Gordon Cowling
COWLING, Gordon Aubrey, BE AMIEAust (1906-1975)
Gordon Cowling, engineer and administrator, was born in Adelaide on 10 September 1906 and graduated in civil engineering from the University of Adelaide in 1929, having lost both his parents in the Spanish-'flu epidemic of 1918. Successful in amateur dramatics and variety, he was offered professional employment in these areas but elected to remain in engineering, joining the Main Roads branch of the New South Wales Department of Public Works in 1929 to assist in the supervision of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Cowling moved to Newcastle in 1936 to work for Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, and in 1942 joined the staff of the Hunter District Water Board in Newcastle as Design Engineer.
The Newcastle experience in water supply and sewerage investigation and design, coupled with his former road-work experience, made Cowling an ideal candidate in November 1948 for the position of Engineer for Design in the combined Departments of Works, Water Supply and Sewerage of the Brisbane City Council at the time when a big drive was being made to overcome the backlog from the Second World War of water-supply works. It was proposed to call international tenders to amplify the trunk and distribution mains system in one gigantic contract. Cowling bore the brunt of the investigation, design and tender preparation for the many tens of kilometres of mains involved but in the face of the 1952 downturn in the economic situation the Council had no alternative but to amplify the mains piecemeal within the limits of available funds.
At this juncture the Department of Works, Water Supply and Sewerage was subdivided and in October 1952 Gordon Cowling became Deputy Chief Engineer of the new Water Supply and Sewerage Department, followed a month later by an appointment as Engineer for Water Supply and Sewerage; the latter title was changed to Chief Engineer and Manager in 1958. In his new position Cowling was faced with a difficult situation. Not only had the financial situation deteriorated, but virtually all the Council's available capital funds had to be diverted for several years to the construction of the power-house at Tennyson. Cowling tackled the amplification of the water-supply system vigorously and adopted a priority programme for overcoming deficiencies which by 1960 virtually eliminated the risk of water shortages.
The sewering of Brisbane had also lagged badly due to the diversion of funds to other aspects of the infrastructure, but in the early 1960s the political emphasis was switched to sewerage and Cowling was faced with the problem of developing an appropriate programme under novel and sometimes erratic financial arrangements. By the time he retired in 1972 the proportion of the city sewered exceeded 85 per cent and Ilrisbane had overtaken both Sydney and Melbourne.
Garden sprinkling, introduced in Brisbane in 1964 after a twelve-year ban, when combined with a large expansion of major water-consuming industries more than quadrupled the rate of growth of demand for water. Once again, Cowling had to cope with a rapid growth in the system in the face of inadequate funds, difficulties of material procurement and a simplistic administrative attitude. He was the Chairman of the Water Supply Planning Committee which recommended the raising of the level of Somerset Dam and the construction of North Pine Dam as sources of increased water supply for the Brisbane system, and he was a member of the Moreton Regional Water Advisory Committee which recommended the building of Wivenhoe Dam on the Brisbane River.
Having served a record twenty-year term as head of the Council's Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, the accumulated years of strain exacted their toll and he died on 9 September 1975 within a relatively short time of retirement, leaving a wife, a son, and a married daughter.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
Based on a personal knowledge of Cowling and discussion with colleagues (G. Cossins).
