Richard Hartley
HARTLEY, Richard Gordon BSc(Eng)(Hons)(Glasgow) BA(Murdoch) PhD(Murdoch) MICE FIEAust MPHA (1939-2016)
Richard Hartley was born in England on 30 June 1939. He was educated at Bradfield College, the Royal College of Science and Technology (Glasgow), the University of Glasgow, Liverpool College of Building and City University, London. In 1964 he was awarded a BSc(Eng) with Honours in Civil Engineering, Glasgow University.
From 1958 he worked for British consulting engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson, building and civil engineering contractors Richard Costain, John Laing & Sons and Cubitts in the UK and Canada. In 1968 he migrated to Australia, joining Maunsell & Partners Perth office where for fifteen years he worked as a senior civil and structural engineer. Initially he was engaged on the design of metropolitan freight terminals, mainline earthworks and drainage works which were part of the WAGR Rail Standardisation Scheme.
Subsequently he was the project engineer for the WAGR Kalgoorlie/Kambalda Widgiemooltha line and later, as a hydrologist, he worked on the design of an upgrade of the Mount Newman railway drainage system and a new alignment for the railway through the Chichester Range. Later still he worked on a wide range of projects, including the design and supervision of urban and rural municipal works and as an environmental engineer for the Perth/Wagerup gas pipeline.
After retiring from engineering in 1984 due to ill health, he worked in the Western Australian State Archives, accessioning and cataloguing railway and public works drawings before commencing studying for a degree in history at Murdoch University in 1990. He became very interested in researching the history of the mining industry in Western Australia and in 1992 was awarded a BA with 1st Class Honours, his thesis being The 1904 watershed in Bewick Moreing's Western Australian gold mining activities. For the first time people interested in the WA mining sector could read about this most significant company in the States gold mining history.
Further research into the history of the Eastern Goldfield's mining industry in the late 1890s and early 1900s, when the Golden Mile was a world leader in metallurgical transformation, led to his doctoral thesis completed in 1998, A history of technological change in Kalgoorlie gold metallurgy 1895 1915. Dr Hartley received high praise from his examiners for his thesis and his knowledge of goldfields history became legendary among WA historians.
In 1995 he became a founding member of the Australian Mining History Association. In the early 1990s he and fellow engineer Denis Cumming were slowly collecting information on WA's mining engineers. When Cumming died in 1995 he left boxes of material and a project not even half finished. Richard was determined to complete the task to honour his friend. This happened in 2014 when a book Westralian Founders of Twentieth Century Mining : Career Biographies of Mining Engineers, Managers and Metallurgists Who Worked in the Western Australian Mining Industry 1890 – 1920, was published at Richard's personal expense. This book is an invaluable reference guide to the mining past of Western Australia, as it includes 306 biographies of professionals who shaped one of WA's most important industries.
Richard Hartley became a member of the National Trust of Australia (WA) in 1968 and over the years served on a number of its subcommittees. In 1992 he joined the Engineering Heritage Panel of Engineers Australia WA Division, acted as Secretary for three years and was an active and enthusiastic member of the panel for the next 24 years. He was for some years the honorary archivist for the Division. He participated in the preparation of successful nominations for engineering heritage recognition of the East West Telegraph Line between Perth and Adelaide, the Trans Australia Railway Line from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta, Kalgoorlie Boulder Mines, Ord River Dam and the Western Australian Standard Gauge Railway Project. He was also an active oral historian and recorded oral histories of a number of prominent Western Australian engineers. He prepared numerous published and unpublished papers on mining and engineering projects in Western Australia.
Undoubtedly Richard's greatest achievement was as a result of his engagement in 2002 by the Water Corporation of Western Australia to research and write the history of the Eastern Goldfields water supply scheme. He had been privately collecting information for this task for several years and, assisted by two former Chief Engineers of the Western Australian Public Works Department, he toiled away for five years before River of Steel : A History of the Western Australian Goldfields and Agricultural Water Supply 1903 – 2003', was jointly published by the Water Corporation and National Trust of Australia (WA). The book was launched at a ceremony in October 2007 by the then Governor of Western Australia, Dr Ken Michael AC.
River of Steel was a unique publication. Richard's engineering training allowed him to clarify a number of issues, the background to which lay historians, who had previously published books and articles describing the controversial beginning of the scheme, could not have been expected to understand. River of Steel also described in detail, for the first time, the management, operation, refurbishment and expansion of the scheme which took place over the first 100 years after it commenced operating.
Partly as a result of the publication of River of Steel, in 2009 Richard was awarded Engineering Heritage Australia's highest honour – the John Monash Medal – for his outstanding contribution to engineering heritage in Western Australia. Prior to this award, in 2008, River of Steel had come to the notice of the History and Heritage Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers. They encouraged Engineers Australia WA Division to nominate the Goldfields Water Supply for ASCE's prestigious International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark award. This was successful and in October 2009 bronze plaques, presented by the ASCE, commemorating the award, were unveiled at Mundaring Weir near Perth and Mt Charlotte Reservoir, Kalgoorlie. At the Mundaring ceremony EHA Chair Owen Peake presented Richard with EHA's Award of Merit, for his outstanding commitment to the conservation and recording of engineering heritage.
Two months later, at the 3rd Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference at Dunedin, New Zealand, the Water Corporation of Western Australia and the National Trust of Australia (WA), were jointly presented with Engineering Heritage Australias Colin Crisp Award, in recognition of excellence in an Engineering Heritage Publication by River of Steel. Finally, in October 2011, Richard was awarded the Telford Premium Award by the Institution of Civil Engineers UK for his paper presented to the Institution on Lessons from Western Australia's goldfields water supply scheme.(If required, a higher quality version of this paper is available on request from EHWA.)
Following his death on 5 May 2016, former Maunsell work colleagues, Australian Mining History Association members and Engineering Heritage WA committee members joined Richard's family and friends to farewell a highly respected engineer, meticulous historian and generous friend at his funeral service at Fremantle Cemetery on May 17th 2016.
Published books, reports and articles include:
Hartley, Richard G., Industry and Infrastructure in Western Australia 1829-1940, Heritage Council of Western Australia, 1995. A review by Leigh Edmonds published in 'Historical Traces' edited by Jenny Gregory from Studies in Western Australian History is available here.
Hartley, Richard G., 'Fernie, Norman (1898 1977) Engineer', in John Ritchie (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 14, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 155 156. *http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140164b.htm.
Hartley, Richard G., 'A history of technological change in Kalgoorlie gold metallurgy between 1895 and 1915', PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 1998, 2 v.
Hartley, Richard G., A guide to printed sources for the history of the eastern goldfields region of Western Australia, Centre for Western Australian History, UWA Press, Nedlands, 2000.
Hartley, Richard G., 'A Century of Water Supply to the Western Australian Goldfields and Wheat belt from Mundaring Weir and the Kalgoorlie Pipeline', Early Days, Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, Volume 11, Part 6, 2000.
Hartley, Richard G., 'Kalgoorlie as the global centre for gold metallurgical innovation 1902 1907', Prometheus, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2001.
Hartley, Richard G., River of steel: a history of Western Australian goldfields and agricultural water supply, 1903 2003, Access Press, Bassendean, W.A., 2007, 522 p.
Hartley, Richard G., From 'Pong Alley' to the winged keel : 150 years of industrial work in North Fremantle, 2008.
Hartley, Richard G., 'Lessons from Western Australia's goldfields water supply scheme', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering History and Heritage 163, August 2010, Issue EH3, pp. 179 187.
Cumming, Denis A. and Hartley, Richard G., Westralian founders of twentieth century mining: career biographies of mining engineers, mine managers and metallurgists who worked in the Western Australian mining industry 1890 1920, Richard G. Hartley, Rossmoyne W.A., 2014, 190p.
References
Hartley, Richard, Profile prepared by Richard Hartley in November 2007.
Young, Don, 'Vale Richard Gordon Hartley, 30th June 1939 5th May 2016', Engineering Heritage Australia Magazine, vol. 2, no. 3, 2016, pp. 18 19.
Moran, Rod, 'Font of mining history', Obituaries, The West Australian, 2 June 2016, p. 59.
Hartley, Richard Gordon, Encyclopedia of Australian Science, *http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P005728b.htm.
