Waitt, Frank William Foster (1895 - 1989)

Summary

Frank Waitt was the Chief Hydraulic engineer, Commonwealth Department of Works. He took a leading role in investigating rainfall and catchment runoff, stream flows, flood estimation and reservoir yields associated with many major projects across Australia. His method of using the lowest streamflow sequence on record as the basis of a "safe yield" for a water reservoir, described in his 1945 paper, was widely adopted as the "Waitt" or "Rippl and Waitt" method. Later, when working as a consultant with Scott and Furphy consulting engineers, he guided the development of innovative methods for analysing complex urban catchments and storm water stream and drainage flows.

His father, William Arthur Foster Waitt (1863-1949), was Secretary and later Manager, of John Danks and Son Pty. Ltd., Melbourne and Sydney, the well known hardware manufacturer and distributor.

Details

Frank Waitt provided evidence to the following Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers:
- 'Report Relating to the Proposed Construction of a Sewerage Installation at Alice Springs, Northern Territory'; CA PP No.73 (1948-49), pp.10-11
- 'Report Relating to Proposed Extension to the Water Supply Storage System at Canberra, A.C.T.'; CA PP No.52 (1954-55) pp.1-32

He also contributed to discussions of papers in overseas publications, including in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Chronology

- 1960

Career position - Chief Hydraulic engineer, Commonwealth Department of Works

1916 - 1919

Military service - First World War. On active service. 10th and 17th Field Companies Engineers, AIF [under Major W.T.B. McCormack MInstCE, Lt-Col. Clogstoun RE]

1919

Career event - Foundation Junior Member (JrIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1920

Education - Bachelor of Civil Engineering (BCE(hons)), University of Melbourne

1920 - 1922

Career position - Engineering Draftsman, Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage (MBWSS), Sydney [under J.G.S. Purvis, engineer-in-chief; B.Rourke, Chief draftsman]

1922 - 1924

Career position - Assistant to Supervising engineer, Water Supply Maintenance, Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage (MBWSS), Sydney [under H.J.Renwick]

1924 -

Career position - Resident engineer, Water main construction, Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage (MBWSS), Sydney

1924

Career event - Associate Member (AMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

9 Feb 1926

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

1930

Life event - Married Hilda St.Clair Andrews, Lindfield NSW

1931

Education - Master of Civil Engineering (MCE), University of Melbourne

1936 -

Career position - Engineer-in-charge, Water investigations, Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage (MBWSS), Sydney

1946

Career position - Engineer for Water Supply and Sewerage, Commonwealth Department of Works and Housing, in Victoria

c. 1948 -

Career position - Chief Hydraulic Engineer, Water Supply & Sewerage, Department of Works and Housing, Melbourne

1950

Career position - Engineer for Water Supply and Sewerage, Commonwealth Department of Works and Housing. [Assisted Queensland with the Walsh River irrigation scheme.]

1962

Career event - Member (MIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1968

Career event - Fellow (FIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia [Former Members were designated Fellows on this date.]

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Robinson, G.E.; Waitt, F.W.F., Report on Warragamba Dam flood provision (Sydney, NSW: 1942). Details
• Waitt, F. W. F.; O'Neill, I. C., Systematic variation of dry season river flows. [Australian Water Resources Council ; 69/18] (Melbourne, Vic: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Melbourne, 1974), 62 pp. Details
• Waitt, F.W.F., Report on a visit to Canada and the United States of America, 1939 (Sydney, NSW: Sydney Water Board, 1939), 52 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Waitt, F. W. F., 'Maintenance and Protection of Cast Iron Water Pipes with Special Reference to Economic Factors', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 6 (1934), 293. Details
• Waitt, F. W. F., 'Studies of Droughts in the Sydney Catchment Areas', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 17 (4-5) (1945), 90-97, Discussion pp.149, 224. Details
• Waitt, F. W. F., 'The Variability of Annual and Seasonal River Discharge', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 34 (1962), 265-273. Details

Resources

• Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 17618, 1926', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details

Theses

• Waitt, F.W.F., 'The economical maintenance of cast iron water mains : with special reference to mains of small diameter.', M.C.E. thesis, University of Melbourne, 1931, 54 pp. Details