Chapter 6
I Construction During The Settlement Years
II The Use Of Timber As A Structural Material
III Structural Steel
IV Concrete Technology
V Housing
VI Industrialised Pre-cast Concrete Housing
VII Ports And Harbours
VIII Roads
IX Heavy Foundations
i Hawkesbury Railway Bridge
ii Impact of Floods
iii Hydraulic Jetting
iv Development Between First and Second World Wars
v Foundations Post-Second World War
vi Victorian Arts Centre
vii Bowen Bridge
X Bridges
XI Sewerage
XII Water Engineering
XIII Railways
XIV Major Buildings
XV Airports
XVI Thermal Power Stations
XVII Materials Handling
XVIII Oil Industry
XIX The Snowy Mountains Scheme
XX The Sydney Opera House
XXI The Sydney Harbour Bridge
XXII Hamersley Iron
XXIII North West Shelf
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Impact of Floods
An additional difficulty facing the colonial engineers arose from the lack of adequate information on extreme floods. Unable even to adopt the time-worn rule of thumb that set the maximum flood at the level of the ferryman's doorstep, they were required to extend their judgment into the realms of guesswork. Thus, for instance, the Albert Street Railway Bridge in Brisbane, built in 1875 with a clearance of 30 feet above the highest known flood, was washed away a mere eighteen years later. Floodwaters rose close to the girders, carrying large masses of debris (including numerous houses and other buildings) and scoured the river bed to a depth of 40 feet. Time was to show that such violent floods were characteristic of many Queensland rivers, and that deep and strong foundations were essential.
People in Bright Sparcs - Sewell, A. P.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition page 350, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/352.html