Warner Kuttner
Warner Kuttner
(1923 - 2002)
Warner Kuttner was born in Germany in 1923. When life for Jews became difficult Warner and his sister were sent to school in Italy while their parents made plans to leave the country. The family arrived in Australia in December 1937, with Warner about 14 years old. He attended Sydney Technical High School and gained an excellent matriculation leading to study at Sydney University, graduating in1946. His interest had always been in aeroplanes, and the related engineering of wind tunnels and air flow.
In 1945, while the war was still on, he went to England and his first full time job was with de Havillands at Hatfield and later at Farnborough. On return to Australia he was invited to work in the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at Sydney University.
In 1950 he started consulting on his own account and did work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme and various mining and industrial fans, including Pyrmont and Bunnerong Power Stations. He had met and worked with George Collins, and they formed Kuttner Collins & Partners, consulting engineers.
After forming a relationship with Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the Liberal Party the firm gained many overseas contracts, most notably in Malaysia and Singapore where the firm opened a branch. This led to a relationship with the Malaysian company Ipoh Gardens who redeveloped the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, with Kuttner Collins in charge of the work. The project won awards and was Kuttner’s last major undertaking before retirement in 1986.
Warner Kuttner had married Clare White and they had two children, Simon and Georgina.
Warner Kuttner died on 8 June 2002.
To access an obituary in The Australian Jewish News for Warner Kuttner use this link:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/262939872
To access an oral history interview with Warner Kuttner please use this link:'
