He designed the Tay Bridge, Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London, and now another of Victorian civil engineer Sir William Arrol's landmarks is to be restored thousands of miles away in Australia.
The Arrol crane was built in 1911 at the company’s site in Glasgow’s Dalmarnock area and was one of several located on the Bunbury Timber Jetty, in Western Australia, which was used to load and unload ships moored alongside the jetty.
It was in use from from 1929 and 1982 and came from the firm which also built the Arrol Gantry at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast which was used to help construct the Titanic and her sister ships.
Such is the importance of the crane, it is considered to be a piece of the Western Australian’s rich past, it is even listed on the State Heritage Register and will continue to have a strong place in the city’s future, with the historic jetty crane refurbishment as part of an extension of the State Government’s Transforming Bunbury’s Waterfront project.
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Through an upgrade project, the Department of Transport is refurbishing the Arrol crane and ensuring it continues as a landmark for future generations.
It is understood the crane has suffered severe corrosion and unless works are undertaken within the next two years it is probable that the crane may not be in condition where remedial works are sufficient. Estimated repairs costs have been put at 227,000 Australian dollars (£124,000). The crane is the last one on the jetty and is a reminder of a time when Bunbury Jetty was dominated by cargo movement. Dwyer Engineering has been tasked with carrying out the restoration.
South West Development Commission chief executive officer Mellisa Teede said she was delighted that work to restore the crane’s structural integrity would allow it to continue to serve as a tangible reminder of Bunbury’s past.
“It is fantastic that a part of Bunbury’s history could be enhanced as works progress on the $12.65 million Jetty Road causeway upgrade through Stage Two of the Transforming Bunbury’s Waterfront,” Ms Teede said.
“It is also great to see local businesses continue to be involved in delivering the transformation of Bunbury’s waterfront."
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Sir William, who was born in 1839 in Houston, Renfrewshire, left an engineering legacy. His father worked as a cotton-spinner at a thread factory in Paisley and, and after leaving school at the age of nine, Sir William went to work in a cotton mill in Johnstone. He started out making bobbins, but after five years of bobbin-making, he became an apprentice blacksmith in 1853 and later went on to study at night school where he excelled at mechanics and hydraulics.
By his early 20s, he had been headhunted to work for a Glaswegian bridge builder. He impressed his employers by inventing a new mechanical drill and hydraulic riveter. In 1872, the 33-year-old set up his own company in Glasgow's East End, the Dalmarnock Iron Works, which mainly focused on the manufacture of girders and boilers.
It was a time when engineers were looking at how to bring the railway lines across estuaries such as the Forth and Tay rivers. Bridges were the obvious answer but these bridges had to be right. The Tay Bridge opened in 1878 and hailed for its low cost and light, airy structure, however it collapsed during high gales over Christmas 1879, sending one train, six carriages and 75 people to their death in the icy waters.
In the wake of the Tay Railway Bridge Disaster, Sir William was brought in to reconstruct a replacement bridge. He did this with immense precision, installing a dozen steam cranes on site, reclaiming land, laying down railway lines, sidings, workshops, jetties and then bringing in the girders.
His bridge across the Tay was such a success that he was quickly commissioned to build another one north of Edinburgh. The Forth Railway Bridge was to be made not of iron but from a relatively new material called steel and it would also be the world’s first steel super-structure. When Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) hammered home the final rivet which was made of gold, in 1890, it was also the world’s biggest railway bridge. His Dalmarnock works also built the Titan Crane in Clydebank and the former Fairfield Crane in Govan.
Sir William died in 1913 aged 74, having served 11 years as a Liberal Unionist MP and been knighted by Queen Victoria in 1890. By that time the Dalmarnock Ironworks employed 5000 men and was the biggest girder constructor in the world.
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