Michael Berman

Michael Berman
(1937 - )

Prepared by Michelle Keatinge, February 2003 from oral history interviews conducted on 20 October 98.

Michael Berman was born on 6th October, 1937 at Colombo, Sri Lanka. His father was a clerk and draughtsman in the Surveyor General’s Office and his mother was a teacher.

He attended primary school at Holy Family School, Colombo until October 1942 and then completed his high school at St. Joseph’s Catholic College for Boys in Colombo.

Berman was accepted into the University of Ceylon in 1957 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering in 1961.

Berman spent his first six months after graduation in a paid position assisting students at the University and was then employed at the Ceylon Cement Corporation as contract supervisor in the Design Office. During this time, he passed the Institute of Civil Engineering exam. In June 1965, Berman moved to London. He joined JD & DM Watson Consultants, who specialised in public health, working in structural design. After six months, he transferred to the sewerage treatment plant in Wakefield, Yorkshire as a resident engineer for 18 months. He worked in the design of sludge digestion and sludge drying beds. He worked for Cussons & Partners in Leeds for 18 months designing sewerage treatment plants for little cities and villages in Yorkshire.

Berman immigrated to Sydney in 1968. He worked in structural design with Gutteridge, Haskins & Davey before joining the Sydney Water Board in 1970.

Married in the sae year, he had three children, later all university graduates.

He retired December 1998 after 28 years with the Sydney Water Board, having primarily worked in public health, planning and environmental impact.

The construction of the Blue Mountains diversion tunnel was a subsequent result of Berman’s report, “Sewerage and Storm Water problems in the Blue Mountains”.

He had received the Institution of Engineers Australia Excellence Award for this report and the same award for Sydney Water Board’s “Water 21” report.

To access an oral history interview with Michael Berman please use this link:'

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