Whitton, John (1820 - 1898)

Summary

John Whitton, MInstCE, was Engineer-in-Chief of the New South Wales Railways 1856 - 1890. One of his major challenges was building the Blue Mountains line, where he overcame the engineering problems by constructing two great zigzags. Although constantly hampered by government cheese-paring, he supervised the laying of 2171 miles (3474 km) of track, on which no accident had occurred that was attributable to defective design or construction.

Details

Chronology

2 May 1954

Career event - Member (MInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Lee, Robert, The greatest public work : the New South Wales railways, 1848 to 1889 (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1988), 184 pp. Details
• Lee, Robert Stuart, Colonial engineer: John Whitton 1819-1898 and the building of Australia's railways (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2000), 352 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Singleton, C.C., 'Whitton, John (1820-1898), engineer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 393-394. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060424b.htm. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q128459. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/48881663. Details
• 'Obituary. John Whitton, 1819–1898', Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers, https://doi.org/10.1680/imotp.1898.19196. Details
• Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 1232, 1854', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details
• 'Whitton, John (1820-18980220)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1465027. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_w.html. Details
• Andersen, Casper, 'Colonial connections and consulting engineers 1850-1914', Proceedings of the ICE: Engineering History and Heritage, 164 (4) (2011), 201-209, https://doi.org/10.1680/ehah.2011.164.4.201. Details
• Dorman, Selwyn; Hagarty, Don; Johnson, Geoff; Reid, Noel; Sharp, Stuart; Winney, Ken, 'Chapter 4: Sydney's railways' in Sydney: from settlement to city: an engineering history of Sydney, Don Fraser, ed. (Crows Nest, New South Wales: Engineers Australia, 1989), pp. 63-96. Details
• Engineers Australia ed., Wonders never cease: 100 Australian engineering achievements (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 236 pp. p.48. Details
• Engineers Australia ed., Anything is possible: 100 Australian engineering leaders (Barton, A.C.T.: Institution of Engineers Australia, 2019), 136 pp. 'Between the Lines - John Whitton' p.6. Details
• Institution of Engineers Australia. Sydney Division. Engineering Heritage Committee, The Historic Engineering Plaques of Australia (Milsons Point, New South Wales: The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1994), 38 pp. 'The Great Zig Zag, Lithgow, N.S.W.' p.11. Details
• Popplewell, Lawrence, A Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors and Engineers of Australia 1854-1940. Volume 1 (Southbourne, Dorset: Melledgen Press, 1992). Details