Eminent Queensland Engineers

EMI ENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS Volume II Editor Geoffrey Cossins Eminent Queensland Engineers Volume 11 Editor Geoffrey Cossins Cover picture: Doctor J.J.C. Bradfield Photograph by courtesy of Ipswich North state School. The picture was donated by Bradfield to The Institution of the school with the caption:.. UJ.J.C. Bradfield, C.M.G., D.Sc.Eng., D.E., M.E., Engineers, Australia M.Inst.C.E. M.lnst.E.A. Was taught his Alphabet and received the whole of his Queensland Division Prilu:try }l:dueation at the N'orth Ipswich state School 1872 - 1880." 1999 I EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS 11 Institution of Engineers, Australia Queensland Division 447 Upper Edward st BRISBANE QLD 4000 Ph: 07 3832 3749 Fax: 07 3832 2101 E-Mail: [email protected] The Institution of Engineers, Australia is not responsible, as an organisation for the facts and opinions advanced in this pUblication. The copyright for each of the sections is retained by the respective authors. ISBN 085 825 717 3 National Library ofAustralia Catalogue No 620.0092 Printed by Monoset Printers Brendale QLD 4500 a1 1 EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS 11 EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 CONTRIBUTORS 6 BIOGRAPHIES 1. RBallard 10 2. Sir Charles Barton 12 3. GOBoultan 14 4. A Boyd 16 5. J J C Bradfield 18 6. H G Brameld 20 7. F H Brazier 22 8. F J Byerley 24 9. C M Calder 26 10. GFCardna 28 11. W J Doak 30 12. J W Dowrie 32 13. D Fison 34 14. A C Fitz-Gibbon 36 15. E B Freeman 38 16. A E H Frew 40 17. D J Garland 42 18. F B Haigh 44 19. W Hansen o ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 46 •••••• 0 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 20. J Hesketh 0 48 21. J W Hetherington 50 22. W Highfield 52 23. P W Hill 54 24. Sir James Halt 56 25. J F Keays 58 I .~ 0' EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS 11 EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS 11 3 :~(i. R D King-Scott 60 INTRODUCTION ~7. Professor J H LaveIY 62 The public is justifiably excited by engineering works. Witness the crowds who walked over the 28. J S Louttit " 64 Gateway Bridge or through the new tunnels from Central to Brunswick street prior to their commissioning, or across the story Bridge on the 50th Anniversary of its commissioning. Watch 29. H A Lowe 66 tourists wandering over colossal remains at Mount Morgan Mine. Think of the pressures on the :JO. A McCulloch 0 •••••••••••••••••••••••••• 0" •••••••••••••••• • 68 public to buy and use the newest products of electronics and communications engineering. 31. Professor G R McKay 70 Ajournalist might ask, "Who thought of building this project?". The citizen might want to know 32. A C Macmillan 72 "How is something like this done?". Aschool child is sure to want to know "How do I get to do these great things?". When people ask these questions they often get no reply because we engineers 33. R J McWilliam 0 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 74 rarely boast about our work, neither do we trumpet the reputations of our best practitioners. 34. J E G Martin 0 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 76 35. J C Mathison 78 This book attempts to show eminent engineers in context, and through their life stories we get a glimpse of what engineers do, how they operate, how they became engineers, their successes and, 36. I W Morley 80 in some cases, their failures. 37. J E Morwood 82 The Context 38. J Mulholland 84 39. W A Peak 86 The European settlement of Queensland started with a convict settlement in Redcliffe in 1824. This was moved to the central location of present Brisbane a year later. Army officers provided 40. K G Pennycuick 88 engineering services until a civilian engineer, Andrew Petrie, was appointed. The situation changed 41. G Phillips 90 in 1842 with free settlement and the withdrawal of the convicts. The Petrie family and a few 42. R H Rudge 92 others then provided engineering services, mainly to the small private sector, because the New South Wales Governor provided little money for capital works. steam driven sawmilling was the ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 43. R E Sexton 0 94 major secondary industry development requiring engineering services until the separation of 44. Professor M Shaw 96 Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. 45. W G Sheil 98 The new Queensland Government adopted a vigorous policy of infrastructure development to 46. E M Shepherd 100 match the decade start of the southern Colonies of Australia. Railways, stretching westwards 47. C R Tranberg 102 from ports to the pastoral areas, absorbed seventy percent of the public loan funds until the end of the century. Atelegraph system rapidly linked the major towns, major rivers were bridged and 48. G R Wilmoth 104 major towns reticulated with water. Many of these activities utilised well developed engineering 49. C H Wilson 106 technologies, largely imported from abroad, and already utilised elsewhere in the continent. Apart !lO. J Wilson 108 from the traditional materials, timber, bricks, mortar and building stone, virtually all engineering materials and equipment had to be imported. !l 1. R M Wilson 110 Engineering numbers grew rapidly. All the early Queensland engineers were British migrants. Most had been articled, that is, apprenticed, to established engineers and had gained experience /\.I1BREVIATIONS 112 before arriving in Queensland, but a few others worked up from the ranks or learnt on the job. Most were accepted as members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (established in London in 1817) . Five of the engineers included in this volume practised during the period of colonial Queensland. They were succeeded by thiIteen in this volume who had developed skills to cope with the changing technology required for electricity supplies, advanced methods ofmineral processing, steel bridges, urban tramways, reinforced concrete etc. They were able to take advantage of the local capacity to fabricate structural sections, to make sugar milling machinery and to build locomotives, ships and steel bridges. Many of the engineers were migrants, but the number who were Australian born became significant. Most of this group of engineers had formal training, largely gained in 4 EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS II EMINENT QUEENSLAND ENGINEERS II 5 Australia, and two had Australian university degrees. They mostly practised from 1880 to 1940. more recommendations of other than civil engineers. The overall response was to inundate the They were at the forefront of the major engineering developments in the state, particularly when sub-committee with more civil engineering candidates. the Queensland Government moved its transport policy from railways to highways in 1922, with the requirement that spending be supervised by local authorities. Several engineers celebrated Why is this so? Is it because civil engineers largely leave visible monuments of their work compared in this book took the opportunity of establishing themselves as consultants providing overall with the others? It may appear to the public in this way but we were canvassing the engineertng ongoing engineertng services to local authorities. The early engineers of this group had to contend profession itself. Is it because electrical and mechanical engineers now work in teams, so that no with the severe Australia wide depression of the 1890s, which, in Queensland, was followed by a one individual becomes prominent? This is just as true of civil engineers. major drought. Adecade later World War I (1914-18) restricted imports ofmatertals and equipment. The introduction to the first volume queried the definition of an eminent engineer. The second The third group of thirty-three engineers were almost all Australian born between 1890 and 1910. sub-committee echoes the question. UndOUbtedly, some of our selections are truly eminent in Almost all had university degrees, some from Queensland University, and all entered the profession terms of the overall profession in Australia, whilst others carried out distinguished work in their in the 1920s. They were hardly established before the Great Depression of the 1930s severely own locality. curtailed engineering expenditures. World War 11 followed immediately, again imposing supply difficulties, while the majority of the Queensland profession was diverted to provide facilities for Ofthe 41 civil engineers included in this volume, eleven became consulting engineers after avariety the Armed Forces as Queensland became the major base for both us and Australian Services. of beginnings - largely in public services. Nine of the candidates were structural engineers, six specialised in either road works, water supplies or in the broad range of local government The combination of the depression and the war resulted in a large backlog of engineering works engineering. Three ended up as academics after starting in public services. to be overcome in the face of material and labour shortages while consumer demands for services rose rapidly. Central power stations in cities replaced scattered small plants while large dams Three of the six electrical engineers worked for one private company, one for an equivalent local were built for both urban water supplies and irrigation. Sewerage and water supply schemes, authority, one became an academic and one was a telegraph engineer. Of the two mechanical previously restricted to large cities, were constructed in virtually all towns. This period extended engineers, one became an academic, and the other operated a successful business. One candidate up to the 1960s when the backlogs of work were overcome. with a mechanical engineering degree became a successful local authority engineer in principally the civil engineering area. The next phase saw the provision of regional power stations built at coal fields and connected to the load areas by high voltage transmission lines. Television services, automatic trunk telephone Only two outright mining engineers are represented, although one of the civil-trained engineers dialling, freeways, beef roads and major airports were built.

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