Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- Locking the Murray: the heritage of engineering process
- In
- 19th Australasian engineering heritage conference: putting water to work: steam power, river navigation and water supply
- Imprint
- Engineering Heritage Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 2017, pp. 204-221
- ISBN/ISSN
- 9781922107923
- Url
- https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.384670449661001
- Subject
- Chronological Classification 1901- Applied Sciences Engineering and Technology
- Abstract
The South Australian Government (SAG) took the lead in planning and construction of the River Murray locks and weirs, from Lock 1 at Blanchetown, SA, to Lock 9 in NSW, and the Lake Victoria Storage in western NSW. Construction stretched over 20 years, starting at Lock 1 in June 1915. Planning however had begun much earlier with a survey of the Murray to identify potential lock locations (1906-1914) and the engagement in 1912 of Captain Johnston, of the US Army Corps of Engineers, to advise on design and construction. In 2001 the Institute of Engineers nominated the River Murray Works as a National Engineering landmark. But the heritage of the works includes more than the structures themselves, encompassing many aspects of the process. There are two associated heritage riverboats: PS Ruby, used by Johnston for determining the size of the larger locks, and PS Captain Sturt, custom-built at Cincinnati, Ohio, as a stern-wheeler to push barges of stone into place. This paper provides a broad approach to the heritage of the River Murray works, covering the remarkable set of maps and field books, the photographic record held by SA Water, the construction villages, and some surviving physical items relating to the construction phase.
- Source
- cohn 2018
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- 19th Australasian engineering heritage conference: putting water to work: steam power, river navigation and water supply edited by Engineers Australia and Engineering Heritage Australia (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Engineers Australia, 2017), 536 pp. Details