John Robb (civil engineer)

John Robb (4 September 1834 – 18 May 1896) was an Irish immigrant to Australia who was responsible for several important civil engineering works.

Robb was born in Lislaird near Castlederg, County Tyrone, Ireland, to Arthur Robb and his wife Sarah Robb, née Bird. In 1854 Robb and two brothers Robert (aged 18) and Samuel (aged 15) left for Australia aboard Fitzjames, arriving at Melbourne in October 1854. Robb found employment as a stone carter with fellow passenger Thomas Stranger, whose daughter Elizabeth he later married.

Around 1860 Stranger and Robb won a contract to demolish Batman's Hill to make way for the projected Spencer Street railway station.

He won contracts to build railway lines: Geelong to Colac; Portland to Hamilton and Ararat; Morwell to Mirboo; Murtoa to Warracknabeal and several others. He built railways in other States: South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.

Robb was also involved in water reticulation and sewerage projects in Victoria and South Australia, and the screwpile jetty and breakwater at Victor Harbor, South Australia, at the time heralded as an engineering marvel.

His last project was a section of the Cairns to Kuranda Railway in far North Queensland between Kamerunga & Myola, which involved a steep climb up the Barron Gorge. Robb’s 1887 tender of £290,094 was accepted, but proved inadequate for the work and expense involved, and though he was awarded another £20,000 after a lengthy legal battle, he lost substantially on the project. He was in 1894 found to be insolvent. He died two years later, immediately following a stroke.

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