Dr Harold Clough

CLOUGH, Harold (William), AO OBE BE(Hons) MSc(Calf) HonDEng HonFIEAust (1926-2022)

Birth & Family

Born in Perth, Western Australia, on 30 September 1926, the second of three children of John Osborne Clough, builder, born in Richmond, Victoria, and Lucy (née Hayes) born in Landsborough, Victoria. Harold had two sisters, the elder of whom died in 1929. He married Margaret McRae in 1954. They have six children.

Education

Nedlands Primary School (1932-1938)
Claremont Central School (1939-1941)
Scotch College (1942)
University of Western Australia (1944-1947)
University of California, Berkeley (1951-1952).

Qualifications

Bachelor of Engineering, Honours (University of Western Australia) 1950
Master of Science (University of California, Berkeley) 1952
Honorary Doctorate of Engineering (University of Western Australia) 1990

Read transcripts of Harold Clough discussing his engineering career

Engineering Heritage Australia Oral History - Harold Clough 2009 (0.5MB)
ABC Radio Perth Who Are You series (2012) - we are checking with ABC Radio National for availability of this interview
University of Western Australia: Dr Harold Clough AO OBE CitWA (BSc '47, BE '50, DEng '90) was a graduate of UWA who went on to become an engineering pioneer and leading businessman. Among his many achievements, in 2014 for his commitment to Engineering leadership, he was bestowed the inaugural Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award (watch the video here).

Work History

Harold Clough passed the Leaving examination at the young age of 16 but was too young to enter Duntroon Military College, his chosen destination, so in 1943 he worked for a year as a junior mail clerk at the AMP insurance company. In 1944 having decided to become an engineer he entered the University of Western Australia where he did the three year, wartime, BSc Engineering course. In 1947 he did a fourth year to upgrade the BSc to a BE. He gained first class honours in Mechanical Engineering but did not graduate until 1950. He played rugby for the university and gained a Half Blue.

After university, Clough obtained a position as engineer assisting the Chief Engineer of Cooperative Bulk Handling and investigated sites and methods for the receival and bulk handling of grain in Western Australia. In 1950, Clough travelled to the eastern states, working en route at mines in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. In Melbourne he joined W.D. Scott & Co, the management consultants, and investigated the operations of a cotton mill in Maitland.

In 1951 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained an MSc in industrial engineering. He then worked for two years in California for the Bechtel Corporation, initially in its estimating department and then as cost engineer on an oil refinery construction site.

Clough returned to Perth in 1954 and joined his father’s small building company which was renamed J.O. Clough and Son (changed to Clough Limited in 1984). Their first large contract was the first postwar high rise building in Perth, the 12 storey National Mutual office building in St George’s Terrace (completed 1959).

In 1957 the Western Australian Government announced that it intended to call international tenders for the building of the landmark Narrows Bridge over the Swan River. To overcome the company’s lack of experience on major projects Clough recruited the Danish international company, Christiani & Neilsen, to form a joint venture which gained the contract and successfully completed it in 1959. Clough & Son also joint ventured with Christiani and Neilsen to construct the Ord River Diversion Dam (1962) the first major development project in the East Kimberleys.

During the Pilbara resources boom in the 1960s through to the 1980s, Clough & Son grew rapidly and executed works for all the major mining companies including harbour works, water supply pipelines, power stations and materials handling structures. In the south west, Clough & Son constructed the central section of Mitchell Freeway Stage 1 (in joint venture with Kier Ltd of the UK), the two landmark metropolitan bridges, the Stirling Bridge and the Mt Henry Bridge and other major infrastructure works including the structural work for the Avon Valley stage of the Standard Gauge Railway project and the civil works for the first stage of the Muja Power Station near Collie.

Two very large early contracts which Clough joint ventured with international companies were Stages 2 & 3 of the US Navy Communications Base at Exmouth Gulf (with Koppers Inc of Pittsburgh PA) completed in 1967 (worth $20 Million) and the Swan Brewery complex at Canning Vale with Kaiser Engineers and KWM of Canada (1980, $85 Million).

An important element in the company’s growth has been Clough’s ability to form successful joint venture partnerships and strategic alliances with international specialist contractors. Notable ones were joint ventures with The Royal Netherlands Harbourworks for Hamersley Iron’s shiploading facilities at King Bay, the submarine pipeline and marine terminal on Barrow Island for WA Petroleum the Cape Lambert Iron Ore loading facility and service wharf and the LNG wharf for Woodside Petroleum at the Burrup Peninsula.

Other successful joint ventures were with Entrepos Maritime for the North Rankin ‘A’ submarine gas pipeline, and with the Bechtel Corporation for the Harriet Oilfield development and the alliance contracts with Western Mining Corporation and Kvaerner RJ Brown for the development of the East Spar gas field.

The expansion of the Clough Group into South East Asia was expedited by Clough’s far sighted and timely acquisition of the Petrosea company based in Singapore and its successful float on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in May 1990. The following year Petrosea won a major contract, worth $US186 million, for the design and construction of onshore and outloading facilities for the Pagerungan natural gas project in Indonesia. This was the first major gas project which the Clough Group undertook on its own and resulted in the company winning a number of awards for engineering excellence.

In 1993 the Institution of Engineers, Australia presented Harold Clough with its oldest award, the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal and, in 1997, he was awarded the Institution’s prestigious award, the Sir William Hudson Award.

In 1998 Clough Limited became a publicly listed company. In that year the company had a turn over of $605 Million and made a profit of $29.5 Million. Fifty five per cent of its work was in the mining and minerals sector and 24 per cent was in the oil, gas and petroleum sector with the latter work expanding rapidly. In 2001 Clough retired as Chairman of the Clough Group and the Clough family sold some of its share in the company. More recently it has sold the bulk of its shareholding. Clough ended his last Chairman’s Report with a characteristic remark. ‘Work must be fun.’

Harold Clough has an active interest in education and was a member of the Senate of the University of Western Australia and has chaired the University’s External Strategy Committee and served on its Strategic Resources Committee. He has also served on the governing and advisory boards of several of the University’s technological and medical research centres. The Clough company also has a scholarship scheme for university engineering students which has been in operation for over 30 years.

Memberships

Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia
Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering

Awards

Fulbright Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley (1951)
Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1979)
Officer of the Order of Australia (1990)
Peter Nicol Russell Medal, Institution of Engineers, Australia (1993)
James N. Kirby Award, Australasian Regional Board of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1993)
Gold Medal of the Western Australian Division of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (1994)
Sir William Hudson Award, Institution of Engineers, Australia (1997)
International Business Corporation Business Award (1997)
Australian Constructors Association Award for 50 years service to the Australian construction industry (1997)
Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop Medal for commitment to enhancing the quality of life in the region and improving Australian Asia relations (2005)

Industrial Organisations

Former President of :

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia
Australian Federation of Construction Contractors

Former Vice President of:

Confederation of Asian Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Australian Constructors Association

Trade and Diplomatic Missions

Clough’s contribution to the growth of Australia’s international trade has been recognised by his participation in overseas trade delegations and diplomatic and cultural missions. He has been a member of:

The Board of the Australian Government’s Australian Indonesia Institute
The Asia Society
The Austral Asia Centre
The Australian Malaysia Cultural Foundation
The Australian Government’s Trade Policy Advisory Council
The Australian Government’s White Paper Advisory Panel on Foreign Trade

He was also:

Patron of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Western Australia
Chairman of the Western Australian Trade Advisory Council

Prepared by Richard G. Hartley for EHA Oral History program, 31 May 2009
Death notice in The Australian, 7 January 2022
Obituary published by Clough on 8 January 2022
Program for memorial on 18 January 2022