Lieutenant-Colonel William Reinhold
REINHOLD, William James, Lieutenant-Colonel OBE MC & Bar MID BE Qld MIEAustE (1889-1966)
REINHOLD, WILLIAM JAMES, civil and military engineer, was born and educated in Brisbane. In 1908 he passed the Senior Public Examination of the University of Sydney and taught in primary schools at Kangaroo Point and Warwick before entering the University of Queensland in 1911 with the first intake of engineering students. He graduated at the end of 1914 and was then selected with nine other Australian engineering graduates to serve with the Royal Engineers in World War I. He served as a commissioned officer in the 9th Scottish Division BEF, was three times mentioned in despatches, five times wounded and was awarded the MC and Bar. Returning to Queensland, he served simultaneously as Northern Engineer of the Public Estate Improvement Branch of the Department of Public Lands from July 1919 and the first Supervising Engineer for the Main Roads Board in north Queensland where he travelled by pack-horse locating routes for main roads through virgin tropical rain forest in mountainous country, including the Gillies Highway from Gordonvale to Yungaburra. The construction of culverts, bridges and sugar-cane tramlines, the location, design and construction of roads in the Maria Creek soldier settlement, Boonjee main road, the Bloomfield and Tully rivers areas, and the siting of the Tully central sugar mill were all carried out under Reinhold's direction.
Reinhold commenced practice as a consulting engineer in February 1923, operating from his home in Clayfield, Brisbane. The practice was closely linked with the Main Roads Board and many local authorities. The first road constructed by a local authority under the Main Roads Act of 1920 and supervised by a consulting engineer was the Boat Mountain road in the shire of Murgon, constructed in 1923 and supervised by Reinhold; the mountain section is still in use on its original alignment. By dint of his strong personality, gift of motivating men, ability to make decisions and willingness to travel extensively in primitive conditions, he built up his practice until it embraced thirty-seven local authorities in central and southern Queesland. It was dominated by the design and construction of highways, main roads, rural roads and traffic bridges. At the same time a wide variety of industrial and community assignments was handled, including the first Olympic-standard swimming complex in Queensland outside Brisbane, completed at Dalby in 1936.
Reinhold's engineering career reached it zenith _in World War II, firstly as Commander of the Milne Force Engineers at Milne Bay, New Guinea, where Japanese forces suffered their first major defeat on land in August 1942, and for which work he was awarded the military OBE in February 1944. The work at Milne Bay was surpassed by the construction of the 110 km Bulldog-Wau Road over the Owen Stanley Range, which it crossed at 3002 m at the Ecclestone Saddle, the highest altitude of any road in Australian territory. It was built between January and August 1943 under conditions of the utmost difficulty and was fully described by Reinhold in the John Thomson Lecture for 1945. General Blarney, the Australian Commander-in-Chief, said in a congratulatory personal letter to Reinhold, "Your unfailing loyalty and keen sense of duty is well deserving of the high honour conferred upon you. You have set a fine example to those serving with you and been a source of great encouragement to all". Osmar White, in the Melbourne "Herald" of April 1944, said "Miracle Road - probably the greatest feat of skill, ingenuity, and endurance ever performed by Australian Army Engineers". Invalided out of the army in November 1944, Reinhold returned home to rebuild his health and a practice that had been maintained by a skeleton staff during his absence.
In post-war years, the backlog in water-supply and sewerage schemes in smaller country towns, and the demands for improved road standards, ensured an adequate supply of work for a growing staff. The firm was also involved in the early developmental stages of the open-cut coal mine at Blair Athol, and Reinhold served on occasions as honorary consultant to the Brisbane Grammar School, the Brisbane Girls' Grammar School, the Red Cross Society, Legacy, and the Montrose Crippled Children's Home. Sir John Kemp (q.v.) said in a personal letter to Reinhold dated 14 January 1952, ‘’••• You may fairly claim to be one of the pioneers in helping to make the State more habitable and prosperous, and must derive satisfaction from it".
Always active in sport, he had been captain of cricket at school, and was for some time Captain of the Indooroopilly Golf Club. Bill Reinhold died in Greenslopes Military Hospital on 27 August 1966 after a long illness; he had been twice married and was survived by his second wife.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
'Brisbane Grammar School Annals, 1869-19221 (Brisb, 1923);
Information from the Fryer Memorial Library, University of Qid;
Mrs Jean Reinhold, Messrs V & E.C. Reinhold, Brisbane, former colleagues and personal recollectlons.
NOTE: William Reinhold has also been recognised in the Queensland Hall of Fame.
Papers Published:
“Pioneer Road Location and Construction in the Scrub Lands of North Queensland” by W J Reinhold 1922.
