Thomas Stainton Hope
Thomas Stainton Hope
(1916 - 2010)
Thomas Stainton Hope was born in 1916 at Paddington. He grew up in Marrickville, Bankstown and Ashfield and attended Sydney Technical High School in Albion Street, Paddington.
He was always interested in engineering and much influenced by John Yeeman, a next-door neighbour who later became a renowned council engineer. His father, John Hope's forbears had been builders responsible for a number of churches around Sydney.
Hope did the Leaving Certificate twice and got both a technical college scholarship and a university exhibition. This was just after the Depression so he took the technical college option because it was cheaper. The Government Diploma took five years to complete.
He had started working during his Leaving Certificate in 1933 at the [Sydney] Metropolitan Water, Sewerage & Drainage Board, where he stayed three and a half years, (1933-1937), and was articled to a surveyor (Eric Frederic Latham McLaughlin) and went to the technical college at night. McLaughlin became a senior surveyor while Hope was articled to him, and this was good for Hope's career and skills.
Hope did surveys for sewerage reticulation in the Hunters Hill area and Lindfield and Warragamba Dam surveys before the war. Pack horses were used to the Cox's River and back but he, in a party if six, including a professional surveyor, walked the distance. This trip was done during his holidays.
At nineteen he was doing full surveys including a water main for the Koala farm. This followed the road to Dural.
Sewerage followed the surveys, then design and construction. Surveys were about six months ahead of construction.
He did survey for the design and subsequent construction of Northern Suburbs Ocean Outfall at Manly and from Dundas to Wentworthville. This followed the road in parts but was mostly through private property. There were also marine surveys to determine where sewerage would go.
He was working a forty-four-hour week while studying at the Tech.
In December 1937 he left Water Board to get more money and experience and joined the Department of Road Transport & Tramways though he still had six months of articles and needed more experience to get his Diploma.
At the technical college a lecturer, Crawford Munro, was a great influence.
Hope did not join Army until 1943 because was he was working on Defence tasks, for example the Putty - Singleton Road and Wakehurst Parkway, and tunnels under Bobbin Head Road and Coal and Candle Creek which were loaded with 3 tons of explosive to blow up the roads and stop Japanese advance. Another task was leveling the dunes near Dee Why Beach to get a clearer line of sight.
Putty Road was just a track, a lot of it convict built. It had been decided to use it as an inland route in case of invasion. The Wakehurst Parkway was in the process of construction. Hope did work from the " blinking light" to Narrabeen Lakes. It was a gravel road from Belrose.
In 1942 Hope went to the Northern Territory for twelve months and built a section of the Stuart Highway south of the Fenton Airfield through Pine Creek to the Cullen River.
In 1943 he was back to Sydney and into the Army as a volunteer. The department had to release him to go into an engineering unit. He was sent to the Royal Australian Engineers Training Corps at Wagga for basic training then to Casula for military engineering, then back to Kapuka and posted to a unit dealing with port maintenance and construction at Meadowbank. He was then transferred to Lae in New Guinea to relieve a West Australian Officer, and also did detachments at Milne Bay, Buna, Lae and Finchhaven, before going on to Madang and Itipi where Japanese troops were still on the perimeter.
He then returned to Cairns to get ready for the Borneo push and then up to Morotai and Balikpapan. He built a floating wharf at Lae to hold ferries that had been on the Hawkesbury and had been sent to New Guinea as floating workshops.
On his return to Australia, he was sent to Dorrigo and built a new road to Deervale on the way to Ebor. This took about 18 months before going to Coffs Harbour as Works Engineer to rebuild the highway south to Bellinger River.
In 1949 he went to Yass to fix Hume Highway. Initially on this highway only one lane was bitumen, twelve feet wide. Design standards were altered in 1960, and shoulders were sealed.
It was then back to Sydney and building Liverpool and Parramatta Roads as concrete roads. Many of his workers were European migrants, but Hope was German speaking.
His next appointment was as District Engineer in the division handling Illawarra and Southern Tablelands areas. He now had to deal with Council administration as well as construction.
There were floods and slips at this time including the Razorback collapse which required the building of an alternate route. Macquarie Pass and Mount Ousley Road also had slips but not as severe as those at Razorback.
Hope went to Paris in 1975 to investigate the reinforced earth technique.
He next went to Sydney Head Office, Maintenance section and then construction and supervision of works in the field. As Western Division inspecting engineer he was away for 6 months in the west of the state, dealing with Shire personnel. When he started on Western Division work there were only three-and-a-half miles of bitumen surfacing in the whole of the west.
At this time, he was responsible for hand-operated ferries at Louth, Tilpa and Pooncarie on the Darling River. He converted them to mechanical by putting put two horse-power motors in.
Hope was promoted to Engineer for Field Organisation Methods with a brief to improve performance of the Works Officers in the State. He became Assistant Highways Engineer in Head Office handling all the Department's maintenance and construction throughout the State and acted as Highways Engineer and then Divisional Engineer first at Chatswood then Parramatta which handled work to Mudgee and beyond. At this time the first section of the Sydney - Newcastle Freeway was under construction.
Hope played a part in influencing Ray Wedgwood to become an engineer. Wedgwood would later be Chief Bridge Enginee.
From Parramatta after two years, he became Divisional Engineer at Newcastle for four and a half years. This was the most challenging and rewarding time of his life, This included the building of the divided carriageway south to Swansea and the maintenance and operation of the Stockton ferries.
In the case of any fatal accident the Divisional Engineer had to go immediately to site and report. He became Engineer for Field Organisation and Management, a position brought on by the Commonwealth wanting to have more say in how funds were spent.
Later, he was made Engineer in Chief, Freeways. Through his career he was responsible for the conversion of substandard highways and sealing of roads not sealed, new and better bridges, and deviations of the highway.
Hope lectured in Road Engineering at Sydney Tech for ten years and was examiner for Engineers.
Thomas Hope retired in 1977.
He had married Bonnie, and they had four children. Thomas Hope died on 18 September 2010, aged 94.
To access an oral history interview with Thomas Stainton Hope please use this link:'
