Alfred Goldsmith
GOLDSMITH, Alfred Joseph MinstCE (1848-1928)
GOLDSMITH, ALFRED JOSEPH, engineer and manager, son of Joseph Goldsmith, was born in London on 19 September 1848. His family having emigrated to Australia in 1854, he was educated in Sydney and after a course of private tuition he entered the works of Messrs P.N. Russell and Co., engineers and shipbuilders of Sydney, New South Wales, and served an apprenticeship of six years with that firm. He then remained as mechanical designer and draughtsman for a further three years, during which time he was engaged on the design of railway rolling-stock, industrial machinery and dredges.
In 1871 Goldsmith entered the Harbours and Rivers Department of New South Wales, under E.O. Moriarty, and was engaged, with F.T. Rose, on the design of a double-ladder dredger for the Port of Newcastle. He joined the Harbors and Rivers Department of Queensland in August 1874, on the invitation of F.T. Rose, who was by then Engineer for Harbors and Rivers, and in December of that year, on Rose's death, he was appointed Assistant Engineer, taking charge of the Department until the arrival six months later of the new Engineer in Chief, W.D. Nisbet. While in Queensland he designed and supervised the construction of two large steam hopper-barges and various other vessels, and he also had charge of improvement works on the Brisbane and Mary rivers. He superintended the construction of dredging plant to the value of 140,000 pounds and furnished reports, estimates and plans for numerous works, among which may be mentioned the Government wharves at Petrie Bight, wharves at Bundaberg, Maryborough and Cooktown, and the graving dock at South Brisbane.
Resigning his appointment in 1881, he became managing partner of John Walker and Company (afterwards Walkers Ltd,) engineers and shipbuilders of Maryborough, with which firm he remained until 1892, when he practised privately in Brisbane. In 1903 he rejoined Walkers Ltd and remained with the firm as a director until his death, being engaged principally upon the building of dredging plant and steam vessels. At the same time he was occupied with various other interests, being consulted by numerous State departments and authorities. He superintended under A.B. Brady, the Under secretary for Works, the construction of bridges over the Mary and Burnett rivers. For his paper "The Burnett and Kennedy Bridges, Bundaberg, Queensland" he was awarded a Telford Premium by the Institution of Civil Engineers. As Chief Engineer of the Bundaberg Harbour Board he laid out and supervised the construction of training-walls in the Burnett River, and he acted as Chief Engineer and later as consulting engineer to the Rockhampton Harbour Board. He was for several years the special advocate for the Iron Trades Employers' Association on the Board of Trade and Arbitration, and in 1898 he was appointed a member of a committee set up to enquire into the safety of locomotives.
Goldsmith was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1879, and transferred to the class of Member in 1883. He served for a number of years as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, and later as Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Council in Queensland; he was the Representative Member of the Council in Australia from 1916 to 1918.
In 1873, he married Sarah, daughter of Stephen Forster of Sydney. He died in Brisbane on 4 June 1928, being survived by his widow, three sons and a daughter.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
Min. Proc. lns1. Civ. Engrs, Vol. 228 (1930), pp. 350-51.
The paper "The Burnett and Kennedy Bridges, Bundaberg, Queensland" is availble in proceedings of ICE.
