Person
Fisk, Ernest Thomas (1886 - 1965)
Kt
- Born
- 8 August 1886
Sunbury, Middlesex, England - Died
- 8 July 1965
Roseville, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Businessman, Entrepreneur and Radio engineer
Summary
Ernest Fisk was a pioneer radio engineer in Australia. He earned his qualifications while working for the Marconi Company in the United Kingdom. His work included conducting apparently impossible experiments to demonstrate the capabilities of wireless transmission. Fisk visited Australia in 1910 to demonstrate Marconi's apparatus for the Orient Steam Navigation Co., successfully sending radio signals over 2000 miles. In 1911 he returned, as Marconi's Resident Engineer. When the Australian Government founded the Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA) in 1913, he was appointed General Manager, ultimately becoming Chairman and Managing Director. One of Fisk's greatest achievements was the establishment of a Beam Wireless Service, providing the longest and fastest telegraphic communications in the world. The first such communication between Australia and England was in January 1927. Fisk was an early advocate of solar, hydro and nuclear power. He resigned from AWA to become managing director and chief executive of the Electrical and Musical Industries group in London, but returned to Australia in 1956. Between 1927 and 1969 Fiskville, Victoria, was the location of the AWA's shortwave wireless transmission complex, part of the Imperial Wireless Chain.
Details
Chronology
- 1906 - 1913
- Career position - Radio engineer, Marconi Company
- 1913 - 1916
- Career position - General Manager, Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd
- 1914 - 1922
- Career position - President, New South Wales Division, Wireless Institute of Australia
- 1915 - 1926
- Career position - Member, Institute of Radio Engineers, U.S.A.
- 1916 - 1944
- Career position - Managing Director, Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd
- 1926 - 1951
- Award - Fellow, Institute of Radio Engineers, U.S.A.
- 1932 - 1944
- Career position - Chairman, Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd
- 1933
- Award - Member, Order of the Crown of Italy
- 1933
- Award - Fellow, Institution of Radio Engineers, Australia. (First Fellow)
- 1934 -
- Career position - Member, Royal Empire Society
- 1934 - 1936
- Career position - Vice-President, New South Wales Chamber of Manufacturers
- 1935
- Award - King George V's Silver Jubilee Medal
- 11 May 1937
- Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt)
- 1938 - 1940
- Career position - Vice-President, New South Wales Chamber of Manufacturers
- 1939
- Career position - President, Electrical and Radio Development Association
- 1939 - 1942
- Career position - Member, Road Safety Council of New South Wales
- 1941
- Career position - President, Royal Empire Society
- 1944
- Career position - President, Royal Empire Society
- 1944 - 1952
- Career position - Managing Director, Electrical and Musical Industries group (EMI)
- 1951 - 1965
- Award - Life Fellow, Institute of Radio Engineers, U.S.A.
Related entries
Archival resources
Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales
- Ernest Thomas Fisk - Records, 1906 - 1952, ML MSS 2768; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
Published resources
Book Sections
- Goot, Murray, 'Fisk, Sir Ernest Thomas (1886-1965)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 508-510. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080531b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- 'Sir Ernest Fisk, Kt, 1886-1965', Proceedings of the Institution of Radio and Electronics Engineers, Australia, 26 (7) (1965), A16. Details
- Given, Jock, 'Not being Ernest: Uncovering Competitors in the Foundation of Australian Wireless', Historical Records of Australian Science, 18 (2) (2007), 159-176, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR07012. Details
- Johnson, Frank, 'Sir Ernest Thomas Fisk (1885 - 1965): Australia's pioneer real radio man', Engineering heritage Australia magazine, 3 (6) (2020), 9-17, https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-10/EHA_Magazine_Vol3_No6_September_2020.pdf. Details
- Moloney, David, 'Uniting the Empire: the Australian Beam Wireless Service at Rockbank and Fiskville', Australian Journal of Multi-disciplinary Engineering, 6 (1) (2008), 97-109, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.167280536979150. Details
- Williams, N., 'Ernest T. Fisk: Pioneer, Visionary and Entrepreneur - 1', Electronics Australia (1989), 40-43. Details
Newspaper Articles
- 'Honours List [Coronation Awards - News South Wales]', Sydney Morning Herald (1937), 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17367052. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q15430102. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/92374264. Details
- 'Fisk, Ernest (1886-1965)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-516013. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Fisk, Ernest Thomas', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000406p.htm. Details
See also
- Engineers Australia ed., Anything is possible: 100 Australian engineering leaders (Barton, A.C.T.: Institution of Engineers Australia, 2019), 136 pp. 'A Giant Amongst Peers - Sir Ernest Fisk' p.37. Details
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education