William Julius Baltzer
William Julius Baltzer (1859-1948)
William Julius Baltzer was born in Germany in 1859. After an engineering education he emigrated to South Australia in 1884, and the next year to New South Wales where he worked in The Sewerage Branch of the Public Works Department, until the depression of the early 1890s led to his retrenchment.
About this time he visited his homeland and there learned of the new construction technique of reinforced concrete, specifically termed at that time Monier Concrete, for which he obtained, in association with Carter and Snodgrass, the Australian rights. On his return to Australia, he acted as consultant to Carter, Gummow and Company where he utilised his patent to design the Whites Creek and Johnstons Creek sewer aqueducts in Annandale, Sydney – the first reinforced concrete structures in Australia. Later he designed the Morell Bridge in Melbourne and worked closely with John Monash, to whom Baltzer had passed the rights to Monier Concrete in the southern states, and checked Monash’s designs until about 1910.
Later in his life, living in the Blue Mountains he became an ardent conservationist and is memorialised there in the Baltzer Lookout.
For further detailed information about his life see:
https://www.fairhall.id.au/resources/notables/baltzer-william.htm
https://structurae.net/en/persons/wilhelm-julius-baltzer
