National Committee on Water EngineeringThe Hall of Fame honours individuals who have made outstanding and lasting contributions to the water engineering profession in Australia. These individuals have shaped the theory and practice of water engineering. The Hall of Fame not only seeks to acknowledge their contributions but also seeks to document their legacy to develop a sense of tradition and appreciation of the history of the profession.
For each individual in the Hall of Fame a brief biography has been prepared identifying major contributions and achievements and providing sources of further information.
Emeritus Professor Crawford Munro died on the 21st of September, 1976 at the age of 72. No man had a greater impact on the development of hydrology and water resources in Australia in his time. He was a man of tremendous vision, energy and enthusiasm: a big man in more ways than mere physical size. By nature a crusader, his achievements covered a wide range of activities.
Crawford Munro was a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales for 16 years. Crawford Munro also served the Institution with distinction. He was a member of the Stormwater Standards Committee of the Institution which produced the first version of “Australian Rainfall and Runoff”, and Chairman of the National Committee on Hydrology for 6 years.
The many symposia organised by these committees owed a lot to Crawford Munro, both for his organisational drive and for his many vigorous and often memorable contributions from the floor of the conference hall. It is therefore fitting that Crawford Munro be remembered at each Hydrology Symposium (held at approximately 18 months intervals) by a Memorial Oration delivered by an eminent speaker in the field of hydrology and water resources.
The lecturer, who is selected by the National Committee on Water Engineering in conjunction with the conference organising committee, is not limited to being an Australian or an engineer but rather a person eminent in the field of water resources in Australia. In recognition, a presentation is made of a gift to the value of $600 and a framed certificate at the conclusion of the Oration.
The Munro Oration is jointly sponsored by the Institution, the Canberra Hydrological Society and the South Australian Hydrology Society. It was first given in l978.
This award is dedicated to the memory of Mr Geoffrey Newman Alexander (1908-1975).
Geoff Alexander was one of the greats in the early years of Australian hydrology. He was a member of the working committee which produced the first Australian Rainfall and Runoff publication. He was also a regular contributor at hydrology symposia and in the Civil Engineering Transactions of the Institution of Engineers, Australia.
Geoffrey Alexander lived most of his life in Victoria, Australia, although he was well known to many hydrologists in other parts of the world. His contribution to the improvement of statistical hydrology in particular was a long term goal of his later life and it is significant that though retired from his full-time career, he was still writing original papers when he suddenly died in Melbourne on 17 January 1975.
Geoff Alexander graduated in civil engineering at the University of Melbourne late in 1929, when to his dismay, he had to join the ranks of insurance clerks in order to gain an income. During the 1939-1945 war, he worked for an Australian Mission on the manufacture of tanks, in the USA – the most significant personal outcome being that he married an American despite the unorthodoxness of his approach to the relevant diplomatic procedures. It was this ability to see through an issue and argue a case for it that characterised him throughout his life.
After the war he undertook general civil engineering work and in 1950, he joined the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Victoria, to specialise in hydrology related to the capacity of reservoirs and the size of their spillways. From this base, and at a comparatively late stage in his life, he virtually started his main career.
Never satisfied with relatively inadequate techniques, he forever adopted a policy based on enquiry and new ideas. Consequently he developed into a research type, engineering hydrologist, published more than 100 papers in Australia and overseas journals, and attended about one international conference a year during the last ten or so years of his life. In addition, his association with the USA was strengthened when he spent 12 months with the Geological Survey in Washington DC in 1957-1958. His work has become well known and respected internationally.
However, not the least of his achievements was the contribution he made quietly in Australia, in moulding an interest in hydrology amongst the younger hydrologists. The regular and well attended symposia held by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, owe much of their present vitality to the keen mind, sardonic humour and sense of originality that he gave in the early years of this development.
When he retired from formal duties with the State River and Water Supply Commission in 1973, he became a part-time associate at Monash University, in order to concentrate on a treatise on floods. It is a great pity that his more leisurely activity was brought to and end so soon, but his general contribution will be long remembered.
In recognition of Geoff Alexander’s contribution to Australian hydrology, the National Committee on Hydro & Water Resources (subsequently the National Committee on Water Engineering) of the Institution of Engineers, Australia created the GN Alexander Medal for Hydrology and Water Resources in 1987.
The Award takes the form of a bronze inscribed medal(s) and/or certificate(s) which is/are conferred by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, on the author(s) of the best paper in hydrology and/or water resources published in an Institution publication over the period from and including the previous Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. Such publications include the Proceedings of the previous Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, Proceedings from any intervening NCWE conferences and the Australian Journal of Water Resources.
The Award is presented at each Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, held approximately at eighteen month intervals. Responsibility for selecting the recipient rests with the National Committee on Water Engineering. It was first awarded in Canberra in February 1988.
Established as The Hydraulics Oration in 1989, the Award was renamed The Henderson Oration in 1998 in recognition of Professor Frank Henderson’s contribution to the knowledge and practice of hydraulic engineering in general but in Australian practice in particular. Professor Henderson’s book “Open Channel Hydraulics” is used as a standard text in almost all engineering schools in Australia and many others throughout the world.
The Award aims to recognise the contribution of the science of hydraulics to the practice of hydrology and water resources engineering in Australia. The address is given at each Hydraulics Conference, held approximately every 3 years. The conference organising committee, in consultation with the National Committee Chairman, proposes one or more candidates to the National Committee at least 12 months before the conference. The National Committee makes the final selection and the Chairman then sends a formal invitation to the selected Orator. The speaker should have made a significant contribution to hydraulics in Australia but need not be either an engineer or an Australian.
The Award is sponsored by the National Committee on Water Engineering and the Orator receives a framed certificate and an appropriate gift to the value of $500, usually presented at the conclusion of the Oration. The gift is selected by the conference organising committee and the cost is included in the conference budget.
The inaugural oration was held in Adelaide in 1998 by Dr Martin Lambert, an ex-PhD student of Professor Henderson, on Professor Henderson’s behalf.
Last Modified:
Sunday, August 6, 2006 19:43
Comments to: peter.brady@eng.uts.edu.au