Engineering Heritage Victoria Newsletter – June 2011 This is an occasional newsletter from Engineering Heritage Victoria sent to all members on our mailing list. Enquiries, discussion or correspondence related to the Newsletter should be directed to the Editor at [email protected] or address postal correspondence to the Chairman, Engineering Heritage Victoria, Engineers House, 21 Bedford Street, North Melbourne, Vic 3051. 1. Guest Speakers & Other Functions – 2011 Future Functions: The Next Talk Will Happen on Thursday 16th June — 5:30 pm refreshments, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm presentation. Event Title: Early Public Electricity Supply in Melbourne. Speaker: Miles Pierce, FIEAust., CPEng. Host: Engineering Heritage Victoria About the Subject: This presentation, based on a paper presented to the Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference, Dunedin, NZ, 2009, will focus on electricity supply in Melbourne from 1880 to 1920. In 1882 the Australian Electric Company established a small central generating station, taking Melbourne to the vanguard of public electricity supply. Private and publicly owned power stations, including the Spencer Street Power Station, followed over the next few decades. & the Speaker: Miles Pierce is a retired electrical (power) engineer and former Principal Electrical Engineer at GHD Victoria. He has worked on electricity generation, distribution and utilisation projects. Currently Chairing Engineering Heritage Victoria, Miles has had a long term interest in engineering and industrial heritage. To Register (free), go to: https://events.engineersaustralia.org.au/ei/rs.esp?id=639&scriptid=_38511EYK8 For more information go to: http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/search/file/?file=/fms/Divisions/Victoria%20Division/Events/Guest%20Speaker%20Flyer%2016%20June%202011.pdf 18th August – Presentation by Matthew Churchward on development of Self Service petrol pumps by a Victorian firm. 20th October – A talk on Flinders Street Railway Station by Jenny Davies (yet to be confirmed). More details, and/or alterations to the schedule, will be sent out closer to the relevant dates. Functions Past: The Geelong Engineering History & Heritage Landmarks Tour, Sunday 27th March – from Miles Pierce. This was a Field Trip and was a joint excursion with the Geelong Regional Group of Engineers Australia, Victoria Division. Participants mustered at Geelong Railway Station at 10am and travelled by coach to see a wide range of places and sites of Engineering and Heritage interest in and around Geelong, including roads, bridges, structures, electricity supply, water supply, and transportation. Luncheon was at the Fyansford Hotel, followed by inspection of the nearby John Monash bridge over the Moorabool River. The tour concluded with a visit to the Ford Museum. All tour participants received a comprehensive set of Tour Notes compiled by members of the Geelong Regional Group with an invitation for the contribution of further information for a future re-issue. The Second Talk on the Calendar Happened on Thursday 19th May 2011 at Bedford Street Event Title: History and Heritage of the Port of Melbourne Speaker: John Bennett, Port of Melbourne Corporation Host: Engineering Heritage Victoria About the Subject: The Port of Melbourne has been handling goods since John Pascoe Fawkner's chartered schooner The Enterprise arrived in August 1835 to unload passengers, building materials and livestock. The planning, development and operation of the Port have been entrusted to a public agency since the formation of the Melbourne Harbor Trust Commissioners by the Victorian parliament in 1877. In 2009-10 the Port handled 3157 vessel visits carrying 75.4 million revenue tonnes of cargo including 2.24 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit containers) and 375,000 new m otor vehicles. The Port's current infrastructure consists of channels, berths, wharves and terminals customised for the various types of cargoes sourced by importers and exporters. As cargoes, vessels and handling equipment have evolved, so too has the Port's infrastructure. & the Speaker: John Bennett studied civil engineering before applying for a graduate engineer position with the Melbourne Harbor Trust Commissioners in 1978. Over his 32 years with the Port he has worked in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of port infrastructure and negotiated significant private sector investment in superstructure. His current role is General Manager Bid Management. [I was very sorry to miss this discussion. I have had a strong interest in historic ports and harbours since working to save the Walsh Bay and Woolloomooloo finger wharves in Sydney Harbour and studying historic seaports in the USA and England, all in the 1980s. Our library contains a number of fascinating reports of the Melbourne Harbour Trust Commissioners from the 1880s and one from the 1930s which (I discovered today) serendipitously contains a magnificent aerial photograph of the SS Empress of Britain berthing at Station Pier with the help of three steam tugs. I have been hunting for a portrait of this great ship for months, to use in a book, and had given up hope of finding anything useful. – Ed.] Engineering Heritage Victoria Newsletter — June 2011 Page 2 2. EHV — Some Notes from the Committee Meeting 12th May 2011 The Committee 2011: In the last newsletter I noted that our committee this year was as follows: Miles Pierce (Chair), David Beauchamp (Deputy Chair), Owen Peake (Secretary), Ken McInnes, Matthew Churchward, Carl Doring and Margret Doring. Since then two new members have joined the committee – Paul Balassone, civil engineer and currently Heritage Services Co-ordinator at Melbourne Water, and William (Will) Gielewski, current Treasurer of Young Engineers Australia, Victoria Division (YEA-V). Will replaces Emma Russell, our previous secretary and representative of YEA-V on the committee, at present travelling overseas. Paul gave the February talk on the Yan Yean W ater Supply Scheme. Engineering Heritage Recognition Program The Goldfields Railways – Melbourne to Bendigo to Echuca: The nomination document requires some final work on the Statement of Significance to be completed. EHV is liaising with local councils and Tourism Victoria with regard to the location and type of interpretation panels and the “plaquing” cerem ony. The Goldfields Railways – Geelong to Ballarat: The nomination document is now at about 90% complete. Victoria Division Regional Groups of Geelong and Ballarat, with EHV, are planning an extensive program for the day of the 150th Anniversary, including an invitation to the Governor of Victoria to perform the “unveiling” ceremony and a steam train trip from Geelong to Ballarat, with stops along the way. Newport Railway Workshops & the 1860 "Kirkstall Forge" Steam Hammer & Billet Crane: The nomination for the Steam Hammer and Billet Crane is complete but is awaiting completion of the nomination for the whole Workshops. This is about 80% complete. The present plan is to have a single ceremony for the Workshops and the Steam Hammer/Billet Crane, but two separate markings/panels. No date has been set. Janevale Bridge, Laanecoorie: The nomination and a draft panel layout have been approved by Engineering Heritage Australia (EHA) and it is understood that the local Loddon Shire is supportive. The ceremony is planned for 9th or 10th August 2011. [I found good photographs of the bridge by Googling “Janevale Bridge Laanecoorie”, also much comprehensive information about the history and significance of the bridge plus the entry from the Victorian Heritage Database – VHR No.H1986. – Ed.] Yallourn Power Station: This nomination, prepared by an engineering student, is 90% complete. More news later. Chaffey Irrigation Works at Mildura – from Miles Pierce: It was agreed that these works, including the restored Psyche Bend steam pumping station, are a potential candidate for nomination under the ASCE International E H Recognition program, as well as under the EHA program. It was further agreed that the Sunraysia Regional Group and other interested local groups should be involved in developing a nomination' Spotswood Sewage Pumping Station, now part of the Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne: The Pumping Station was awarded an Historic Engineering Marker in April 1994, and the plaque is located at the entrance to the Museum. That’s all fine, but EHA is searching for a copy of the nomination documents. There is nothing on file. It has been suggested that a full nomination document was never written. The nomination might have consisted of a number of existing documents with a covering letter. If anyone out there knows what happened and/or can put their hands on any of the relevant papers, please let Owen Peake know at [email protected] . 3. Proposal for a Victorian Engineering Heritage Database. This proposal has developed considerably since Miles Pierce introduced it in the February newsletter. It is intended that a space on the EHV Vicnet website will be prepared for the proposed database, with a form in which significant engineering heritage sites/works/items can be entered. The form will have a number of mandatory 'fields' (such as the name of the work, its location, its particular significance) and other optional fields. The database could be available in a month or so on http://home.vicnet.net.au/~engherit/. Draft entries of some significant items have been prepared by Committee members and these will be entered in the database when it is ready. It is hoped that many members will have a go at entering details of significant items they are familiar with. [Committee members have prepared and recently consolidated a list of 184 significant Victorian Engineering Heritage Sites which are worthy of entry in the new database. Many of these (60) are marked as having high priority with potential for nomination as National Engineering Landmarks. Only a few of the items on this list have already been plaqued, ten are in the process of nomination. However all 184 could be entered in the new database and these entries could become the base information for future nominations. And don’t let this list constrain you.