Henry Stanley
STANLEY, Henry Charles, MInstCE (1840-1921)
STANLEY, HENRY CHARLES, railway civil engineer, was born in Edinburgh on 15 August 1840, the brother of F.D.G. Stanley, the best known early Brisbane architect. After two years of preliminary study at the University of Edinburgh he was articled for five years to a firm of consulting engineers and trained on railway construction in Scotland.
On completion of his articles Stanley migrated to Brisbane and in October 1863 was appointed assistant to Abraham Fitzgibbon, who had just been engaged by the Government to build a railway from Ipswich to Toowoomba; construction started in February 1864. In January 1865, before the first section was opened to Grandchester, Stanley was appointed Engineer to the province of Marlborough, New Zealand, but when a scheme to build a railway from Picton to Blenheim lapsed he returned to Queensland in January 1866. He was re engaged by the Government and employed first on the Rockhampton to Westwood Railway, and in June 1866 became Resident Engineer on the Southern and Western Railway, where construction was in progress on the main range towards Toowoomba. Fitzgibbon was replaced by H.T. Plews in August 1867, who in turn was replaced by Stanley as Chief Engineer in September 1872; the line had reached Dalby and Warwick by then and the immediate task was building the contentious link between Ipswich and Brisbane, previously considered unnecessary because "there was a navigable river alongside".
Construction started in January 1873 but in May 1874 Stanley was replaced, nominally because costs were much greater than the parliament had approved. As a change of ministry had brought to power a party bitterly opposed to Stanley's choice of Roma Street as the Brisbane terminus, the "Brisbane Courier" understandably thought that he was "punished for political rather than professional reasons"; after acting as Engineer in Charge of Surveys he was reinstated as Chief Engineer, Southern and Western Railway, in September 1875.
After his reinstatement Stanley was given increasing responsibility. In 1878, when he took over the two separate railways feeding Maryborough and Bundaberg, his title was changed to Chief Engineer, Southern Division; in 1886 there was a major regrouping and he was given the Central Division and in 1892 he became Chief Engineer for Railways for Queensland. The Railways Department was by far the most important Government department, absorbing about 70 per cent of the total public capital expenditure between 1860 and 1900; the 1880s were the peak years of mainline construction and by 1890 there was a rail connection to Sydney through Wallangarra while the western, central and northern termini were at Charleville, Barcaldine and Hughenden respectively. Bundaberg was not connected to Brisbane until 1891, and there was no continuous track along the coast between Bundaberg and Cairns where the line to the Tableland had just started. Expensive bridge construction was needed to close the gaps, but the financial crisis of 1891-94 prevented major construction and brought much retrenchment of staff. In the midst of this upheaval Stanley had his most urgent professional task - the replacement of the Albert Bridge at Indooroopilly which had been destroyed by the record flood of February 1893. By June the new bridge was designed and the plans sent to Professor W.H. Warren of Sydney for checking; when the bridge was opened in December 1895 it was, in Warren's words, "the finest example of a rivetted bridge in Australia" and it is still in use. The Institution of Civil Engineers awarded Stanley a Telford Premium for his paper on this bridge.
After 1894 mainline construction was resumed, including two important steel bridges (the Burdekin at Macrossan, and the Fitzroy at Rockhampton)· which were designed under Stanley's direction by two young graduates from the University of Sydney and completed in 1897. Before this, and for many years after, all the senior engineers in the Department were from Great Britain, or were trained by pupilage within the Department which gave one of the few opportunities in Queensland for professional training in civil engineering.
Stanley retired in September 1901 after being professionally responsible for about two-thirds of the 4500 km of railway track then open. He joined the Queensland Volunteer Defence Force in 1868, and commanded the Artillery as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 1890s. He died in Brisbane on 21 February 1921, leaving four sons and five daughters, his wife having predeceased him.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
Parl. Deb. {Qld), Vol. 15 (1873);
Alcazar Press, 'Queensland 19001 {Brlsb, 1900);
Qld Govt Rlwys, 10ur first Half Century' {Brlsb, 1914); V. Daddow, 'Puffing Pioneers and Queensland1s Railway Builders' {Brlsb, 1975);
Min. Proc. Inst. Clv. Engrs, Vol. 82 (1897-98);
Information from John Oxley Library, Qld State.Archives, Mr. J.F. Clarke and Professor C. O'Connor, Brisbane.
