Published Resources Details
Resource
- Title
- John Monash: Engineering enterprise prior to WW1 (c1896 - 1914)
- Imprint
- 2020
- Url
- https://web.archive.org/web/20211130083556/http://aholgate.com/
- Format
- HTML
- Description
This extensive website, developed by Alan Holgate (1937 - 2023), is now archived.
Originally hosted at home.vicnet.net.au/~aholgate/jm/, archived at Trove from 2002 - 2014. Alan later hosted it at aholgate.com from 2013 to c2020, and this version is archived at web.archive.org.
Copies of the digital files, and documents related to the project, were handed by Alan to Melbourne University Archives in 2020.
- Abstract
John Monash ran a successful engineering business chiefly in Victoria (Australia) but also in South Australia and to some extent Tasmania from 1894 to 1914. He pursued a parallel career in the Citizen Military Forces. Late in 1914, at the age of 49, he left for WW1 and gained fame as a commander of ANZAC and allied forces on the Western Front. On his return he played a leading role in the establishment of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.
This website presents stories of engineering design and construction from the period prior to WW1, with photographs and drawings. No technical knowledge is required to follow the main stories which contain much human interest. The site should be of interest to anyone with an interest in technology (specifically civil engineering) and in business, as well as to historians. The emphasis is on content rather than style.
Website aims:
* To provide information on the engineering component of Monash's career prior to WW1;
* To document and publicise extant constructions built by Monash's firms;
* To document the history and workings of Monash's firms;
* To provide an impression of the nature of civil engineering.It has been suggested, by military men as well as civil engineers, that Monash's experience in the industry made a positive contribution to his success as a military commander. Other claims are that he was a significant pioneer of reinforced concrete - some say on the world stage, others say merely in Victoria. The first step in assessing these claims is to know just what he did do as an engineer prior to WW1.
Monash left monuments to his work all around Victoria and in South Australia and Tasmania. Many of these are worth preserving. Thanks to his meticulous record-keeping there is a wealth of material available to build up a picture of the history and workings of a medium-sized civil engineering business. True, it all happened 100 years ago; but human nature is a constant; and the relative simplicity of the technology involved means that the decision-making and administrative aspects of engineering are more evident.