Robert Edward Patrick McMillan
Robert Edward Patrick McMillan
(1903 - 1997)
Robert Edward Patrick (Bob) McMillan was born in Erskineville, Sydney, about 1903. His family soon moved to Marrickville. Details of his schooling are unknown, but he gained a bursary to study at Sydney University in 1922. Although he intended to study engineering, admittedly without any particular passion for the profession, his path was thwarted by Professor William Warren, the founder of the faculty, who required all intending students to have completed a paper in their Leaving Certificate in English Literature and Geography, to ensure they were gentlemen of wider knowledge. The paper was not particularly onerous, but McMillan did not include it is his final school exams.
Warren would not relent so McMillan did one year of Arts before switching to engineering. For details of this kerfuffle see the transcript of the oral history using the link below. McMillan thus spent five years at Sydney University graduating with first-class honours in engineering in 1927, and then worked in the public sector for two years. At some time between 1929 and 1931 he patented a construction method which involved concrete and steel frames and designed Wellington's (New Zealand) first two new earthquake-design-code compliant buildings.
He worked in Darwin during the Second World War designing air-raid shelters and compiling significant reports to the Commonwealth Government about air-raids and means of defence against them .
McMillan worked with the Standards Association of Australia to help compile standards codes for the construction industry. He was also the first chairman of the Wind Code Committee. He co-founded McMillan Britton and Kell a consulting civil and structural engineering company which built many bridges across Australia and South East Asia. McMillan was a pioneer in the design of welded rigid frames for large buildings. The Australian War Memorial in Canberra is one of his designs. He was also an avid campaigner for the protection of whales and the marine environment.
McMillan retired in 1976 and devoted his free time to marine conservation. He was Vice-President of Project Jonah, which campaigned for a national ban on whaling. In 1984 he founded the Antarctic Society of Australia and was a member of Greenpeace, and Scientists Against Nuclear Arms. In 1995 his marine conservation efforts were formally recognised by his appointment as an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO).
In 1937 had Bob McMillan married Mavis Alexandra (Gai) McDonald and they had five children – Marianne, Brian, Doug, Diana and Denise.
To access an appreciation of Bob McMillan's life by The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation,use this link:
https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004751b.htm
To access an oral history interview with Robert Edward Patrick McMillan please use this link:'
