Sir John Kemp
KEMP, Sir John Roger, Hon. MEQld MInstCE MIEAust (1883-1955)
KEMP, JOHN ROBERT, civil engineer and administrator, was born at Yendon, Victoria, on 6 October 1883. Educated at state schools and privately, he started a degree course at the University of Melbourne but completed his professional training from 1905 to 1906 with the Public Works Department. He joined the Commonwealth Patent office as an Assistant Examiner and in March 1910 became the Karkarooc Shire Engineer in north west Victoria. The Shire thought him a "rattling good officer", and was proud when in October 1913 he became the second engineer appointed to the staff of the newly-formed Victorian Country Roads Board.
Kemp came to Queensland in October 1920 as the first Chairman of the Main Roads Board. The first task was to gain the co-operation of the shires, and within two years the Board had travelled from Coolangatta to Cooktown and into the west, meeting councillors, explaining the new Act to them, and allaying their fears. Kemp selected J.E. England, who had a good background in the Queensland Public Service, as Secretary/ Accountant and the technical staff came largely from Queensland Railways and the Lands Department, with young graduates from the University of Queensland.
The Act stated that the first need was for roads from "farm to railway station", and there were major technical problems in climbing the steep coastal scarps and crossing the black soil of the Darling Downs. In these early days of motor transport the first research done by the Board was the effect of vehicle tyres on road pavements. Kemp dominated the Board, and in 1925 he had the Act amended to make him the sole Commissioner of Main Roads. His field widened in 1932 when he became Chairman of an interdepartmental committee within the Bureau of Industry, set up to find suitable public works to relieve unemployment. As a result he became chairman of the River Bridge Board (which brought J.A. Holt to Brisbane to design the Story Bridge), the Stanley River Works Board (formed in 1934 to build the Somerset Dam under the direction of W.H.R. Nimmo (q.v.)) and of the University Works Board (which developed the present site at St Lucia).
In January 1939 Kemp was given an additional appointment as the first Co ordinator General of Public Works, responsible for planning and co-ordinating the State's works programme. In 1942 he was also made Deputy Director General of Allied Works and he used the facilities already under his control, together with the new Civil Constructional Corps, to build urgent war-works, including Cairncross Dock, 250 km of new road from Mount Isa to Tennant Creek and some fifty strategic airfields. After the war the Co-ordinator General's Department absorbed the Bureau of Industry; Holt and Nimmo became, respectively, the Chief Engineers of the Structures and the Hydraulics Branches of the Department which built major rail and road bridges, dams, and hydro-electric projects throughout Queensland, and continued with construction at St Lucia. Kemp also became Deputy Chairman of the Queensland-British Food Corporation from 1947 to 1953 which opened up the brigalow lands of central Queensland. He stood down as Commissioner of Main Roads in 1949, and in January 1954 he was succeeded by Holt as Co-ordinator General.
Kemp was able to do so much for Queensland because he combined a strong character with wide interests and sound engineering judgement and, although his ambition was to do everything himself, he was good at delegating executive authority. His pioneering work with the Main Roads Commission gave him both a thorough knowledge of Queensland and the confidence of the Government, which turned to him for advice on all engineering matters from the registration of professional engineers to the re-organization of electricity supply. He had the respect and admiration of his staff, mixed with awe and a wry amusement. He was Chairman of the Brisbane Division of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, in 1924 and 1925 and President in 1931. In 1942 he was awarded both the Peter Nichol Russell Memorial Medal of the Institution and the Kernot Memorial Medal of the University of Melbourne. From 1944 to 1955 he was a member of the Senate of the University of Queensland.
Sir John, who was made Knight-Bachelor in 1951, died in Brisbane on 28 February 1955; his first wife died in 1952, and his second wife, whom he married in 1954, survived him; he had no children.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
C.Lack, 'Three Decades of Queensland Political History' (Brisb, 1959);
A.J. Wheeler,'Sir John Kemp', Planner Vol.18, No. 2 (1978);
Information from Mr. R.A. Boyd, Karkarooc Shire Engineer Victoria, the C.R.B. Victoria, discussions with former colleagues and personal recollections.
NOTE: John Kemp has also been recognised in the Queensland Hall of Fame
and was Engineers Australia Queensland President 1924 and 1927 QLD Presidents
