Brian Harper (BE Syd. MSc Qu. PhD Melb.) is a civil engineer and lecturer practicing in Melbourne, Australia who has contributed to documenting the history of engineering in Australia.
Engineering career
Harper trained as a civil engineer and town planner, graduating in civil engineering at Sydney UniversityUniversity of Sydney Graduates and completing post graduate studies in transport and traffic engineering in Canada.IEAust Engineering Heritage 'George Gordon and the Stony Creek Dam, Geelong' He spent much of his professional years working in the area of transportation, traffic and regional planning, in state, commonwealth and local government authorities. He was CEO of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe in the 1980s. The Age 29 Jan. 1988 p.4
Harper is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and member of the Engineering Heritage Australia Committee, Institute of Engineers Australia, Victoria Division, and a Fellow School of Social and Environmental Enquiry at the University of Melbourne. He sat on the Public Transportation Commission Technical Committee in 2007–8, helping steer the development of improvements to networking Melbourne's train systems.
Research
He later retired from professional practice and pursued his interest in the history of civil engineering. He also studied under Roderick Weir Home, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. Harper became a member of the National Trust expert historic bridges committee in 2000, continuing on the committee up to its folding in 2012.National Trust of Australia, (Victoria) Annual Report 2007 He has been active in nominating National Engineering LandmarksNomination NATIONAL ENGINEERING LANDMARK Dartmouth Dam and Spillway Prepared by Brian Harper & Bruce Cole and also became a member of the exclusive Wallaby Club in 2008.Biographical Entry, The Wallaby Club 2011, Last modified: 5 July 2012
His research has looked into the development of civil engineering during the 19th century, in Britain and in Victoria and links between engineers training in Britain and working on railway and water supply in Victoria, Australia. In particular he has focused his research and publications on the Gold Fields Railways, and the design of the iron bridges on the Bendigo and Ballarat railway lines.Engineers Australia Victoria Guest Speaker Program Oct 2012
Research & publications
Craft to Applied Science: The Institution of Civil EngineersCraft to Applied Science: The Institution of Civil Engineers, London and the Development of Scientific Civil Engineering in Britain, 1818-1880, Brian C. S. Harper, University of Melbourne, 1996 The chalk-water controversy in early Victorian LondonThe chalk-water controversy in early Victorian London Transactions - Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology 2003, vol. 73, no2, pp. 293-313 ISSN 0372-0187 Edward Dobson and the Mass Concrete Gravity Dam on Stony Creek for the Geelong Water SupplyProceedings of the Institution of Engineers Australia 9th National Engineering Heritage Conference, March 1998 The True History of the Design of the Melbourne, Mt Alexander and Murray River Railway.Institution of Engineers Australia - Transactions. 2004. 3:83–90. Early Iron Bridges on the Bendigo Railway 'Early Iron Bridges on the Bendigo Railway:A Forensic Examination' Engineering Heritage Australia (Victoria) Engineering Heritage Branch Thursday, 4 May 2006 The Victorian Gold Fields Water Supply Scheme of 1862The Victorian Gold Fields Water Supply Scheme of 1862 - A stab in the dark or a step forward for Hydrology? Thursday, 8 March 2007
References