Wonders never cease: 100 Australian engineering achievements
From Engineering Heritage Australia
As part of its centenary celebrations in 2019, Engineers Australia published a book with support from Engineering Heritage Australia that tells the stories of 100 Australian engineering achievements. Each story is based on a research paper prepared by 50 volunteer authors coordinated by Engineering Heritage Australia. The research papers were then condensed into the 100 exciting two-page illustrated stories that were published in the book.
The book is available for download from the Engineers Australia website.
A list of the stories included in this book is below:
| Book Story Tag | Page # | Research Paper Title | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHAPTER 1: WATER & WASTE | |||
| DRIVING THE PROBLEM UNDERGROUND | 2 | Melbourne Sewerage Scheme | Bruce Cole |
| A EUREKA MOMENT, BAR NONE | 4 | Lock Bar Pipe | David Beauchamp |
| THE RIVERS OF LIFE | 6 | Clean Water on Tap | Bruce Cole |
| LIFE IN A PIPELINE | 8 | Goldfields Water Supply Western Australia | Don Young |
| THE FIGHT FOR THE MIGHTY MURRAY | 10 | River Murray Locks and Weirs | Bruce Cole |
| A UNIQUE SOLUTION FOR THE RIVERLAND | 12 | Humphrey Pumps at Cobdolga, South Australia | Richard Muncey |
| HOLDING BACK THE FEAR | 14 | Somerset Flood Mitigation Dam, Queensland | Paul Coghlan |
| OF DROUGHTS AND FLOODING RAINS | 16 | Dam Engineers Build Mighty Structures | Bruce Cole |
| OPENING UP THE NORTH WEST | 18 | Ord River Irrigation Scheme Western Australia | Don Young |
| CHAPTER 2: ENERGY | |||
| A CATALYST FOR CHANGE | 22 | Bendigo Gasworks and the Coal Gas Industry | Miles Pierce |
| TAKING IT TO THE STREETS | 24 | Lighting the Streets with Electricity | Stuart Wallace |
| POWER IN A PIPE | 26 | Hydraulic Power Utilities in Australia | Miles Pierce |
| A CITY AHEAD OF ITS TIME | 28 | Duck Reach Hydro-electric Power Scheme Tasmania | Graeme Dineen |
| 100 YEARS AND STILL PRODUCING | 30 | Lake Margaret Power Schemes Tasmania | Phillip Mathers |
| MAKING WATER WORK FOR YOU | 32 | Tasmania's Hydro-electric Schemes | Bruce Cole |
| A LASTING LEGACY | 34 | Yallourn Power Station Victoria | Owen Peake |
| BRINGING A COUNTRY TOGETHER | 36 | Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme | Bruce Cole |
| AN INTERCONNECTED APPROACH TO POWER | 38 | East Australian Interconnected Electricity Grid | Robert Burns |
| AN EFFECTIVE SOLAR SYSTEM | 40 | White Cliffs Solar Power Station NSW | Chris Dalitz |
| A SHARED ELECTRICAL ECONOMY | 42 | Basslink - High Voltage Direct Current Cable Under Bass Strait | Tony Field & Owen Peake |
| CHAPTER 3: ROAD & RAIL | |||
| A HIGH PASS MARK | 46 | Victoria Pass, Blue Mountains, NSW | Alexander Been |
| CROSSING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS | 48 | Great Zig Zag Railway at Lithgow NSW | Mark Langdon |
| WHEN TRANSPORT BECAME TRULY PUBLIC | 50 | Cable Trams in Melbourne | Miles Pierce |
| LINKING NORTH TO SOUTH | 52 | North-South Transcontinental Railway - Adelaide to Darwin | Trevor Horman |
| A RAIL WONDER TO THE NORTH | 54 | Cairns to Kuranda Railway North Queensland | David Mewes |
| STOKING THE BOILERS | 56 | Puffing Billy Railway Victoria | Mark Whitmore |
| CONQUERING THE WILD WEST | 58 | Mount Lyell Abt Railway, Tasmania | Ian Cooper |
| A TRUE GAUGE OF SUCCESS | 60 | Grafton to Brisbane Railway | Bob Taaffe |
| CROSS COUNTRY RIBBONS OF STEEL | 62 | Construction of the Trans-Australian Railway | Mike Taylor |
| THE AGE OF STEAM LIVES ON | 64 | Steam Locomotives in Australia | Owen Peake |
| FOLLOWING IN STUART'S FOOTSTEPS | 66 | Stuart Highway North Northern Territory | Owen Peake |
| CHAPTER 4: STRUCTURES | |||
| SPANNING THE CENTURIES | 70 | Conservation of Australia's Oldest Masonry Bridges | Peter Spratt |
| IT'S GOTTA HAVE SWING | 72 | Swing Bridges | Bruce Cole & Owen Peake |
| THE WONDER OF WOOD | 74 | NSW Timber Truss Road Bridges | Amie Nicholas |
| FROM BRIDGE TO BRIDGE, A NATION AWAKES | 76 | Hawkesbury River Railway Bridges NSW | Bill Phippen |
| ADDING STEEL TO AN IDEA | 78 | Monash & Anderson Monier Concrete Road Bridges | Owen Peake |
| BRINGING A CITY TOGETHER | 80 | Sydney Harbour Bridge | Bruce Cole |
| SPANNING THE BRISBANE RIVER | 82 | Story Bridge, Brisbane | Brian Becconsall |
| A TOUCH OF GENIUS | 84 | Hobart's Floating Bridge | Bruce Cole |
| 3 BRIDGES - 3 DIFFERENT STORIES | 86 | Bridging Success and Failure since 1950 | Allan Churchward |
| A HOUSE OF WONDER | 88 | Sydney Opera House | Rolfe Hartley |
| GLADESVILLE'S GRACEFUL BRIDGE | 90 | Gladesville Bridge Sydney | Michael Clarke |
| Chapter 5: SEA, AIR & SPACE | |||
| RETURNING TO PORT | 94 | Great Ports of Australia | Owen Peake |
| OPENING UP THE INLAND | 96 | Paddle Steamers on the Murray-Darling River System | Owen Peake |
| FROZEN IN TIME | 98 | Refrigerated Shipping | Owen Peake |
| KEEPING TRACK IN REMOTE AUSTRALIA | 100 | Australian Space Tracking Stations | Lyndon Tilbrook |
| THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX | 102 | ARL Flight Memory 'Black Box' Flight Recorder | Matthew Churchward & Owen Peake |
| THE SEARCH FOR SMOOTH SAILING | 104 | High Speed Catamaran Ferries from Incat Tasmania | Judy Benson & Bruce Cole |
| THE PILOT'S EYES INTERSCAN | 106 | Interscan Microwave Landing System | Owen Peake |
| THE RACE THAT STOPPED A NATION | 108 | Australia II and the Winged Keel | Mark Bush |
| A GENUINE LIFESAVER | 108 | Liferaft Systems Australia Tasmania | Bruce Cole |
| BOOM TIME FOR TRAVEL | 110 | Scramjet Engine for High Speed Flight | Owen Peake |
| CHAPTER 6: COMMUNICATIONS | |||
| OUR HIGHWAY OF LIGHTS | 116 | Lighthouses in Australia | Doug Boleyn |
| WALKING IN STUART'S FOOTSTEPS | 118 | Overland Telegraph Adelaide to Darwin | Bruce Cole |
| MARCONI INSPIRES THE WIRELESS WAY | 120 | Perth Wireless Station | Mark Bush |
| PEDAL POWER OPENS UP THE OUTBACK | 122 | Alf Traeger's Pedal Radio | Richard Venus |
| THIS IS TASMANIA CALLING | 124 | First Bass Strait Telephone Cable | Bruce Cole |
| THE AGE OF A MICRO-REVOLUTION | 126 | Microwave Radio Systems in Australia | Gordon Hunneybell |
| GUIDING THE WORLD'S TRAVELLERS | 128 | Omega Navigation Station | Owen Peake |
| A WORLD-WIDE GAME CHANGER | 130- | CSIRO Wi-Fi | Rolfe Hartley |
| BUILDING A COUNTRY'S CONNECTIVE TISSUE | 132 | National Broadband Network | Grahame Lynch |
| CHAPTER 7: MANUFACTURING & AGRICULTURE | |||
| TAKING WHAT THE LAND GIVES YOU | 136 | Budj Bim Aboriginal Hydraulic Works in Victoria | Owen Peake |
| BRINGING AN INDUSTRY TO LIFE | 138 | Lithgow NSW: Cradle of the Australian Iron & Steel Industry | Bob McKillop |
| AN IDEA ROOTED IN GOOD SENSE | 140 | Stump Jump Plough | Richard Venus & Owen Peake |
| A BRILLIANT IDEA BY DESIGN | 142 | Grain Harvesters in Australia | Graeme Quick & Bruce Cole |
| BRINGING WATER TO THE BASIN | 144 | Chaffey Brothers Irrigation Works in Australia | Owen Peake |
| CAPTURING THE WIND | 146 | Windmills in Australia | Russell Hall |
| NO LONGER RIDING THE SHEEP'S BACK | 148 | Australia's WW2 Industrialisation | Neil Hogg |
| BRINGING THE LION TO LIFE | 150 | Holden 48-215 Motor Car | Jessica Yuan, Anjali Thirumalavan, Mitchell Stojanovski, Andy Lam, Joel Ibrahim & Timothy Spooner |
| WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, NO LONGER FIRE | 152 | Aspirated Smoke Detection (ASD) | Martin Cole |
| CHAPTER 8: RESOURCES | |||
| WELCOME THE JACKS AND JENNIES | 156 | Cornish Mining in South Australia | Mark Whitmore |
| TECHNOLOGY AND A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD | 158 | Mount Morgan Mine, Queensland | Ray Boyle |
| A TOWNSHIP APPEARS, WAY OUT WEST | 160 | Mt Lyell Copper Mine Tasmania | Peter Schulze & Bruce Cole |
| THE GOLDEN MINING MILE | 162 | Mining in Kalgoorlie and Boulder - The Golden Mile Western Australia | Peter Hopwood |
| NEW LIFE FROM OLD SOIL | 164 | Broken Hill Mining and the Flotation Process | Owen Peake & Bruce Cole |
| MT ISA’S ZINC, SILVER, LEAD AND COPPER MINING | 166 | Mount Isa Mines Queensland | Allan Churchward & Mt Isa Group |
| MOVING MOUNTAINS | 168 | Pilbara Iron Ore Mining, Western Australia | Dr David Lee & Bob Morrison |
| AVOIDING THE OPEN SEA | 170 | Hay Point No.2 Coal Loading Jetty Queensland | Paul Coghlan |
| A SUCCESSFUL SHELF LIFE | 172 | North West Shelf Project Phases 1 & 2 Western Australia | Mike Taylor |
| CHAPTER 9: DEFENCE | |||
| AN INNOVATIVE MIND | 176 | World's First Guided Torpedo | Owen Peake & David Beauchamp |
| SUCCESS IN HIS SIGHTS | 178 | Owen Submachine Gun | Doug Boleyn |
| THE FLEET OF FLYING BOATS | 180 | Catalina Flying Boats | Owen Peake |
| A UNIQUE HOME ON THE RANGE | 182 | Woomera Test Range South Australia | Lyndon Tilbrook |
| GROUND BREAKING, AUSTRALIAN MADE | 184 | Jindivik Target Drone Aircraft | Lyndon Tilbrook |
| OUR EYE TO THE SKIES | 186 | Jindalee Over-the-Horizon Radar | Owen Peake |
| THE MANTLE OF PROTECTION | 188 | F-111 Long-Range Strike Aircraft | Owen Peake |
| A DEAFENING SILENCE | 190 | Collins Class Submarine | Owen Peake |
| A HOME GROWN, HIGH-TECH SOLUTION | 192 | Active Phased Array Radar | Keith Baker & Owen Peake |
| A MODERN DAY WORKHORSE | 194 | Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle | Owen Peake |
| CHAPTER 10: TECHNOLOGY | |||
| A BRILLIANT PROPELLER PROPOSAL | 198 | Michell Thrust Bearing | Rolfe Hartley |
| THE GENIUS OF GEORGE JULIUS | 200 | Julius Totalisator Brisbane | Paul Coghlan |
| OUR WINDOW TO THE STARS | 202 | Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra | Keith Baker |
| THE START OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION | 204 | CSIRAC Computer | Owen Peake |
| A EUREKA MOMENT IN THE GARDEN | 206 | Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy | Bruce Cole |
| LITTLE KNOWN, WIDELY USED | 208 | HIFAR - Our First Nuclear Reactor Sydney | Tony Wood |
| SECURED IN SOLID ROCK | 210 | Pattern Rockbolting and the Snowy Scheme | Michael Clarke & Walter Mills |
| AN ASTRONOMICAL ACHIEVEMENT | 212 | Australian Radio Astronomy & the Parkes Radio Telescope | Rolfe Hartley |
| CHANGING LIVES | 214 | Cochlear Hearing Implant | Bruce Cole |
| KEEPING AUSTRALIA IN CHARGE | 216 | Australian National University Heavy Ion Accelerator | Owen Peake |
| PUTTING TECHNOLOGY IN A SPIN | 218 | University of Western Australia Centrifuge Facility | Mark Randolph, Christophe Gaudin & Bruce Cole |
