Robert Watson (engineer)
| Robert Watson | |
|---|---|
Robert Watson
|
|
| Born | 21 November 1822 Dartington |
| Died | 7 April 1891 (aged 68) Melbourne, Victoria |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | civil engineer |
| Projects | North East railway line, Victoria |
Robert Watson (21 November 1822 – 7 April 1891) was an English and Australian civil engineer. He was also a surveyor and railway engineer.
Robert Watson was born on 21 November 1822 at Dartington, near Totnes, Devonshire, England. He was educated first at local schools, and subsequently at the Exeter Diocesan College. Watson married Elizabeth Galsworthy not long after arriving in Victoria, who died several years afterwards in England. He had two sons, only one of whom, Robert, survived him. Robert Watson's brother Mr. G. H. Watson, was also a surveyor, and for a while was residing at Sandhurst in Victoria.
In the 1830s Watson became articled pupil to Henry Symons, of Plymouth, where he had experience in the construction of the South Devon Railway, and was also engaged under William Froude on the and the North Devon Railway. Between 1849 and 1861 he spent a year with an architect in London, and a year with a mechanical engineer working on the erection of the Hanwell and the Warwick Lunatic Asylums. In 1852 he joined Messrs. Locke and Errington, working on the Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth and the Direct Portsmouth railway lines.
Watson left England in November 1854, travelling to Melbourne, Victoria. This was a time when the infant colony was commencing large railway construction projects, in comparison with the end of the 'railway mania' in Britain and the decline in railway construction, which saw many of the new profession of civil engineer unemployed. The obituaries of a number of these early members of the profession published by the Institution of Civil Engineers refer to the member being forced to retreat to the family property to be supported through the downturn, or for those from less well established families to find employment overseas.
Watson almost immediately joined George Christian Darbyshire, Engineer of Construction, then District Surveyor at Williamstown. The surveys were under the control of the Surveyor-General, Captain (Sir Andrew Clarke), and Darbyshire. His first work was to lay out the main road from Melbourne to Ballarat, with instructions to examine the country with a view to possible future railway construction. The levels over this road were the first taken deep into the country. The datum was an assumed low-water mark in Hobson's Bay, and the levels for the whole railway system of the colony were reduced to it.
...
Wikipedia