Adams, Robert (1828 - 1873)

Summary

Robert Adams CE, was the Resident Engineer for the Victorian Railways from its establishment in 1856 until 1861, under the Engineer-in-Chief, George Christian Darbyrshire. Adams was responsible for laying out the lines and designing the major structures on the lines from Melbourne to Bendigo, and from Geelong to Ballarat. He later worked as the engineer for the contractors for the lines, Cornish and Bruce, and from 1867 until his death was the City Surveyor for the City of Melbourne.

Details

Chronology

1842 -

Career position - Engineer, East and West India Docks, London [working with his father John Samuel Adams]

c. 1848 -

Career position - Engineer, Birmingham Junction Railway [under Samuel Dickinson Martin]

1853

Life event - Immigrated to Australia

1856 - 1861

Career position - Resident Engineer, Victorian Railways [under George Darbyshire]

1857 - 1859

Career event - Member, Philosophical Institute of Victoria

1859 - 1873

Career event - Member, Royal Society of Victoria

1861 - c. 1866

Career position - Contractors Engineer, Cornish and Bruce

1864

Lecture - Presented paper "Yarra Floods and their Remedy", to the Royal Society of Victoria

1866

Career position - Councillor, Royal Society of Victoria

1867 - 1873

Career position - City Surveyor, City of Melbourne

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Cumming, D. A., Some Public Works Engineers in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 1985), 59 pp. p.1. Details
• Harper, Brian C. S., Engineering challenges in nineteenth century Victoria (Port Melbourne: the author, 2016), 256 pp. Book sections: 'The Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway'; 'The Saltwater River Bridge'; 'The Taradale Viaduct' pp.17-9, 23-4, 207, 209-212, 221, 228, 240-1, 245-51. Details

Conference Papers

• Harper, B. C. S., 'The True History of the Design of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander, and Murray River Railway', in Engineering Heritage Matters: Conference Papers of the 12th National Conference on Engineering Heritage, Toowoomba, 29 September to 1 October 2003 edited by Sheridan, Norman (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Engineers Australia, 2003), pp. 72-78., https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.335276980243937. Details

Journal Articles

• Adams, Robert, 'Yarra Floods and their Remedy', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 6 (1864), 148-155, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/105621#page/262/mode/1up. Details
• Harper, Brian, 'The True History of the Design of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway', Australian Journal of Multi-disciplinary Engineering, 3 (1) (2005), 83-90, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.194900286573937. Details