. It is certainlv true that a female engineer " will have greater difficulty getting her first job than an~ The world of engineering is still undoubtedly predeninantly equivalently trained man, however good her theoretical a man's world, as most girls who have at sane time considered qualifications may be, there still exists a real harrier. engineering as a career will have discovered~,~but"there are The. individual herself-is well aware of-this and'numerous many opportunities which offer themselves if a girl has a repeated refusals of job offers can be extremely demoralising. little determination and encouragement to search for than. In the first case she would probably be tit first female SECOtCARY SaDOL SXBTBB engineer the firm had employed, and the temptation on the part of the personnel officer to reject her and let sexneone Problems undoubtedly begin at school where female careers else be the guinea pig is understandable, tie must consider mistresses, who have no experience of the wide discipline whether she would get on with pther engineers, he must of engineering may be approached by a girl of 16-18 who evaluate what they would think of her in the factory, and wants to be an engineer. Certainly in my own case the whether she would be taken seriously and what her career reaction was a mixture of horror and disbelief followed by prospects vnuld be. It is difficult to bt pragmatic and the comment, 'and what do you really want to be'. Certainlv console oneself with rational explanations of why one has in an 'all girls' school a careers mistress will have very " not been offered a job but wlien one realises the sort of little idea of what is entailed in a girl studying engineer- changes that it is necessary to introduce into the accepttxl ing and it is not therefore surprising that lack of guidance patterns of thinking in the work environment perhaps some at this important stage of training is widespread. of the resistance is understandable. While not many girls would even consider engineering as a The possibility off working for periods of 2-3 months during possible career, of those who do many must be deterred at long vacations is invaluable and sane of tlie further adjust- this early stage by the general feeling that they are odd ments necessary in moving fiom an academic to working and unfeminine in even considering such a course. environment can be made during that time. It is often dis- illusioning for a student, full of enthusiasm and to apply They will immediately encounter the social pressures of being knowledge to find that the pace and orientation oC the work different, and any encouragement from friends, particularly situation is directed primarily towards iraking a profit those who have first hand knowledge of engineering, is always rather than to his mere personal goals of understanding and welcome. applying the academic aspects of the subject. The student must adjust to the attitudes of the individuals within the There must be nany girls, who have an interest in matnemtics firm who may resent his superior technical ability and regard and who von Id like to pursue some sort of career in this him as a threat to their own position in the organisation. field, but who, for mainly social reasons, have gone no In the case of female students her situation will necessitate Further than vaquely considering engineering as a career different adjustments. While she may not bu regarded as a possibility. Part of the problem is the layman's image of threat to an individual i=stablishcd within the organisation, an engineer, (ignorirj the possibility that he night be she may find tluit her intention to become an engineer is not someone who drives a train,) as a man in a boiler suit earn- taken seriously, tfowever, the individual becomes awnre of ing a spanner, who is prone to getting dirty. Naturally one the complex, integral functions involved in running a bus- has the opportunity of getting dirty, as I found out during iness at first hand, and is provided with the opportunity six weeks spent at the Finucane Island iron ore handlina and of putting knowledge acquired in the classroom into tie ship loading site in the North West of Australia, but the contort of a practical situation. Further to this there is large number of primarily office based engineers who get no the advantage that on her subsequent return to the Univer- dirtier than lawyers or doctors and far less dirty than some sity she has the ability to appreciate possible uses and chemists, lends doubt to that argument against Gncineeriiv; applications of her J-jio as a possible career choice for girls. In England various alternatives are available in approachin-: It is perhaps worth giving sane examples of my personal an engineering education. experiences in vacation training to illustrate some of the situations that can occur, and to point out how one can Seme firms offer training schemes which subsidise a be accepted by a variety of different organisations. During student's university fees on the understanding that the one sunmer vacation I spent J montiis in a large marine diesel firm will benefit frcn the services of the student for a engine works in Copenhagen. The job vas arranged throuqh a number of years when he or she has qualified. I-bvuvcr before European organisation which encourages the exciianqe of tech- one can be accepted into such a schan? a cenpany vould nical etuclents tluriin vacations. obviously wish trj feel fairlv convinced that a C*LL1 hoc1 b>ti' the necessary determination and skill to attain her degree. I was amor*, a aroup of enqineering students frun Franco, Belgiun, Spain, Yugoslavia and Turkey and while wo were not Reticence on the part of training scheme officers to accerit permitteu to use any inachincry for insurance reasons, we hat? 18 year old girls into a sandwich course in ^hich they '-'ill the opportunity of observing, at close quarters, the complete immediately bo exposed to a manufacturing environment is process o^ designincr, constructing and finally testing seme understandable, whereas a post graduate student of 22 havuxj of the larqest diesel engines in the world. achieved degree status would, as such, bo rccomiscd as fairly serious in her desire to become an engineer and <-culd It is difficult to describe the excitement involved in being approach the manufacturing situation vith nore maturity. part of this complex process art; to explain hov one can look The alternative of raving for one's O'-T. tuition allov-'s free- at and admire sane of the liuge components manufactured and dom of choice at the end of a university cc'irse ami the assembled in the works, I ait such anotional responses are opportunity of vorkurj for various rhiTeront orqamsaLj-ons undeniably scrce of the rewards of '-orking in engineering. during university vacations. This particular factory anplaycri 3,000 nen of whom perhaps ESG PEERING AT UNIVERSITY 2,000 worked in the various machine shops. The offices were In my experience applications by girls to do courses in about 100 yards from tho work slops situated along the key- engineerinq liave been treated very sympadietieally .utl side. whenever possible girls have been adnutteJ. he. ever haviro been admitted to such a course one is very much avarc ot On arriviiKj at the factory I again encountered the problem being in the minor itv. In my ewn case I vss the only niri of enterinq a totally male environment. Irrespective of the in 120 first year P'echanical Erxjineering students. The immediate reaction of shock propagated at the site of a emotional adjustments necessary in such a situation can varan in a white toiler suit walkinj through d machine shop best be described to a male audience by asking thar, to thece ar° other difficulties which one has to accommodate. imagine the reverse situation. Obviously the deqree or adjustment necessary, is related to a larqe extent, ^ ^^ For example one ]ust has to get used to valking long distances character of the individual and where a areaarious easy to use the jffico staff toilet facilities or stnwurs. In going parson may find no difficulty in bcinc; accepted, a the Danish raciory it vas buqejested that the whale factory more retiring individual. couM easily find herself sufferum should be prevented from unirr the showers whilst I had a both emotionally and academically as a result. One's absoncn shower. The nanoqeicnt we extremely relieved when I agreed frcm lectures arid tutorials is lpmed-Lately noticed, one's to go honie dirty. One cannot deny however that there is a marks are followed, not always intentionally, and one's certain delight in beinq treated so specially. progress is unconsciously monitored by most of the academe staff. The pressure on the individual as a result of this The difficulty of being accepted by men in the industrial attention can prove to be a strain as much a= it provides enviroment is another major problem. At first one is the opportunity for considerable individual attention. conscious of feelings of mistrust if not aninosity, and here the cersanality of the individual is a significant factor in beina accepted. There is a delicate balance of formal and To emphasise the difficulties that a girl is likely to informal relationships in any organisation and a woman must encounter at University is perhaps unfair. Having adjusted fit into this structure if she is to bo effective in her to my situation I found the staff to be genuinely interested role. in my progress and to be both considerate and encouraging. Obviously their familiarity with the subject of engineering meant that mv acceptance as an engineer was based largely on an ability to comply with the necessary technical ccnands irrespective of the social conventions- She must identify with the engineers as a group, be able to go wrong the language deteriorates but the person concerned work with than and talk the same language technically. She is usually far more embarrassed than the woman engineer. must also be able to communicate with secretaries and clerical staff and yet be able to direct draughtsmen to Personally I have found site work very interesting. The carry out work according to her instruction. She must also feeling of gratification derived from participating with be able to camunicate with contractors and site personnel. others in a large project, with deadlines, in terms o£ completion dates, cost estimates, and delivery schedules, I gained further vacation experience in a large research while often tiring, is extremely satisfying. organisation in England associated with nuclear design and research programnes and subsequently I vorked in a small SOCIAL ASPECTS - group at the University of Milan, Institute of Biometrics I have previously mentioned the social predjudices to women and Medical Statistics, where sane vary interesting work as engineers. Such predjudice undoubtedly still exists but was beiJig carried-out in the use of computers for diagnosis. in general it is based on irrational grounds which only illustrate the misconceptions held about engineering. The examples I have given of such different organisations illustrate only seme of the areas in which opportunities are Of course she will be asked to justify being a highly educ- available. ated woman whose working life may be only 5-10 years before she marries and has a family but, as women doctors who have CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AVMLflELE already fought this battle know, many will continue in a ' The layman's immediate thought of engineering tends to be career with short breaks to have children. One is aware what is generally classified as heavy engineering, includ- that having studied and achieved recognition from profess- " ing marine engineering, large civil structures, power ional bodies to give up vrork for life is a great personal stations, turbines etc, but few people appreciate that the loss, and one not made without much consideration. enormous number of consumer industries such as electrical household goods, tubas of toothpaste or drink, cans must all Hawever the difficulties with regard to one's commitment to be 'engineered1 in varying degrees, both in terms of the children and husband cannot be ignored. Perhaps the finan- plant required to pnjduce the items and the items themselves- cial advantages derived from having a working mother can, The potential feedback of female opinion on the design of to sane extent, compensate for the lack of attention but household equipment is surely just one area where wxnen personally, especially where really young children aro con- engineers could make a useful contribution. Similarly the cerned, I rather doubt it. relatively- recent interest in medical engineering has pre- sented engineers with a whole new field of research and the Should an older woman wish to return to her career after potential to apply many well established engineering principLes such a break the major difficulty she will face in a tech- and techniques to the human body. Research and development nical discipline is keeping up with the latest developments of such simple devices as 'page turners' for the totally and ideas. It cannot be denied that absence from the incapacitated, and more complex developments such as invalid environment of the work situation will have some effect on chairs that can climb stairs, have taxed the imagination both the actual process of working and the quality of work, of research engineers in their attenpts to arrive at sat- and it is unrealistic to expect that the individual will be isfactory solutions. able to resume work in the same job after some years absence and immediately resume all previous responsibilities. WORK SITUATION Hawever the advantage of a young family having an active and The type of job that a qualified individual applies obviously interesting mother should also be considered, especially if depends on her particular abilities, interests and inclination. the alternative is for her to became frustrated and inactive Women who have made engineerm: a career, have to a larac in the home environment. It is easy to speculate as to the extent, practised in the areas of research or consultancy and advantages and disadvantages of this solutiqn, but individual by so doing have not attracted nuch attention, but for tlie cases can only really be satisfactorily solved by the indiv- appropriate person a manufacturing industry may offer equal idual concerned. rewards, although opportunities may not be so forthcoming- During my own training X have met --omen engineers vorkina While I vrould not claim any academic knowledge of Dsychology, in the textile industry, the aeronautical industry, vit-J- in terms of the differences of male and female thought electrical engineering machinery, in the steel indupt— is patterns and responses, in given situations influenced by well as several chanical engineer= in v-v iuv- • roc-tit.- different factors, there are undoubtedly situations in viiich industries, and •-.'hilst their ninhers are few there _- nr. a female •• ill be more enotional than a man given the same doubt that the integration oi each individual has Lecn situation h-.th the same set of influenciivg factors. Of successful tram both the personal point of vie*' anr1 "rrr" course on Uie other hand a man is in general more easily the organisational point of viev. provoked and he nay respond more aggressively to a situation in whicn a varkin ma*.* remain calm. Many factors will influence the liklLhood r- accent uirf '- a position:- Obviously generalisations are dangerous but the failure to think clearly in a state of enotive reaction obviously con- i) what t^ie of npiani-tation >s i-.'"lved; -vnu: ict% siderable .ncreasec the possibility of naking inappropriate ing, resctircl;, consul*-irvi. decisions- 11} size and structure of oroanisat-.or.; ?r,\l ,r--_'s+r\ The reaction oi subordinates to a female bass is another groups, individuals, l-tr^e -rrour'=. situation in which there exists the potential for conflict. It is understandable that 'Admen in such circumstances may nature of activitv; -'e Troruict-.mn, rvuvt-io- tend to bacone dictatorial, but here again the personality ment, consulting etc. and abiLity of the individual are a critical factor in the success 3f sue;: a -.orking relationship. iv) style of organisation; hionl" Kireau^rat.c, -fj-t- icipativc, consultative. Perhaps one of the less publicised areas in which female engineers may have a place is at company decision making It is up to tho individual m determine -'fere -,he ^pels ^hc level. While few ••omen may ever in fact reach such positions can best fit in, both in terms ot her acceptance \y the it is interesting to consider what the outcomes may be. individuals in the organisation at ail levels; n tens of satisfying her own needs and not least in fcelino she is It would be unrealistic to suppose that a career in engineer- rnakinrr a valid and useful contribution. ing would suit every riirl but amongst the many who study physics and piatherEti.es there may be some for whom a career The variety of work carried ouL ty individuals ali nominally in engineering voula offer reward and opportunity. 'engineers' is enormous. Engineer? in research organisations nay be prirariiy concerned vith developing, and exnanJin" There are cuestians which every girl who takes up engineering research techniques which may Liter he adapted to production will be repeatedly asked, whether she be at an interview or situations; in consultinrj they may be concerned vith unitinq a party. clear, concise and yet comprehensive 30b specifications, tender analysis or project management; m nanufacturiry- the: i) *"hat made you take up engineering? may be concerned •••iLh product icn schedules, vork and material flows, maintenance and retail programmes, each job necessit- ii) do you experience a lot of predjudice? ating the application of engineering principles to varyinq degrees. iii) what do the other engineers think of you? SITE WORK and so on, but however one answers then one cannot deny a certain One of the aspects ot" women emineers at v.ork which is of pride and pleasure at the variety of shocked reactions. interest is their reaction to '-crking on site. My ranarks I hope have served not as a deterrent but rather as There are the obvious difficulties (as previouslv mentioned) an encouragement to prospective female engineers- Naturally of having no female facilities and in fact in some circum- it is important for girls to appreciate that they may have stances £ew male facilities either but such practical some difficulties but some consolation can be derived from problems can normally be overcome. Contrary to popular knowing that others have experienced exactly the same sit- opinion acceptance by site vrorkcrs is often more ready than uations before. There is alvays great variety in an engineer- acceptance by staff enqir.ee.rs. ing career, opportunity to travel to many partsof the world and to participate in any number of projects and developments. For many girls an engineering career vx>uld undoubtedly prove The i Bio-Engineering In The Care Of The Paraplegic Patient G.M. Bedbrook, O.B.C,, Han. H.D.(W. A.), H.s.,(Melb.J, D.P.R.K.. F.R.C.S.. F.R.A.C.S. Paraplegia and tetraplegia are usually caused by To apply traction to the cervical spine, the surgeon fracture or fracture—dislocation of the lumbo—dorsal uses an apparatus known as thu Crutchfield ciliper. This or cervico-dorsal spine respectively. This is a Crutchficld calipur is really a device for gripping the condition which has been knawn for centuries. In Fact, skull; It is rather like a psir of ice-tongs that one Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, was perhaps the sees used to grip blocks of ice. It is inserted into first to have mentioned it. Until the beginning of the skull with a simple surgical technique, and is held this century, however, the prognosis Eor life was there giving rigid or semi-rigid fixation, thus enabling extremely poor, and it was not until thu Second World the surgeon to put traction onto tho cervical spine and War when a concentrated effort was made by the medical to hold the patient in adequate position. Such calipers services planning the Second Front that some advance of course have beun designed in many ways, but the simple was made in the general and specific care programmes. one that you see in this picture is a very satisfactory Subsequent to 1940, the advances have been very yruat one, and one that wo have been using for a long period ot indeed, until at the present time the initial death r.ite time. from such injuries and illnesses is now in the vicinity of one or two per cent. There are other type? of traction calipers, e.g. thi> Blackburn calipcr, and the Weinke caliper. Such are much Whilst most paraplegics will live an ordinary nor- more sophisticated, and have to be inserted by surgical mal life span, tetraplegics have yet to achieve such a procedures of some magnitude. result. With the survival of such patients for longer periods of time, it became necessary to see that the 2. THE RESPIRATOR quality of life which was offered them was very much better. Thus over a period of time many aids of a When the patient comes into hospital, particularly mechanical, electrical type larqely related to the paresed the tetraplegic, <* number of the higher lesions at and limbs '-/ere designed and used in assisting activities of above the fifth cervical segment "..ave respiratory diffic- daily living. These have necessitated the introduction ulties, for the muscles of respiration are paralysed. An into the field of paraplegia ana tetraplegia, another important adiunct to medical care in the early stages of professional group of bio-engineers. Such professional tetraplegia will be the use of a respirator of some type. help is becoming more important In Medicine as the years go Thirty years ago the respirator involved one in the use by, for there is an increasing demand for properly designed of a tank respirator, using positive and negative pressure instruments, properly designed orthotic devices, and on the abdomen and diaphragm to fill and empty the lungs. properly designed prostheses in tne field of amputations, When we look back, this was a very crude way of helping where the engineer is playing an increasingly important the patient with respiratory difficulty. We now use part as he begins to see the application of his profession modifications of the so-called Bird Respirator, which is to the field of human needs. capable of delivering a positive and negative pressure in a simple way. A tracheostomy is undertaken, giving entry For centuries the paraplegic has been beset with severe complications. In fact, in some countries of the world toroy tubs which is cuffed so that thero is no leakage of tne only paraplegics to be rehabilitated are those who air or pressure, the patient Is connected by suitable manage to survive the complications which are so common in tubes to a positive pressure machine which will work either this particular field. automatically or can be triagered by the effort of the patient himself. These complications of paraplegia are those of urinary tract infection, pressure areas with pathological change in A basic principle in bio-engineering becomes apparent: skin and bursae, and contractures and spasm associated with of an energy source. What is the energy source? Does the alteration of neuromuscular function. Same of these the patient provide the energy source or must it be can now be completely prevented uy mouern approaches to the provided externally - either mechanically or electrically? subject; patients arc no longer staying in hospital two The Bird Respirator has now been in use for some fifteen and three years as previously. They are able to get up years with various changes in design, and has proved a a lot earlier, and get back into industry and into the very satisfactory way of relieving respiratory distress. community. The eradication of the severe complication of Intensive care units throughout the whole of the world urinary tract infection has come not only because of the have been set up with such Bird Respirators. It goes diligence of doctors and nurses, but because of the dilig- without saying, however, that if such a complicated piece ence of microbiologists and their application of that •f apparatus is to be used properly in the care of man, science to the sub]ect of prevention. then it must be adequately looked after, adequately serviced, adequately provided for, and as necessary* adequately replaced. Fortunately, the changes of design mean that most of these pieces of apparatus will be In eradicating urinary tract infection at Royal changed too quickly as far as costing is concerned,and Perth Rehabilitation Hospital,much was done by the that <*e very rarely have to re-build a piece of appara- application of the use of particular materials for the tus, for new apparatus will probably be required and manufacture of urinals. These were first of all of procured long before the old one is worn out. Thus it rubber, and then of latex, and then of plastic. The is important that this apparatus should not only be made design was a simple one, but it did mean that basic efficient, but probably be made of material which is principles of dynamic now of liquids had to be consid- not Loo expensive - another important aspect of consider- ered in the development of urinary drainage apparatus. ation for the engineer with his knowledge of materials and the way in which they can be best used. The second problem is that of pressure sores. This is an area where a great deal remains to be done, but 3. SPLIMTS where undoubtedly now rehabilitation engineering in its most sophisticated form will probably be required not When the patiert ccmes into hospital, his legs and only to treat the bed sore, but also to prevent the bed his arms are quite often almost completely paralysed sore and prevent the patient coming back into hospital. and have lost all voluntary movement. Such people have Much has recently been learned from the application of also lost all sensation below the level of the neurolog- basic principles laid down in the care of leprosy patients, ical damage. and it is now proposed to apply these basic principles to the care of patients with paraplegia and tetraplegia. The human body is divided into a number of what is called "dermatomes". These are sensory segments assoc- tehabili'-ation Engineering, as practised m the iated with the function of the spinal cord. There are United States, encompasses six basic services. These eight cervical dermatoir.es, twelve thoracic dermatomes, are: (1) systems analysis - in the home, in the school five lumbar dermatames, and five sacral dermatomes. and/or office, and for transportation requirements; The se supply success IVG areas of skin uli ich tno surgeon (2) systems planning and engineering with written pruposai knows and maps out so that it tells him what the level data as needed by other social, medical and vocational of lesion is and what the damage is. The muscular X placement personnel; (3) equipment selection and procure- system of the body is similarly divided into what is ment - also equipment design and construction in accordance known as "myotomes", i.e. blocks of muscle supplied by v/ith the systems requirements; (4) delivery and install- the various neurological segments of the spinal coed. ation of equipment - in the office, in the home and for These are not quite so easily or clearly defined as arc transportation - in accordance with the basic and approved plan; (5) personal instruction of the handicapped user joints and muscles can get into abnormal positions, which of the equipment in its use and care, as well as instruc- if allowed to persist, will cause contractures, e.g. if tions to his employer, co-workers and family. This is the plbnw in the tetraplegic is allowed to remain in the in addition to written instructions provided with tho flexed position it will probably develop a contracture in equipment; and (6) preventive maintenance and repai r the flexed position. The re ari? uathuloc|ical reasons for service for all equipment. us m this particular lectuif. The "engineering" c, of paraplegir patie studied in the order in ' h the patient comes The physiciar must see that the limbs are adequate- hospital. ly postured and the be is adequately postured in func- tional positions, otherwise in the long run, abnormal 1. THE SKULL CALIPER reflexes will bo set up to cause fluxion spasms of a severe nature in the- severely damaged, isolated spinal When the patient comes into hospital, most tetraplegu cord. splints are there fere provided m BOIWJ instances, patients need reduction or re-alignment of the Fracture or which are simple engineering aids to assist in the proper fracture-dislocation. Th<- diagnosis of the fracture and tjos 11 ion ing of the body • T\JO ma ]or groups oi tne»ifj fracture-dislocaticn enables the surgeon to say exact)y exist i there is the static splint and Lhc .irTtivc nplint. which forces caused the injury, and thus to produce the The static splint is a simple support holding tho hand, opposite to reduce the injury. For example. If an in ur/ for fxr-inplu, in a riexci position - t-m? position of was caused by flexion and rotation to the right hanrt sis.V, f unct i on, or holding the dlhow in an t-'xf'enfli'd posit Inn, then the reduction of the injury back into its normal alignment will bo by rotation to the left h.ind Fide and spl int £• arn very much more sophi sti cited, but n a Imp It; extension; added to which an initial period of traction will have to be applied. find finqcrs of .1 person known as tho t anodes is spl int , and thus by using the activation of a surviving muscle attention in units such as the Paraplegic Unit in the on the back of the wrist will enable the patient to make care of patients. a fist or pinch, which enables simple activities to be purfirmed. EXTERNAL AIDS As time goes on much more sophisticated splints can be designed and, in fact, this tenodesis splint can be powered by all sorts of meaiis, including carbon dioxide under pressure, and electricity. 4. THE WHEELCHAIR lsed apparatus, utilising whatever power remains. T»i? usually means the use of breathing, and"a'puff "arid a blot There is no doubt that as a piece of engineering development, the wheelchair has passed through some very Finally, we must consider the mode by which all such interesting historical changes. Even in the last twenty apparatus should be prescribed. It must be prescribed years I can remember the old, heavy leather, wooden using the joint knowledge of the engineer and the doctor. wheelchairs which wore supplied to patients, and now the The doctor who clinically knows the case; the engineer light, tubular steel, functional, mobile wheelchair. In who can look at this from a professional angle and ask fact, one often wonders whether the wheelchair really has how should a particular job be done. ever been submitted to engineering considerations, for it is an instrument or an appliance - an orthotic appliance - {aj Thi? patient needs to carry out a function, which is vital to paralysed people and to many other groups of disabled people in tic community. It is still really (b) A motor power must be provided. basically an ordincry kitchen chair placed on wheels, and yet one wonders if this is really the fc°st method by which (cj Can the engineer and. the doctor really confer patients can progress. Has it been submitted to experi- a benefit on the patient? If they cannot mentation? Have the basic requirements been thought after careful considerationf then the prescrip- about? Has the design been considered properly? Some tion must be cancelled. people would say that this has not yet been done adequate- ly on the basis of an experiment, on the basis of a project. Id} They must create a simple design. However, be that as it may, a great deal of advance has been made in the design, manufacture, and supply of the wheel- (e) There must be a training period in which the chair. All paraplegics and tetraplegics who remain severe- bio-engineering apparatus is taught to the ly paralysed, and regrettably this is the majority, need patient, and the patient is enabled to use it. a wheelchair. This is usually prescribed and supplied in Without such a training period, usually the exactly the same way as a prescription is written for a function of one of the physical therapy groups, drug or a dose of medicine. If the patient is not going it would be no use even prescribing such a to be capable of having enough energy to push a wheelchair piece of apparatus, e.g. we have recently had himself, then external sources of power must be found. a man, severely paraplegic - not tetraplegic - The usual one is an electrical source triggered by some who also is blind. He needs to move from bed residual power which the patient still has, and which he to chair, from chair to bathroom, from chair can use. This has to be a carefully considered matter to office, and it has become impossible to do by both the doctor and the engineer who will design and this by manual power. Thus, a simple hoist then supervise the manufacture of ths chair. Host of apparatus has been devised which will suit him, these wheelchairs must be manufactured specifically for remembering that his particular problem is not the particular patient. A lot of time can be spent on just being paraplegic, but also being blind and seeing that the wheelchair is adequate for the patient. having lost some of the sensation of being in Usually wheelchairs, of course, have to be collapsible, space and where he is. Thus the apparatus must and in prescribing a wheelchair one has to know exactly be rigid enough to give him some of this spatial what it is going to be used for, how the patient will discrimination, but be mobile enough to carry out travel with it, so that the proper design, the proper the activity. manufacture can ultimately be achieved. No doubt there is very much to be done in relationship to this very basic piece of bio-engineering equipment for paraplegics and These are some of the difficulties that one encounters tetraplegics, but such costs money and unfortunately, money in prescribing devices or appliances for use by paraplegics is not always easy to come by. and tetraplegics. There is no doubt that a great field stretches out in front of us. A great field in which professionaj. knowledge can be used for the assistance ot severely disabled people, most of whom will be normal as 5. LIMB APPLIANCES - LEG CALIPERS far as brain power is concerned, and who must be given the capacity to live their lives as fully as possible, When patients have been in hospital for a period and be given that opportunity which as members of this of time, they must be provided with supports to help them to stand, and if they ars capable, of walking again. social community they deserve and must now expect. These are external supports known as calipers. They muse have the basic requirements of being rigid enough to give support, of not breaking, of being durable enough to wear for a long period of time, and to be of material that can be easily adapted to tht> human frame. Thus, as far as these calipers are concerned, these are usually Paraplegics ana tetraplegics of ail types need made of some sort of steel. remain apparatus and appliances to assist in their activities of daily living. Many will now survive because of the erauication of severe urinary tract The design of these calipers varies from place to mfecLion and sores caused by pressure. The continued place, not only with the materials that are available - eradication of such needs assistance by engineers of for in a developing country like Africa, the calipers many types. Rehabilitation engineering hat thus a great can be made of extremely cheap and readily available future in the assistance of such prevention and in helping material such as reinforcing for buildings, the solid to design and manufacture measures to support patients and rod metal that is used to reinforce concrete - but it assist in therapy, e.g. skull calipers, respirators, splints, must also be considered according to the capacity of wheelchairs, leg calipers, Deds, external aids. people to mamifacture calipers. Thus expensive hinge joints and expensive lock joints are not possible in many parts of the world. The basic principle is still These form an increasingly complex and bewildering the same, that the patient is assisted to stand with array of materials whose use needs adequate education by support which he then progresses with the aid of physical another medically relatea profession. therapy education, for education is an important method of training and treating the patient with the aid of crutches. Recently a design has come out where with the use of powered equipment, it is hoped that the caliper will actually walk for and with the patient. This brings me to a philosophical inflection that it is only the most highly intelligent patient who can use tremendously sophis- ticated pieces of apparatus. 6. SPECIAL APPLIANCES Throughout the whole of the patient's management in hospital, every thought must be taken to see how we can aid the patient, how we can help them move more; how we can help them to be mobile. Thus spec-ial hoists may have to be designed for the particularly disabled people. Hoists which will have same sort of power unit; whether it be the arms of the patient or whether it be an electric- al device depends on the person concerned. Hoists can le 'ed to get in and out Of a motor vehicle. These can 1-e designed for the individual patient. 7. BEDS These patients have to be in bed for lonq periods of time, thus properly designed beds give great assistance not only to the patient, but also to the nursing staff who must look after them. Turning beds, rotating beds, water beds, hiqh-low beds, traction beds: all of these havo a basic iiFplication as far as the design and the principles of use are concerned. These matters receive constant Human Engineering P. Samuel, B.Sc.(Eng.),D.I.c.,F.i.c.E.,P.l.E.Aust. fare and mayhem. At the other, the revolution has been one of change in philosophical attitude and Consulting Civil Engineer, Perth, Western Australia questioning the status quo. And between the two We were taken from the ore-bed arid the min". extremes lie a whole range of manifestation of s revolution, from hippy dressing and long hair, to scandal in high places; from inept government, to the high road toll; from the generation gap, to doing one's own thing; from the little red book, to pornography, with a modern version of the bible A a thousandth of an inch to give us play: thrown in for good measure; from coronary thrombo- And now, if you Mill aefc us to our task, sis, to starvation; from the abuse of drugs, to the We Kill serve you four and twenty hours a day! hazards of smoking; from the invasion of individual privacies, to bureaucratic erosion of personal lib- We aan pull and hail and push and lift and drive, erty; from women's lib, to the permissive society; We can print and p ouah and weave and heat and from oecumenical metamorphosis, to black power; light, from "it's time", to "it's too late". We aan run and- race' -and swim and fly-and dive, We aan see and hear and count and read and write! The meanwhile, man has sped at supersonic Would you call a friend from half across the world? velocities; direct television pictures have been If you'll let us have his name and town and state, transmitted around the world, men have walked on You shall see and hear your araakling questions the moon, sailed under the polar ice cap, harnessed" hurled atomic power, produced the transistor wireless, Across the arah of heaven while you Wait. used the electron microscope, measured things with radio telescopes, explored ocean depths,-climbed Has he answered? Doe3 he need you at his aide? Everest, adopted the metric system, engineered com- You can start this very evening if you choose, puters, transplated human hearts, dammed the Ord And take the Western Ocean in the stride River and bridged the Swan. Of seventy thousand horses and some screws! The boat-expre3s is waiting your command! Why should there be such misery, degrada- You will find the Mauretania at the quay, tion and poverty on the one hand, and great endeav- our and achievement on the other? Xt is because of Till her captain turns the lever 'neath his hanl. failure in human engineering. Tfie scientific meth- And zhe monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea. od has been misapplied outwith Science, it does not - work with humans, just as it cannot work, on its Do you wish to make the mountains bare their head own, in Engineering. And lay their new-cut forests at your feet? Do you want to turn a river in -its bed, Or plant a barren wilderness with wheat? THE ADVAHCEMEHT OF SCIENCE It cannot be gainsaid that much of what - Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down is good and fine in civilization today is owed to From the never-failing cisterns of the snows, Science and Engineering* Perhaps a good deal more, To work the mills and tramways in your town, in this respect, is owed to Engineering than to And irrigate your orchards ae it flows? Science, but that is another topic. It is easy' Give us dynamite end drills! Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and quake, It is also the case that much of what is As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills, deplored and harmful in Civilization is because of And the valley we have dammed becomes a lake. the advancement of Science and Engineering. Per- haps a good deal less deploreableness and harm has been caused by Engineering progress than by Scien- But remember, please, the Law by which we live, tific advancement. And that, too, is another We are not built to comprehend a lie, topic. He aan neither love nor pity "or forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die! One question must be faced by Scientists We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings - and by Associations for the Advancement of Science. Be humble, as yau crawl beneath out1 rods! - It is: Our touch aan alter all created things, We are everything on earth - except. The Cods! Is the present advancement Though our snoke may hide the Heavens from your of Science worthwhile ? eyes, It will vanish and the stars will shine again, Before attempting answers to this quest- Beaause, for all our power and weight and sise, ion, it would be proper to establish firstly who We are nothing more than children of your brain! should ask it and secondly who should answer it. My own propositions are based on the belief that thu answers on both first and second counts must The Searec of the Machines: Kipling lie with children, women and men; certainly not with scientists; perhaps with engineers (provided they are dedicatedly unscientific). ON WHAT The question has, of course, been asked Science is science. Engineering is an in seriousness and even flippantly, as by Godley art. Humans are children, women and men. Human in 1914: engineering is the art of serving children, women and men; it is also concerned with proper utiliza- tion and development of our greatest natural re- What is this that roaret-h thus? source - children, women and men. Can it be a Motor Bus? Yes, the smell and hideous hum There are, whether we w?sh it or not, Indiaat Mo torem Bum. fundamental differences between Science and scientists, on the one hand, and Engineering and How shall wretches live like us engineers, on the other. The differences lie Cincti Bis Motoribus? between theory and experience; between the search Uomine, defende ncs for truth and practice; between abstract and con- Contra hos Mo tores Bop! crete; between wherefore and the way. Scientists seek knowledge of how to do things. Engineers are In more serious vein, we might do well charged with getting them done. to pay attention to a great scientist, W. S. Jevons, whose monumental work "The Principles of The engineer, faced with the awesome Science", published in 1887, when comparatively prospect of addressing an Association, which has a speaking. Science was a struggling infant, con- declared aim of advancing Science, has therefore to cludes with the following paragraph: approach his task carefully; realizing his back- ground and training and inclination have little to do with "The Scientific Method". There are, of Now among the most unquestionable course, great advantages in such an unscientific rules of scientific method is approach. Because, having admitted and, indeed, that first law that whatever promoted a non-science background, one may now phenomenon is, is. We must ignore break every scientific rule in sight, if occasion no existence whatever; we may var- demands, and proceed in an engineering (and not a iously interpret or explain its scientific) manner. meaning and origin, but, if a phenomenon does exist, it demands some kind of explanation. If ON WHY then there ic to be competition far scientific recognition, the That "wind of change" which blew through world without us must yield to the Africa in the late 1950s, brought, in its wake, a undoubted existence of the spirit blast of revolution, which has affected most of the within. Our own hopes and wishaa world by the 1970s. In some ways, the revolution and determinations are the most lias been bitter and even bloody; in other ways, it undoubted phenomena within the has been almost mellow. At one end of the scale of uyhtzrn of tiOnsaioud'i&ns. If man effects, we have witnessed grim insurrection, war- do act, feel and live as if they 109 were not merely the brief prod- Profession the respect of the ucts of a casual conjunction of community. atomst but the instruments of a fav reaching purpose, are we to CODE record all other phenomena and pass ovei' these? We investigate Duty to community the instincts of the ant and bee and the beaver, and discover 1. An Engineer 's responsibil'- that they are led by an inscrut- i ty to the community a hat 1 at able agency to work towards a all tinea come before his res- distant purpose. Let us be ponsibility to the Profession, faithful to our scientific meth- to sectional- or private inter- od , and investigate also those ests, or to other Engineers. instincts of the human mind by which man is led to work as if Matters of fact the approval of a Higher Being were the aim of life 2. If called upon to give evidence or otherwise speak on It. probably, .is fair to. say_._that the ad- a matter-of-fact, *ke*shall vancement "of -science.haV been very" seriously 1 speak what he believes to be questioned by many^groups.-^ Unfortunately" perhaps, the truth, irrespective of its the media take far'more delight.in,,reporting the effe a t 'on hi a own'- interests, activities^of lunatic""fringes and~ of teni; seriously the interests of other Engin- minded and constructive elements" in: the-society eers, or other sectional in- are'ignored and their, reasoned pleas gounreport- terests. ed. It is:also "fair to say that reasoned criti- cism and 'objection have been^'raised against en- Expression vf opinion gineering" works aridagainst Engineers in recent years. We have aisb attracted our-fair share of attention from lunatic fringe elements. Even so, 3. Engineers should contrib- as engineers we would be foolish to dismiss the ute to public discussion of reasoned criticism out of hand'. In most instan- engineering matters within ces sound cases for particular lines of action their areas of competence if are available - but it so often seems to be the they consider that by so doing case that engineers, unlike scientists in gener- they can constructively advance al and architects in particular, do not wish to the well-being of the cotnmwt- enter public debate in defence of a particular ity, course being adopted, but more of that later. Professional aourtasy To return to the original query: "is the present advancement of science worthwhile?11, 4. Engineers shall neither the contention is offered that any advancement maliciously nor carelessly do is worthwhile, provided it benefits children, anything to injure, directly or women and men. The answer to the question indirectly, the reputation, therefore hinges on whether or not the present prospects or business of others. advancement of science does, in fact, benefit humanity at large. -Clearly, some of it does, Unfair advantage equally certainly much of it does not. And the problem which has to be faced is establishing 5. He shalI not use the ad- criteria and methods for distinguishing between vantages of a salaried position scientific advancement which benefits mankind to compete unfairly with Engin- and scientific advancement which is made for eers in private practice, nor its own sake. For in this era of population use unfairly the advantages of explosion, diminishing resources and general private practice to the detri- revolution we cannot afford wasted or unpro- ment of salaried engineers. ductive effort which might otherwise be har- nessed for the benefit of children, women and men. Di ligence One thing is clear, the very last people 8, In whatever capacity he is to decide criteria and methods for distinguishing engaged he shall assiduously proper scientific advancement are scientists. The apply his skill and knowledge in most appropriate people are children, women and men the interests of his employer or and, I suggest, human engineers. client. ETHICS Limitations Modern codes of c hies are self regula- ?. If h>2 is confronted by a tory rules which apply to groups or professions problem which calls for know- and, most importantly, the rules establish rela- ledge and experience which he tionships between members of the group and those does not possess, he shall not outside it. All chartered engineers in Australia hesitato to inform his client or are governed by a code of ethics established by the employer of the fact, and shall Institution of Engineers, Australia. The code has make an appropriate recommenda- recently been revised and presently reads as fol- tion as to the desirability of lows •- obtaining further advice. Preamble Training of subordinates The further development of 8. When in a position of auth- civ ilisation, the conservation ority over other Engineers, he and application of natural re- shaZt take every care to afford sources , and the improvement of to those under his direction the standards of living of man- every reasonable opportunity to kind depend largely upon the advance their knowledge and ex- work of the Engineer. For that perience. work to be fully effective, it is neaecaary not only that En- Credit to subordinates gineers strive constantly to widen their knowledge and im- 9. He shall ensure that proper prove their skill, but also credit is given to any subordin- that the nommunitu avail itself ate who has contributed in any of the assistance that Engin- material way to work for which eers em give and that it be he is responsible. able to place its trust unre- sarvedl'j in the integvi- tu and Acceptance of favours Judgement of the Pra'feBs'ion. 10. He shall at all times avoid It therefore behaves all placing himself under any obli- Engineers, and members of The gation to any person or firm in Institution in particular, so whose dealings with his employer to order their lives and wovk or client he may be concerned. as to merit and gain this con- If such an obligation exists he fider.ee. shall fully disclose the fact to his employer or client. He To this end all members of shall not accept any substantial The Institut ion are enjoined to gift or favour from such person acnfjvm irith the letter and the or firm. spirit of the Code of Ethics 3e i out hereundev and, in addi- Financial interests tion3 to oomport themselves at all times with such dignity and 11. If he has any substantial propriety a# will earn for the financial interest in any firm no or company that may tender or Replies to advertisements aontraat for the construction of, or the supply of,, any materials 18. A Consulting Engineer may or equipment for any works for reply to advertisements ov cir- which he is in any degree res- cular letters inviting appliaa- . '" '. ~ ponsible, or if he is entitled tions for appointment provided to'any patent royalty or grat- that he does so in accordance uity in respect of any equip- with conditions approved by the ment or process likely to be Council of The Institution. used in connection with such works, he shall fully disclose Continuance of partnership in writing the circumstances to his employer or client. 13. Ho member shall continue in partnership with, nor shall Be shall not report upon he act in association or con- or make recommendations on any junction with, any Engineer who tender from a company or firm has been removed from member- in which he has any substantial ship of The Institution because financial interest or on vend- of unprofessional conduct. ers which include such a tender. t= Apart from a rearrangement of numbering Confidential 'information./ " . of the various clauses, the-important revision to the code is' that related to expressions of opin- ~12~:-~CHe "shall'n'ot use for his-.... -ion under clause 3. Before the. present ""revised .personal gain or advantage,'', issue, this clause of the code.read as follows: nor shall he disclose', any 'con- fidentialtinformation. which he .^Matters of opinion ^J-<;,~^~ 2~\ may,acquire" as ''a-resul t rof special opportunities^, arising, -4'. Unless he is convinced that --~*'~.-:..\r-.;- out of work done for his client ..his duty to the community con- '..y}-~-'-?• .. -? or employer. pels him so to do, he shall not\.'i '..-.. '."T '" .express opinions which reflect ; . '.'S,'~ ' '* Contract preparation and on the ability or integrity of v supervision -another Engineer'. ^-/'--.-; ~~--:,\._, . 13. .In. the preparation of - > This of course is a remarkable ana V' plans', specifications and con- splendid change in outlooX and answers a need tract documents, and or. the which has been felt within the profession for y .%=. supervision of construction some time. One may go so far as saying that the " work, he shall assiduously restriction imposed on engineers by the old watch and conserve the inter- clause 4 of the Code of Ethics, coupled with the', ests of his client or employer. fact'that the vast majority of engineers in Aus-r- However, in the interpretation tralia are civil servants or employees, practic-;,- of contract documents, he shall ally guaranteed complete stifling of engineers1 maintain an attitude of scrupu- reaction to any=criticism,^however,well reasoned lous impartiality as between or constructive*. : , his. client or employer, on the one hand, and the contractor an -_ -- A point worth stressing is. that in both the other, and shall,- as far as the old and revised version of the Engineer's^ he can, ensure that each party Code of Ethics the responsibility of members to to the contract shall discharge the community comes before all other regulations. hie respective duties and ensoy The criterion, suggested.earlier, for establishing hie respective rights as set whether or not the advancement of science is down in the contract agreement. worthwhile, has been a long established tenet of the engineering profession. It is a dogma which might well be emulated in other spheres of activ- Consulting practice ity. 14. He shall not describe him- The existence of a Code of Ethics does self, nor permit himself to be not however ensure performance, by all engineers at described, nor act as a Consult- all times. Nevertheless the ethic does exist and ing Engineer unless he is a Cor- breaches of the code are sometimes (perhaps too porate Member and occupies a infrequently) the subject of investigation by the position of professional inde- Institution. Disciplinary measures are also some- pendence and is prepared to de- times enforced. sign and supervise the con- struction of engineering work Ethics applied to a group or a disci- and/or to act as an unbiased pline are sometimes influenced by those working and independent adviser on en- outside the group. An example was the Russell- gineering matters, and unless he Einstein joint letter which called for a world conducts his practice_ in strict meeting of scientists to discuss the dangers of compliance with the conditions nuclear war..—The Pugwash_conferences_£ollgwed^nd approved by the_ Council of .the an extract from the statement of:the Third Pugwash Institution. Conference, Kitzbuhel, 1958"is interesting in this context: Business interests The increasing material sup- 15. If he is a Director or em- port which science now enjoys in ployee of any Company that many countries is mainly due to offers Consulting Engineering its Importance, direct or indi- Services in a manner and/or on . rect, to the military strength of terms other thar. those' approved the nation and to its degree of by the Council of Ths Institu- success in the arms race. This tion for a Consulting Engineer diverts science from its true he shall'not permit his name to purpose, which is to increase be used in any advertisement of . human knowledge,, and to promote • . such services. •an's mastery over titii forces of nature for the benefit of all. Soliciting work He deplore the conditions-. : - : ~. 16. A Consulting.Engineer.shall which lead to this situation, not solicit professional work, and appeal to all peoples and either directly or indirectly, their governments to establish or by an agent, nor shall he re- conditions of lasting and stable ward any person who may intro- peace. -- -. duce clients to him. The concept or man's mastery over the Advertisements forces of nature is an old one and in Christian societies God's exhortation to Adam (and Eve) 17. A Consulting Engineer may has become excuse for so much misapplied exploita- publish notices or professional tion. Genesis I, 2B reads: cards, permit the display of. his name on works under construction 28. And Cod blessed them and and on commemorative tablets and Cod said unto them, Be fruitful, prepare brochures giving details and multiply, and replenish the of his practice provided that .' earth, and subdue, it: and,,have all published matter shall be in dominion over the. fish of the accordance with conditions ap- sea, and over, the. fowl of the proved by the Council of The In-. air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth . stitution. - • - . - It "is often overlooked that replenish- - III ment came before subduedness and after Adam, the riotism and purpose is largely a consequence of re- moving artisanship and big brother growth, but the flood. effects, although stemming from the same basic The college I attended has, as its motto: causes, deserve separate enumeration. To some ex- "Naturam tractamus ad usum" , which has sometime tent also, these three virtues have been degraded been translated to: "we put nature to use". A because those who once had them have witnessed nicer, and probably more accurate rendering might what big brother gets up to under point 5 above. be "we draw nature to use" , implying a compromise It has also been difficult to maintain these three between mastery over nature and merely surviving virtues when it is clear so many smart alecs, with nature. And this is another distinction be- spivs and layabouts can do very well, in our mod- tween science and engineering. Scientists have not ern society, without training, effort, applica- yet learnt the art of compromise which is implicit tion, or even luck. The consequence has been a in engineering in general and human engineering in tragic loss in the sense of values such that a particular. Ethics, too, are a compromise affect- young man in his teens with a loud enough voice ing completely unbridled pursuit of a calling, or and long enough hair and way out enough clothes profession, or art, or trade and its prohibition. can, given certain electrical and electronic fac- A code for any group is necessary and desirable for ilities, earn more money in a few months than can internal regulation and external relationships and the Director of Works or the Dean of Engineering is, if you like, the compromise which has to be ac- or the Postman or the Cleaning Lady in years. cepted to practise successfully in tne group. Point the fourth. But first of all re- Scientists might benefit greatly by emu- member please X, .have.-already. suggested that our 1 lating engineers more in the particular and vital greatest-natural resource -is - (or= should^I-say art of compromise. are?) children", women and,men; But1; you may ar- gue, if you apply .Vanton.'exploitatiorirtd child- IMPACTS ren, women_ahd men-in;one breath j and'-.talk of pop- ulation explosion in* the next,""how -jan you also Before pursuing the theme further, I qualify the situation as being limited. Easily, should declare standpoints. The section on "The say I. For if you separate children, women and Advancement of Science" was commenced with a gener- men into two categories as follows: al statement to the effect that much of what is good and fine in civilization, as we know it today, (i) those who exploit say a is owed to Science and Engineering. And this is a (ii) those who are exploited say b standpoint which I adopt unequivocably. I would go further and suggest that continued improvement in Then as (a+b) Society will only be achieved through proper appli- cation and development of Science and Engineering. a< Catch words such as "The Westminster Model", "Democracy", "Western civilisation" and so on have been toted about by politicians rather like the arc of the covenant. It is perhaps time these concepts were examined critically - not from points of view of replacing them with other established ideologies, but rather to decide just what children, women and men should expect from a lean big brother. In other words we must face the problem of deciding the basic issues and priorities involved in human engineering. The Marquis de la Place wrote in his Theorie Analytique des Probablites in 1820: An intelligent, being who knew for a given instant all the forcas by which nature is animated and 113