Frederick Ernest Archer

Frederick Ernest Archer
(1913 - )

Frederick Ernest Archer was born at Lismore NSW in 1913.

He was educated at Sydney Technical High school where he was Dux in 1930, then studied at Sydney University and graduated BSc in 1934, and BE(Civil)(Hons) in 1936.

He had four brothers and one sister.

His father, RW Archer, received his education from private tutors while living on his father's sheep station. He spent his working life selling life assurance and in a managerial position in a leading life assurance Company.

His mother, whose grandfather was a migrant from Doffingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, had only a primary school education.

Frederick married Margaret Smith in 1937, and they had three children. The eldest daughter graduated from Sydney University, BA and DipEd, and their son, after being employed as a health surveyor in local government completed the Barristers Admission Course and was called to the Bar.

Frederick and Margaret had 13 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Three of the grandchildren have a BA degree and one graduated BE(Civil) from Sydney University.

Before finishing the BE course, Frederick worked with the Main Roads on the Pacific Highway. It was during the Great Depression and very basic methods of construction were employed.

After graduation he was employed as an engineering draughtsman in the Design Office of MWS&DB, where he spent one year in the Design Branch and designed:

(a) Sewer aqueduct on the Northern Suburbs Ocean Outfall Sewer in Parramatta.

(b) A large storm water drain in Blackwattle Bay.

(c) Sewer aqueduct on Lane Cove submain

(d) Portions of the Hornsby Sewage Treatment works.

In March of 1937 he was appointed Assistant Supervising Engineer C grade in MWS&DB and was engaged on the construction of Southern and Western Suburbs Ocean Outfall Sewer in the Botany area. This main sewer was a large twin-celled reinforced concrete conduit, rectangular in cross section founded on reinforced concrete piles in a very deep sand excavation. His duties included minor survey work, design of special formwork and some special plant required in the construction and general supervision. He resigned from the Board at the end of 1937. In January of 1938 he joined the staff of the City Building Surveyors Department of the Council of the City of Sydney as an Assistant Engineer.

For the first few years he was involved in checking of plans and calculations submitted by structural engineers for buildings being erected within the City of Sydney. He was involved the checking of all types of building structures. He took part in the training of building inspectors in checking field welding and in this connection attended with the inspectors a practical course in arc welding at CIG. He helped on building sites in an education programme to promote more accurate batching of concrete.

The city was divided into four districts for the work of the department and a senior structural engineer dealt with all building applications and later all Interim Development Applications within each district. He was promoted to one of these positions. In 1941 his duties included checking all architectural plans and specifications against the building regulations, supervising engineers who were checking the structural plans and supervising the building inspectors.

He assisted in the formulation of Bye-Laws which became the building regulations applicable in the city.

At times he represented the City Building Surveyor on committees of the Standards Association of Australia, revising the applicable structural codes.

Within his district he supervised a survey of existing buildings with respect to their means of egress in the event of fire, and a similar survey to check on actual floor loadings in relation to their design loading.

He came to know all the prominent architects and consulting structural engineers submitting plans in the city. As a result, several engineers asked him to do structural designs for them in his free time at home and over a number of years he did designs for:

Ledger and Crooks - later Crooks and Michell.

Woolacott and Hale - later Hale Bond and Corlett.

RE McMillan - later McMillan and Britton.

In 1952 and for a few years after in collaboration with H Bye he completed the design and plans for several reinforced concrete structures in the suburbs of Sydney.

In the 1940s there was little if any information available on the design of reinforced concrete beams subjected to torsion. A German book became available entitled "Design of Reinforced Concrete to Resist Torsion and Shearing" by E Rausch. Frederick translated this work from the German and made it available in the Department.

At the beginning of 1953 he was appointed lecturer in Civil Engineering at the then University of Technology which became in 1958 the University of NSW. He remained with the university until the end of 1970 having been promoted, first to the rank of Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor. After 1970 he continued to lecture part-time for a further five years.

During his 22 years at UNSW, he taught at some time most subjects in the Engineering course related to structural analysis and design, ranging from Engineering Mechanics, Mechanics of Solids, Design in Timber, Steel, Reinforced Concrete, Prestressed Concrete, and the Elastic and Plastic Analysis of Structures.

He was joint author with AS Hall of the textbook “Engineering Statics”.

Frederick supervised the work of many MEngSc students as well as several PhD candidates.

He carried out research work into strength of fillet welds, elastic analysis of deep beams, analysis of structures of non-linear elastic material, and published papers in relation to this work, as well as joint papers on behaviour of Reinforced Concrete beams in torsion, bending and shear.

A great deal of his time was taken up with administrative chores in the Civil Engineering Department, particularly in relation to student progression in courses and admission of students from other institutions both local and overseas.

For a number of years, he worked on the committee of the Institution of Engineers Australia dealing with the accreditation of engineering courses in various universities and colleges, and reported on the qualifications of engineers from overseas re admission to the Institution.

From the year 1960 until 1980 he gave his invalide wife support in caring for a total of 48 foster children for the Catholic agency Centacare and the NSW Department of Youth and Community Affairs.

After retirement he took up, as a hobby, drawing and painting and had a continued interest in art.

He had also taken a keen interest in Astronomy and in 1945 ground and polished a six-inch mirror and made a reflecting telescope.

Frederick played lawn bowls for 30 years.

To access an oral history interview with Frederick Archer please use this link:'

https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney