Person

Barrow, John (c. 1809 - 1872)

Born
c. 1809
Died
27 August 1872
Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia
Occupation
Civil engineer and Surveyor

Summary

After arriving in South Australia in 1850, Barrow became the Surveyor for the Southern District of the Central Roads Board. He went to the gold diggings in Victoria in 1852-3. From 1853, he was an Assistant Engineer and Road Surveyor to the Western District of Victoria, and surveyed the main roads, the ports and harbours and supervised the construction of jetties at Portland, Port Fairy (Belfast), and Warrnambool.

He was appointed Engineer to the Portland Road District in 1856, and later the Portland Shire. In 1867, he resigned and went to Mount Gambier, where he proposed designs for a harbour at Port Macdonnell, and a scheme to supply water to Mount Gambier from its Blue Lake.

His son James John Barrow CE (1840 -1901) was also a surveyor and engineer in the south east district of South Australia.

Details

Major Works:
* South Road, Adelaide 1850-52;
* Survey of Port Fairy, Belfast. [PP Vic. 1853/54 C.38a];
* Survey of Lady Bay, Warrnambool. [PP Vic.. 1854 C.38];
* Survey of Portland Bay [PP Vic. 1854/1855 C.12];
* Report on Improvements to Port Macdonnell, South Australia 1868;
* Report on Water Supply to Mount Gambier 1868;
* Map of Mount Gambier, 1869.

See also:
* "Report of the Select Committee ... on ... Warrnambool Harbor" RSC 1856-7 (6) [LC V&P Vic. 1856-7. S1. pp.469-498]

[He may have been granted a "Certificate of Competency as Engineer and Surveyor (CE)" under the Shires Statute and Boroughs Statute 1869 VIC, but no record has been located.]

Chronology

1850
Life event - Migrated to South Australia from England
1850 - 1852
Career position - Engineer, South Road, Central Road Board, South Australia
1852 - 1856
Career position - Assistant Engineer, Western District, Public Works Department, Victoria
1856 - 1866
Career position - Engineer, Portland Road District, Victoria
1866 - 1867
Career position - Shire Engineer, Portland Shire, Victoria
1868 - 1872
Career position - Engineer, Mount Gambier, South Australia
1872
Life event - Buried, Lake Terrace Cemetery, Mount Gambier, South Australia

Published resources

Books

  • Cumming, D. A., Some Public Works Engineers in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 1985), 59 pp. pp.1-2. Details
  • Cumming, D. A.; Moxham, G. C., They built South Australia : engineers, technicians, manufacturers, contractors and their work (Adelaide: D.A. Cumming and G.C Moxham, 1986), 241 pp. p.22. Details

Newspaper Articles

Parliamentary papers

See also

  • Alsop, Peter F. B. ed., Nineteenth century engineers in the colony of Victoria (Geelong North, Victoria: Author, 2002), 372 pp. Details

Ken McInnes

EOAS ID: biogs/P006842b.htm

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