Places:email

Dear Colleague

I am asking you for help!

As I hope you know, the WA Engineering Heritage Committee of Engineers Australia has created a website to record and celebrate the history of engineering in Western Australia, using a form of software known as MediaWiki. This is the software that powers Wikipedia. Our site is at https://ehwa.mywikis.wiki/wiki/Main_Page. A small team of volunteers has written many short biographies of prominent engineers from the past, summaries of the various phases of development of the State, and material about many other related matters. However, we need much more, because we believe we should document the many and varied engineering sites and projects which are part of the story of engineering in Western Australia. Completing such a task is beyond the capacity of our small team if the work is to be completed in a reasonable timeframe.

I have attached a table that lists many sites and projects which the EHWA team would like to include in the wiki. All of these need to be written up, and that is our request to you: would you be willing to prepare one to two pages of material on one or more of the listed items, for inclusion in the wiki? If so, please choose from the list and let me know what you’ve chosen, so that I can ensure two or more don’t choose the same item.

Guidelines for preparing a project write up are set out below.

Contributions should be returned to engineeringheritagewa@gmail.com. The wiki team will then ensure your work meets the site guidelines, any cross referencing to other pages is completed, and your images are correctly sized. Once that’s done your work will be uploaded, and we will make sure you know it’s there so you can check it out.

EHWA hopes that you will support its efforts to make the website as complete as possible. To that end, we also invite you to become a “contributor” to the site, not just this once, but in future. Please visit https://ehwa.mywikis.wiki/wiki/Special:RequestAccount to see how to become part of the team.

Finally, and most importantly, if you can identify additional sites or projects which you consider worthy of inclusion on the website, PLEASE let us know, as soon as you can. We accept that we don’t know all that we should about the history of engineering in WA, and would greatly appreciate your advice in this regard.

Thanks and regards

Martin Silk Chair, Engineering Heritage WA 9 April 2020

GUIDANCE

When writing for the wiki site please note the following:

• Visit https://ehwa.mywikis.wiki/wiki/Places_by_Region and be guided by the style and substance of the places already included there (particularly the places NOT covered by the Engineering Heritage Recognition Program)
• Write one to two pages, up to about 1000 words, in an editable form such as Word (not PDF)
• Definitely don’t write a technical report; the target reader is an interested lay person, not other engineers
• Try to include some images (photos, diagrams) whatever adds to the story. Graphics make such a difference to a reader. You will probably find images on the Internet; please provide a caption and identify the source of each of your images.
• Do not worry about trying to locate your place or project with a Google Map; the subcommittee will create a map when posting your contribution into the wiki, if it’s thought necessary.
• If your contribution discusses something which is (or was) owned by an existing organisation (government or private), we will need permission from that organisation before we post your contribution to the wiki. If you can, please obtain permission in writing, or advise how EHWA might go about seeking permission.
• If you would like to be acknowledged as the author, please confirm.