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Next ASHET events

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Tuesday 30 March 2010
Talk by Noni Boyd
Walter Liberty Vernon: NSW Government Architect

Sydney-based heritage consultant Noni Boyd will speak of the work of Walter Liberty Vernon who was NSW Government Architect from 1890 to 1911. During this period he was responsible for many of the landmark Sydney buildings including the Mitchell Wing of the State Library, the Art Gallery of NSW and the old Fisher Library at the University of Sydney.

Noni will look at the way Vernon’s work at the University of Sydney was influenced by both Pugin and Blacket.

This event is a joint activity of ASHET and the Royal Australian Historical Society (RAHS).

Venue: History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Time: 5.30 for 6 pm
Cost: $8.00 Includes light refreshments on arrival
Bookings: phone RAHS on (02) 9247 8001 or email history@rahs.org.au

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Thursday 15 April 2010
ASHET annual general meeting and talk by Tony Dawson
E. G. Stone – Expert in Concrete

The brief ASHET annual general meeting at 6 p.m will be immediately followed by a joint meeting of ASHET and the Royal Australian Historical Society (RAHS), with a talk by Tony Dawson. Non-members of ASHET may attend the annual general meeting but may not participate in the business of the meeting.

Edward Giles Stone was born in 1876. He joined the NSW Public Works Department in 1892 and studied engineering at Sydney Technical College. In 1906, after five years with the Sydney Harbour Trust Commission, he went into private practice, specialising in reinforced concrete. His first major contract, the erection of the Dennys Lascelles Austin wool store in Geelong, came in 1910, and over the next twelve years, most of them in partnership with E. J. Siddeley, he built many large reinforced concrete structures in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania.

In 1923 Stone turned his attention to cement manufacture but his attempts to produce cheap cement, initially in Tasmania and then at Port Kembla, met with little success. Undeterred, he moved to Narrabeen where he established a pilot plant for making lime and cement from calcareous sand dredged from the lagoon. He also toyed with some novel designs ranging from dams to non-inflatable tyres but none proved very practicable.
Stone died in 1947, leaving as testimony to his career a variety of reinforced concrete structures, including some that now enjoy official heritage status.

Tony Dawson is a former Associate Dean of Science at UTS. As a member of the Manly, Warringah & Pittwater Historical Society he has published on various subjects including two books on the history of surveying in NSW.

Venue: History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Time: 5.30 for 6 pm
Cost: $8.00 Includes light refreshments on arrival
Bookings: phone RAHS on (02) 9247 8001 or email history@rahs.org.au

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16–28 August 2010

Study Tour to Darling Downs

Following the very successful study tour to the NSW Outback in August 2009, a 13-day study tour to the Darling Downs is now proposed. It will depart on 16 August 2010 and explore the distinctive history and heritage of this vast plateau on the western
slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland. ‘The Downs’ was named after Ralph Darling, then Governor of NSW, by Alan Cunningham who was a botanist and one of the first Europeans to explore the region, in 1827.

The tour will have a pace and travel distances similar to those of the 2009 tour to the NSW Outback with stays of 2 nights in each Goondiwindi and Roma, and 5 nights in Toowoomba. While based in Toowoomba there will be day trips to the Railway Workshop
Museum at Ipswich, Highfields Pioneer Village and several local villages of note. The Tour Leader will be Rob Renew (who was previously Principal Curator, Science & Industry at the Powerhouse Museum) and the Tour Manager will be Mari Metzke.

Expressions of interest due by 30 April. Download full details here…

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Other events, not ASHET

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Friday 9 April–Saturday 10 April 2010
Two day workshop on the history of surveying and measurement
Friday, Australia’s Greatest Surveyors-General
Saturday, The World’s Greatest Surveyors

This two day workshop features Australian and international speakers, and is preseted in connection with the International Congress on Surveying and Measurement being held in Sydney in April.

Registration of the workshop is open to members of the public, and is separate from registration for the Congress.

For more details including the program and information about registration, go to http://www.fig2010.com/program-overview.php and download the brochure.

Venue: Friday: Old Government House, Parramatta:
Saturday: Dixon Room, Mitchell Library Macquarie Street Sydney
Time: Two full days