Phillip Daryl Isaacs

Phillip Daryl Isaacs (1932 - 2019)

Phillip Daryl Isaacs was born on 3 October, 1932, in Melbourne. His father was a consulting engineer.

He attended Carey Baptist Grammar School, then Wesley College, Melbourne. His family moved to Sydney 1942, and he attended Cranbrook School, Rose Bay, and then the University of Sydney from where he gained a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) Hons in 1954.

Isaacs did casual labouring during school holidays with builders, Cooper Bros, and later with the Snowy Mountains Scheme. At completion of university in 1954, he joined McDonald, Wagner & Priddle, working on design and construction of the Austral Bronze project. The company's move to begin specialising in various industries led to Isaacs working in the aviation industry on projects for Qantas, such as hangars and workshops for their aircraft. He developed an interest in the process of aeroplane maintenance which later led to the establishment in the late 1970s of an aviation airport consulting group within McDonald Wagner.

In 1964, aged 32, Isaacs became a partner in McDonald Wagner & Priddle. His particular interest was the flexibility of universities, and he embarked on a study tour of overseas universities to research this subject, as well as the integration of building services with structures. On his return, he began university work, the first project being the University of New South Wales Mechanical and Electrical Engineering buildings and subsequently the whole Engineering School. He ultimately became involved with the overall conceptual planning of campuses and utility services, as well as setting up a regime for the planning, design and construction of buildings and subsequent maintenance and coping with change within those buildings.

A huge expansion in the manufacturing industry in Australia in the 1960s resulted in Isaacs also being involved in many factory projects. He believed that integration and coping with change were going to be the key ingredients in future engineering design. He went overseas in 1971, primarily to raise project finance and to discover how the building group within their company might be transformed so that building services would be integrated with structural work, resulting in a joint venture with Bill DiGiacomo, their first project being the Orange Civic Centre, Orange, NSW.

Isaacs became interested in export work in the early 1970's and because of his previous experience with Qantas, was convinced that Australia needed an airport aviation consulting group. Subsequently in 1978, within the framework of McDonald Wagner, Airport Consulting & Construction Australia Pty Ltd was established. Early studies were concerned with local aerodromes - Coffs Harbour, Cairns and the Pacific Islands He became involved in the upgrading of aviation facilities in Bangladesh, and later won the Honiara airport project in the Solomon Islands.

In 1984 Isaacs became Vice-Chairman of Consult Australia (the new name given to the Australian Professional Consultants Council) and Chairman in 1986, while at the same time providing export advice to the Association of Consulting Engineers Group. The function of Consult Australia was to bring together the various professions and to assist them in understanding what export was about; were also involved in concessional finance - The Development Import Finance Facility (DIF).

McDonald Wagner by this time had grown into a very large company. Isaacs however was desirous of getting back to his original engineering roots and decided to set up a small engineering company which would continue his concept of integration. Around the same time, McDonald Wagner was invited by architects Travis Partners to help with their bid for the Chifley Square site. Bond Corporation was chosen to actually put in the bid, which was successful.

Isaacs and his associates had decided to set up their new company; this was the beginning of their association with Flack & Kurtz, and it was this new company with its international connections which was appointed to do all the engineering on the Chifley Square site, unusual at that time. Isaacs believed that it was the integration of their team of well-known architects and engineers which won them the project. Another aspect that Isaacs found exciting and challenging was the fit outs of buildings, because of the close association with people and the integration of systems and services such as lighting, airconditioning, communications etc. Some of the larger fit outs Isaacs was involved in were Chifley Tower, and Allen, Allen & Helmsley. Later his company was involved in a major design and construction tender bid for the multi-use arena for the Sydney Olympics, but they came second.

Isaacs always derived great inspiration from engineering, and has a love of bridge construction, all kinds of bridges - again the integration process appealed to him. He began designing simple bridges, the first being three spans of 10 metres over Broughton Creek at Berry; among others were his first major one, the Clyde River Bridge at Nelligen on the South Coast of NSW; the bridge over the Myall River at Buladelah; the Fitzgerald Bridge over the Williams River near Raymond Terrace – this received much acclaim. Other small projects which gave him great satisfaction and for which he had a special fondness are a footbridge near Waverton railway station and the City Road footbridge near the University of Sydney - a satisfying feeling to know his creations are being used by people every day.

Isaacs believed that the challenges for engineers in the future years would be privatisation, and finding a way in which engineers can play a role in the decision-making process and not just be treated as technocrats. His interests in the future we19re: improving quality systems, keeping pace with the trends in the "greening" of buildings and improving the Australian approach to "greener" buildings. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia; a Member of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia; a Member of the Concrete Society of the UK; a Member of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering; a Member of the Association of Consulting Engineers, Australia; and a Registered Professional Engineer.

Isaacs had married Robin. and they had here children, Gregory, Robert and Carolyn.

Phillip Isaacs was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on Queens Birthday 2006. ‘For service to civil engineering, particularly in the area of environmentally sustainable building design and construction, and to the arts through opera.’

Phillip Isaacs was an active member of Rotary. For an appreciation of his work there please use this link:

https://bluemountainsrotary.org/stories/copy-of-trivia-night-2

Isaacs died on 14 February 2019.

Prepared by Jill Willis, May 2006 from oral history interview conducted on 25 October 1997.

To access an oral history interview with Howard Knox Worner please use this link:

https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney