Halligan, Gerald Harnett (1856 - 1942)

Summary

Gerald Halligan worked for the New South Wales Department of Public Works from 1871 to 1918. He had many roles including chief surveyor in charge of all borings for harbour and bridge construction and inspecting engineer from 1911. Halligan was asked by the Royal Society of London to join their expedition to the Pacific atoll of Funafuti in the Ellice Islands where he supervised the coral borings. His help was also sought after by the Tasmanian government on issues relating to sand drift on agricultural land. Even after his official retirement in 1918, Halligan continued to work, completing a hydrographical survey of Lake Eyre and producing many oceanographic maps for the Pan Pacific Science congresses held in 1923 and 1929. Halligan was also internationally recognized for his expertise in oceanography, especially in the areas or tides, currents and sand dune formation.

Details

Chronology

1871 - 1879

Career position - Assistant in the Department of Public Works in New South Wales

1880 - 1942

Career position - Member, Royal Society of New South Wales

Jul 1889

Career position - Chief Supervisor of Harbours and Rivers Navigation Branch of the NSW Department of Public Works

1897 -

Career position - Member of the Linnean Society of New South Wales

1898

Career position - Royal Society (London) expedition to the Pacific atoll of Funafuti on the Ellice Islands

1899

Career position - Hydrographic Surveyor at the Department of Public Works, NSW

1900 - 1929

Career position - Fellow, Geological Society of London (FGS)

1911

Career position - Speaker at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London

1911 - 1918

Career position - Inspecting Engineer (Supervising Engineer) at the Department of Public Works in NSW

1918

Career position - Advisor to the Tasmanian Government

1918

Life event - Retired

1922

Career position - Hydrographical examination of Lake Eyre, South Australia

1926

Career event - Elected Associate Member (Geography), Australian National Research Council

Related entries

Published resources

Book Sections

• Evans, H. Vaughan, 'Halligan, Gerald Hartnett (1856-1942), hydrographer and civil engineer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), p. 171. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090163b.htm. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21538327. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/94961743. Details
• 'Halligan, G H (1856-1942)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1304258. Details