Biographical entry Whitton, John (1820 - 1898)

Summary

John Whitton was Engineer-in-Chief of the New South Wales Railways 1856-90. One of his challenges was building the Blue Mountains line, where he overcame the engineering problems by 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 attributable to defective design or construction.

Published resources

Books

• Lee, Robert Stuart, Colonial engineer: John Whitton 1819-1898 and the building of Australia's railways, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2000, 352 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Singleton, C.C., 'Whitton, John (1820-1898), engineer', in Bede Nairn (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 6, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1976, pp. 393-394. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060424b.htm. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Whitton, John', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://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/scripts/tia-dynindex.php3?EID=P004062. Details