John McDonald
McDONALD, John Alexander, MICE MIMechE MAmSocCE (1856-1930)
John McDonald was born in Islington, London on January 10, 1856. He was the third child of merchant James McDonald and his wife, Sarah. John’s father died before John reached the age of five, and by age fifteen, John was in a boarding school in Lambeth. He then studied engineering at Kings College, London for two years and completed his engineering qualification by three years pupillage with Joseph Jessop MIMechE, Charles James Appleby MIMechE and Thomas Hodgson Appleby. In 1878 McDonald became a Graduate Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and in 1880 a full Member.
McDonald had been working on the design and fabrication of the Gladesville Bridge at the foundry of Appleby Brothers in Greenwich and he was recruited to the NSW Roads and Bridges Department to complete its construction. In 1879, he came to NSW and completed the construction of the Gladesville Bridge by February 1891, working in Roads and Bridges Department of the NSW Public Works. He was also elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1891. In 1884 he patented a bridge expansion roller in Australia and England, with a USA patent being achieved in 1885.
McDonald took leave in 1886 to return to England to recover from illness. Between 1886 and 1893 he was responsible for the design of all seventeen iron lattice road bridges completed in NSW, including lift bridges and bascule bridges. In 1889 he became Chief Engineer for Bridges and had 19 bridge engineers working for him. He was described as having sardonic traits and he was frequently in conflict with other Departmental Heads.
McDonald developed a utilitarian truss, known as a McDonald Truss, shown in the photograph below flanking the larger bowstring trusses.
In April 1893, McDonald was amongst a large group of 246 staff retrenched from the NSW Department of Public Works being paid £938, a significant sum. He then travelled to the USA for six months to promote his patented bridge expansion roller.
John married Marion Gordon McCarthur in New York on November 8, 1893. In April 1894, McDonald arrived in Western Australia on the “SS Bulimba” and joined the WA Public Works Department as Executive Engineer, Fremantle Harbour Works. In June 1896 he was appointed, along with Locomotive Superintendent R B Campbell and NSW Consultant W M H Quirk, to review the requirement for a locomotive workshop at Midland. Their £250,000 concept, involving seven acres of workshop floor space, was criticised by C Y O’Connor for not including provision for electricity.
In January 1897, McDonald was appointed Assistant Chief Engineer and acted as Chief Engineer whilst C Y O’Connor was away from Western Australia for eight months in 1897. George Herbert Royce took on the role of Executive Engineer Fremantle Harbour Works during this period. McDonald set public targets for completing 1,000 feet of wharf for Fremantle Harbour, and exceeded these targets. He was rewarded by having the “SS Sultan” berth in Fremantle Harbour on May 4, 1897.
In 1898 McDonald travelled with his wife Marion to New Zealand on a recuperative holiday. Shortly after his return from New Zealand, in May 1898, he was suspended by C Y O’Connor over a dispute regarding responsibilities, but he was quickly reinstated after intervention by the Minister for Works.
In October 1898, John resigned from the WA Public Works Department and in June 1899 was reported as having accepted a position in China. He subsequently travelled to South Africa and by 1902 was involved in mine surveying and assaying in Rhodesia as well as the design of electric light stations in Cape Town. In 1903 he was appointed Deputy Engineer for the Municipality of Johannesburg and held this position until 1908. He returned for a holiday to Western Australia in November 1907.
In February 1912, he commenced five years as Engineer and Secretary for the Gisborne Harbour Board, New Zealand. In 1918 he was Engineer to the Gisborne Borough Council until his retirement in 1923. Two of the bridges he designed are on the New Zealand Heritage Register, including the Gladstone Road Bridge Gisborne, built in 1925.
John’s wife, Marion, died in Gisborne, New Zealand in February 1917. In 1919, John married Blanche De Warrenne Waller. He died in Gisborne on June 4, 1930, survived by Blanche.
Professor W H Warren of Sydney University said of John McDonald, in 1889:
“I can conscientiously state that Mr McDonald’s scientific and practical attainments are at least a high as those of any man in Australia. As a specialist in the design of bridges he is thoroughly acquainted with best modern practice and possesses a great faculty for organisation”.
References:
Cumming Papers
Graces Guide, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Obituaries, 1931
Lenore Coltheart, The Designers, The Timber Truss Bridge Book, NSW Roads and Maritime Services, 2019
NSW Public Service List 1894
West Australian, 28.4.1894, p. 4.
A G Evans, C Y O’Connor - His Life and Times, UWA Press, Crawley, 2001
West Australian, 18.12.1896, p. 5.
Kalgoorlie Miner, 22.12.1896, p. 2.
West Australian, 21.1.1898, p. 4.
Western Mail, 13.5.1898, p. 46.
