Gerald Haskins
He was one of the three original principals of the consulting engineering firm Gutteridge Haskins and Davey, which continues today in the form of the GHD Group.
He then worked for the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board, as Assistant Engineer, based in Newcastle, from around 1917.
During this time he reported to the legendary civil engineer, Ernest de Burgh, who oversaw the entire Upper Nepean Scheme.
It seems that Henley's attitude, by his own admission, stemmed from the circumstance of Haskins' appointment as Chief Engineer, and how for "at least three years he declared he had opposed the enormous waste in the board's engineering works and the discharge of the board's own trained men who were superseded by university-trained theorists, juniors from Public Works Department, and former associates of Mr Haskins.
[30] The solution had been proposed by Haskins in 1930, and endorsed by two prominent Australian civil engineers of the time, Edgar Ritchie and Henry Dare.
Haskins had encouraged one of the Water Board's engineers, S. T. Farnsworth, to experiment with the use of bituminous linings of welded-steel pipes.
(Over time, free use of the cement-mortar lining process was estimated to have saved the Water Board millions of pounds in construction costs.
)[35][36] The commercial arrangements relating to the patents and the pipe lining ventures came within the scope of Royal Commission looking into the Water Board,[37][38] adding to Haskin's woes.
The findings were critical of Haskins' design of the remedial works—finding that he had made "errors of judgement"—and his and Farnsworth's holding "a financial interest in a patent which might conceivably have been an influence upon the discharge of their official duties".
[39][40] Even though the Water Board praised the remedial actions he had underway, Haskins retired from his position as Chief Engineer, in June 1933.
Haskins' nemesis, the increasingly erratic Sir Thomas Henley, fell from a Manly ferry and drowned, in May 1935; a coroner's inquest found that his death was accidental, although there is some evidence suggesting it was a suicide.
From 1927 to 1932, Hoskins had been overseeing the progressive relocation of the company's operations from Lithgow to Port Kembla, where a new steelworks was built.
In 1933, having resigned from the Water Board, Haskins was appointed as an Assistant General Manager of the new steelworks at Port Kembla.
Employment of a university-qualified engineer was an unusual development; Cecil Hoskins and many of those in his company's management were unconvinced of any benefits of a university education, something that in the longer term was detrimental to them[45] and probably something difficult for Haskins to overcome in his new role.
His younger colleague from earlier days, Geoffrey Davey, was also put in charge of the installation of the company's new sheet mill.
[45][47][48][49] After the difficult interlude at Port Kembla and vindicated by the successful pressure tunnel remediation, Haskins was ready for fresh challenges.
Their homes followed Haskins' jobs, including seven years living in a 'comfortable bungalow' in the temporary town at the Avon dam construction site.
[48][59] After Haskins retirement, in 1942, the couple moved to a property known as 'Clear Hills', at Duckmaloi near Oberon, where they became well-respected members of the rural community.
[58] No longer known as Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey, the GHD Group is now a global professional services practice, owned by its employees.
