Henry Austin Wilshire

He was the youngest child of James Robert Wilshire MLC, Sydney's second elected mayor,[1] who had died the week before Henry was born.

He was a member of the Committee of the Institute on various occasions from 1893 through to 1919, and held a number of executive positions including Vice-President (1897–1899) and Honorary Treasurer (1901).

In the early 1890s, the Mosman/Cremorne/Neutral Bay area was a hive of residential development activity, supported by the introduction of the steam ferry service from Circular Quay.

On their return, he designed a number of flat-roofed houses, located in the Mosman/Neutral Bay area,[15] two of which are listed on the NSW Heritage Register.

He was also an active member of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, including serving as a vice-president and trustee.

[22] In 1925, at the instigation of the Palm Beach Progress Association Warringah Shire Council named Wilshire Park in recognition of his contributions to the area.

[23] Towards the end of WWI, 'Furlough House'[24] was established at Narrabeen, a Sydney beachside suburb, to provide holidays for wives and children of servicemen.

[30] In 1916, he submitted the winning design in a competition organised by the Synod of the Sydney Archdiocese of the Church of England,[31] for significant extensions and alterations to the Chapter House at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney,[32] He also did commissions for other denominations: in 1886, he designed the Sunday School for the Ashfield Wesleyan (now Uniting) Church,[33] now the headquarters for Bill Crews's Exodus Foundation.

In 1894 he and E E Tournay-Hinde were granted a patent for a form of water crossing consisting of submerged iron tubes for pedestrian or vehicular traffic[36] and, in the same year, they developed an innovative proposal to replace the old Pyrmont Bridge (Sydney) with a tunnel.

[37] In 1888 he, along with George Taylor Shaw, applied for a patent for a 'portable and floating swimming bath',[38] and in 1911 he acquired the rights[39] to a 'rotary excavator' invented by his cousin Henry Rawes Whittell.