Peter Owen Miller
Peter Owen Miller as born at Merewether, Newcastle in 1922, and moved to Sydney at the age of two. He went to school at North Strathfield and Fort Street and then attended Sydney University from where he graduated in 1943. His grandfather had been an engineer, his father worked in a steel foundry and a maternal uncle who was a clever mechanical engineer seems to have also been an influence on the young man, who made an early decision to be an engineer.
He was also involved with the Scouting movement and was a member of the Sydney University Regiment during the war.
At the end of the course, he was co-opted into the Mosquito aircraft project, specifically the design and testing of the plywood from which the aircraft was made. He was also involved in the design of a troop-carrying glider and went to England as part of this project.
After the war he taught at the university part-time for four years, and also did research into fabrics and plastics for six months. In 1946 he was with a building company in Auburn as a consulting valuer, drawing house plans and as a self-employed consulting engineer.
Accommodation was scarce so he and his wife, Olive, lived with her mother while they built their own home at weekends. Peter and Olive had one daughter, Robyn.
Through the 1950s Miller worked on a diverse series of projects across Sydney as his practice grew. He met Alan Milston at this time and also formed an association with architect Harry Seidler.
In 1954 Miller and Milston went into partnership and in 1957 they were joined by John Ferris to form Miller, Milston and Ferris, a firm that would become perhaps Australia's most sophisticated engineering consultancy.
Miller travelled overseas in 1955 to inspect opera houses and the like as part of the design competition for the Sydney Opera House. Later he was involved in the design of the eventually discarded stage machinery. With his knowledge of plywood and working with Ralph Symonds, Miller worked on the interiors for the Sydney Opera House.
Miller, Milston and Ferris evolved into a specialised structural design firm, working with major architects. They designed a number of lift slab buildings when that method of construction was at its peak, though it is no longer used.
In 1968 their first really big job was the Qantas Building in Sydney and later they did the engineering design for the National Gallery and the High Court building in Canberra.
Peter Miller was made a Member of the Order of Australia on Queens Birthday 1978.
He died on 8 February 2013.
To access an oral history interview with Peter Owen Miller recorded by Engineering Heritage Sydney please use this link:'
https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney
