Joseph Brady
BRADY, Joseph, MInstCE (1828-1908)
Joseph Brady, designer and builder of railways, water supply and harbours. Born near Enniskillen in north Ireland on 18 August 1828 and apprenticed on his thirteenth birthday to his father as a surveyor, he was just twenty-two when he arrived in Sydney in 1850, with five and a half years' experience on railway location and construction.
From the time of his arrival he filled various senior positions and after 1857 he was always in sole charge. His first job was as assistant to the Engineer of the Sydney Railway Co., which had recently been formed to build and operate the line to Parramatta; initially on survey and design he was Resident Engineer during construction after 1851. In 1851 Brady spent six months in Victoria, surveying and drafting for the Yan Yean scheme, and he returned to that Colony in 1858 as the first engineer to the Bendigo Waterworks Co; he designed a scheme to serve the goldfields, but there were funds for only one reservoir (No. 7, still in use), for the water-treatment plant and for the reticulation of Sandhurst (now Bendigo). In 1863 he managed a contract on the Melbourne Sandhurst Railway, but resigned in order to investigate the Coliban River scheme, which is the basis of the present supply of the Castlemaine-Bendigo area.
Early in 1864 Brady was in Queensland, and he obtained a contract for the improvement of navigation between Brisbane and Ipswich (there was no rail connection until 1875); this included underwater blasting for a channel through Seventeen Mile Rocks and for the basin at the port of Ipswich, and building a training wall at the junction of the Brisbane and Bremer rivers. He relinquished the contract in April 1864 when he was appointed Engineer to the Brisbane Board of Water Works, designing and supervising the first, permanent water supply scheme in the Colony, including Enoggera Dam which is still in use. The work was completed in August 1866 but in January 1865 he was given an additional appointment as the first Engineer of Harbors and Rivers, responsible for all port and harbour work' in Queensland, and for provincial water supplies; it included dredging in the Brisbane and Fitzroy rivers, and water-supply schemes for Bowen, Rockhampton, Maryborough and Ipswich. His Department was disbanded after the financial crisis of 1866, but Brady was retained as consultant, and in August 1867 took over for the Government the management of an unsatisfactory contract for the construction of the railway from Toowoomba to Dalby, completing the work at less than the contract price, and receiving a bonus from the Government and a civic reception and presentation from the citizens of Dalby.
Brady returned to Victoria in 1869 to manage a contract on the Melbourne-Seymour Railway but he had continued as consultant to the Bendigo Waterworks Co., and he returned to Sandhurst in 1871 to extend the work, including the construction of Crusoe Reservoir (still in service). In 1877 he was appointed the first Engineer of the Melbourne Harbor Trust, where his main task was to improve the Yarra River, and build the present Victoria Dock, the basic plan for which had been prepared by the English consultant, Sir John Coode. Brady was able to persuade the Trust to make two important changes: to develop the site as one large basin rather than three small separate docks, and to build timber wharves instead of masonry and concrete quays; this halved the cost of wharfage, reduced the time of construction, made operation easier and allowed progressive modernization of the port. Most of Brady's piling is still in place, some driven-on and lengthened to take heavier loads and capped with reinforced-concrete deck; most of the planned work was complete when he retired in 1891.
Few engineers have personally investigated, designed, constructed and operated in as many fields as Brady. The speed at which he worked is most impressive; he completed the survey and drawings for Yan Yean in six months, located and marked out two alternative rail routes between Parramatta and Mittagong in six months, and had contract work started on the dam for the Enoggera scheme less than four months after his appointment. This was fast by any standard and shows a well-informed man of vigour and decision. After retiring Brady worked as a consulting engineer and arbitrator until 1894; he died at Elsternwick, Victoria on 8 July 1908, survived by seven children.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
ADB, Vol.3, pp. 216-17;
Archives, State Rail Authority of NSW;
C.F. Kerr, 'The Man from County Fermanagh' P. of Melb. Qtly, July-Sept 1965;
V&P (LA Qld), 1865, p. 1295, 1866, p. 1572, 1868, p.557;
Min. Proc. Inst. Civ. Engrs, Vols.56 (1878-9), 74 (1882-3), 159 (1905), 174 (1907-8);
Information from Mr K. Murley, Melbourne, Miss E.L.D. Brady, Busselton, WA, and Mr F. L. Brady, Adelaide.
