Peter Charles Hollingsworth
Peter Charles Hollingsworth (1929 - 2021)
Peter Hollingsworth was born on 9 June 1929 at Atherton, Queensland, first child of Douglas Charles Hollingsworth (1893-1976) and Frances Dorothy (nee Pitt). He had a sister, Joan, born on 29/5/1930. His mother was killed in a car accident in 1936, on a family picnic. Both he and his sister were injured. Peter’s father was a surveyor, and in a way, he followed his father’s career. His father was regularly away for work and the children were cared for by their grandmother.
After primary school at Malandra (1934-1937), the decision was made to send him to All Souls Church of England Boarding School at Charters Towers in 1938. Atherton is inland from Cairns, Charters Towers is inland from Townsville and he travelled by train and bus accompanied by an older student. While he was apparently reluctant to go, he soon got to enjoy it. In 1942 the school was taken over as a hospital by US forces and the students and staff were relocated to a site adjacent to the Burdekin River, 2 hours away and the school was set up in a collection of tents. Some were provided by parents who had tents for remote stockmen and some were provided by the Army. After a year, the students returned to Charters Towers, with tents, and the school was re-established at the racecourse, with some students having the luxury of accommodation in the vacated stables. The classrooms were located in the grandstand. There was an adjacent US Air Force base and an aircraft crashed into a poisonous gas tank causing an evacuation. In 1947 he completed his school education as dux of the school. He had considered following his father as a surveyor but his father and the school headmaster thought he should do engineering. His father had been impressed by the engineering projects he’d seen in his work including bridges, roads and railways.
At age 18 he moved to Brisbane, the nearest available engineering school and took up residence of St John’s College. His student colleagues included some supported by the Columbo Plan. He took advantage of all opportunities, secretary of the Students Union in 1949 and President in his final year. This involved a weekly meeting with the Vice Chancellor. He also participated in the University Regiment, swimming, rowing and football. Subjects he studied included structural design, materials, hydraulics, some mechanical and electrical subjects and lectures on aesthetics from an architect. Vacation employment included, in his first year, working at a Cairns timber yard making bungs for beer kegs, as well as welding and machining, mustering and working with his surveyor father. In subsequent years he worked at AIS Port Kembla, the Brisbane City Council Water and Sewerage section and a final vacation assisting his father with surveying. He undertook the surveying exams and became a Licenced Surveyor in 1954.
In 1954 he applied successfully for a position with the Commonwealth Department of Works in Papua and New Guinea (PNG) which included road and bridge construction, hydro powerstation construction, water supply and airfields. Life as a professional in New Guinea had some challenges. He was sent to a rural camp to survey a road and went out with some local staff. At one point, they saw a group of pygmies, who had a pretty hostile reputation. The locals fled, leaving him on his own. He had a pistol, fired a shot and this gave him a chance to join the race back to camp. Bridge construction was undertaken in a rather different way. Large numbers of old bridges had been taken to PNG during the War. If a new bridge was required, staff would rummage through the collection, find a suitable span and design and build the piers. The first bridge he designed was over a river near Lae. The foundations were constructed, then there was an earthquake and the river relocated several hundred metres, and he was faced with the ignominy of having the piers nowhere near where the bridge was required. One thing he noted in PNG was lack of knowledge of soil mechanics and geology. He reports that relations with the locals were generally very good, and socialised with expats and local administrative staff and later, locals who had returned from Australia with degrees. He did contract Malaria which caused some ongoing issues. He met his first wife in PNG, a senior theatre nurse at Port Moresby Hospital. They had two sons.
After 2 years in PNG, they decided to return to Australia, had a honeymoon at Port Douglas, he applied for a number of jobs and obtained a position with Sydney Water at Warragamba as part of the dam construction team. In excess of 100 engineers were employed on the project. His work included checking the design of spillways and monitoring inflow, both to calculate water flows and the level of sediment so that calculations could be done the expected rate of silting of the dam. He continued to have problems with malaria.
In 1957 he joined Concrete Industries Monier, manufacturers of pipes and a range of prestressed and post stressed components. In 1959, Concrete Industries Monier established a drilling subsidiary, Monier Earth Drilling Pty Ltd. This position also allowed him to gain more experience with soil technology.
In 1959 his first wife died of cancer. He purchased a house in Ryde and secured a series of housekeepers to look after his two sons.
In 1960 he joined Hornibrook’s who were setting up a foundation company. He was sent to the US and a joint venture was set up with the Texas firm of McKinnery Foundation Drilling.
When he was in the USA, he ended up at a wake for Republicans, as John Kennedy had defeated Richard Nixon in the Presidential elections. At 3 am he was driving back to his motel and was arrested for suspected drunk driving, having been on the wrong side of a motorway, and was taken to the local police station. The police sergeant treated him as an honoured guest as he’d served in the US Air Force based at Atherton. He was plied with copious quantities of coffee, managed to walk a straight line and driven back to his motel. His car was driven back as well. The police station gained some later notoriety as it was where Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald.
Important projects undertaken included boring for the Commonwealth and Kings Ave bridges in Canberra and the Sydney Opera House. The Canberra jobs were of interest due to high pressure groundwater. The solution was to add a jellification material to the water. He was also responsible for foundation drilling for the Port Stanvac oil refinery in Adelaide and this required work 6 metres underwater, so he learned scuba diving.
In 1957 David Coffey had commenced his soil testing business in Sydney and in 1962 he and Peter founded Coffey and Hollingsworth Pty Ltd, soil test engineers, with Peter based in Brisbane. David had established a soil testing laboratory which did a wide variety of work, testing compaction, in particular for housing in Adelaide. Projects included work on the Townsville Mount Isa railway upgrade, the Litton (Brisbane) Ampol oil refinery, Port of Brisbane, Comalco Refinery at Gladstone and Bogainville Copper Mine.
In 1967 Coffey and Hollingsworth formed a consortium with other engineering and management consultants to tender for large, complex international projects. One project which they looked was a north south road in Malaysia which included an area where communist terrorists were active and another in Vietnam. He flew into Saigon where there was a war raging and this was particularly challenging. His passport was confiscated at the airport, he had no US dollars, he arrived at his hotel and discovered his booking hadn’t been made. He managed to swap a $US 100 traveller’s cheque for $US 50 cash. There was a group of US Generals sharing a large room at the hotel and they offered to squeeze him in. After one night the generals left and he had the large room to himself. The hotel was a delightful, French style hotel, with lift. The Australian Trade Commissioner was helpful but was of the view that the Saigon Authorities were not interested, so after 3 days he left.
In 1968 they became involved in a proposed project to build an ore loader at Cape Keraudren in the NW of Western Australia. The first work was to drill to test the soil and rocks, much of this underwater. This gave him a chance to use his scuba skills, the job had a number of challenges including the prolific sharks. Since 1961, US authorities had been looking at the use of nuclear explosions for civil engineering projects under “Operation Ploughshare”. It seems that some experimental explosions were undertaken. And did result in some radioactive clouds. The US Ludley Corporation suggested that this technique could be used for this project. The plan was to employ a number of 200 kiloton explosions, 200 metres deep, 300 metres apart, with the aim of forming a channel 200 metres wide, 100 metres deep and 16 km long, some 55 charges. The proposal was mentioned in the press, it seems the Australian Government was less than enthusiastic and Peter considered it overkill. The project did not proceed and no ore loader has been constructed at the site.
He left Coffey’s in 1974 as he had an increasing interest in environmental work, and established his own business. Projects included using his scuba diving skills checking the Hay Point coal loader where, it appeared, cyclones had been damaging the footings as well as checking the pavement at Lae Airport, prior to a visit by the Queen, where volcanic activity had been causing bubbles in the tarmac. The practice was to burst the bubble and roll it down. The base was pumice which came in two forms anionic and cationic and the former seemed to give much better results. He established Hollingsworth Consultants Pty Ltd in 1982 and expanded his team to undertake environmental impact studies, environmental planning and geotechnical engineering.
In 1989 Hollingsworth Consultants was taken over by US consulting firm Dames and Moore, and stayed on as senior consultant and chairman of Dames and Moore Australia until 1993.
He’d been involved in the investigation quite a few overseas projects which did not proceed including the design of a tailings dam for the Ok Tedi mine, and with the World Bank, two major road construction projects from Algiers south into neighbouring countries, an agricultural development project in Nigeria and a major power station in Turkey. These all seem to have involved travel in areas which were far from secure.
He continued his busy life developing a process to use domestic waste to produce lightweight concrete, Nutralysis and built a plant at Salisbury Qld to produce 250 to 500 tonnes per day, but this was not a success.
He became involved with a project proposed by IEA and ACEA to develop Brisbane Gateway Ports Project which with some targeted lobbying progressed well.
As a result of his interest in environmental matters, he formed a community body to lobby government on planning in his local area. He also attempted to bring together mining companies, agricultural interests and the Qld Government together to develop a large scale water distribution system for central Queensland, which stalled due to concern about conflicts of interest.
From 1998 he developed a property near Kilcoy Qld with Santa Gertrudis cattle and growing bamboo for edible bamboo shoots. He was also involved with the development of an eco-tourism resort above the Mulgrave Falls inland from Port Douglas and adjacent to the tropical heritage area.
He achieved an extensive list of organisation memberships and awards: • Hon Fellow, Engineers Australia 2002 • Life Member, American Society of Civil Engineers • Member, American Society of Testing and Materials • Hon Life Member, Association of Consulting Engineers Australia • Member, Australian Institute of Company Directors • Member, Qld State Purchasing Council • Member Industry Working Group Qld – Project & Procurement Options and Contract Selection Processes • Member, Professorial Advisory Board of Environmental Engineering, Griffith University • Honorary Fellow, St John’s College, University of Queensland • Honorary Life Member, Rural Environment Planning Association • Queensland Professional Engineer of the Year 1921 • Member of the Order of Australia (AM) 2004, For service to engineering, particularly in the areas of environmental and geotechnical investigation in relation to mining, industry and urban development, and through professional associations.
He passed on 13 November 2021. His second wife, Margaret Alison Hollingsworth had passed in 2016.
Biography researched and written by Stephen Buck.
To access an oral history interview with Peter Charles Hollingsworth please use this link:
