James Macquarie Antill

James Macquarie Antill
(1912 - 1994)

James Macquarie Antill was born Sydney 10 June 1912. He studied engineering at the University Sydney where he graduated BE in 1931. He worked with the Sydney Water Board, was shire engineer in various country local government areas and during the 1940s managed various defence works in eastern Australia.

After the war he worked as a construction engineer for McDonald Constructions from 1947 to 1955 until he set up his own company, Stresscrete. In 1958 he sold the business to Farley and Lewers and then worked as a consulting construction engineer from 1958 until his retirement in 1985. He was particularly interested in pre-stressed concrete and was a part time lecturer and examiner in civil engineering construction at the University of NSW (1952-1985) and the University of Sydney (1962-1985). His best-known book, written with Paul Ryan, is Civil Engineering Construction, first published in 1957, later running to many editions.

Antill was Chairman of the Civil Engineering College for Sydney Division of the Institution of Engineers Australia in 1947 and was awarded Warren Prize in 1951. He was Chairman of the Standards Association of Australia's first Technical Committee on Prestressed Concrete; Chairman of the Construction Committee of the Metric Conversion Board in the early 1960s; sometime chairman of the Institution of Engineers Australia Arbitration Committee and a foundation fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators in 1975.

Jim Antill died 28 November 1994.

See also the Bright Sparcs website:

https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P003043b.htm

To access an oral history interview with James Antill please use this link:'

https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney