John Rankine

Rankine, John (1921 - 2016)

John Rankine was born on 21 February 1921 at Kempsey, where his father was a doctor.

In 1930 he became Boarder at Cranbrook School where the headmaster was Sir Ivan Mackay. On leaving school Rankine became draftsman and studied engineering at night at Sydney Technical College. He joined the army in 1940 and became a gunnery officer on Hammond Island in the Torres Strait.

After the war in1945 he commenced an engineering degree course at Sydney University and did a lot of coaching. Upon graduation, in January 1949, he joined Stanley & Llewellyn and worked long hours. At the end of 1949 Rankine left for England, where he joined Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners. After three months he went to work with Allan Harris, one of engineers behind the Mulberry Harbour, constructed for the invasion of Europe in World War II. During this time went to work for Freyssinet in France on prestressed concrete, which was then in its infancy.

Rankine returned to Australia in 1950 and resumed with Stanley & Llewellyn and after a year became a full partner. He remained with them for four years until he was successful in gaining a Fullbright Scholarship and entry to MIT to do a Master of Engineering. He did well in this study and visited many major projects and eminent engineers and architects.

He returned to Australia in1958 and with Stanley's death there were partnership difficulties, so Rankine left, and with John Hill formed Rankine & Hill in October 1958. They were almost immediately given job to design BMC's new car factory at Waterloo.

The firm grew quickly, doing work for BHP, AIS, GM, AMP, and worked with major architects. In 1960 a Canberra office was opened. Rankine and Hill formed an association with De Lew Cather in late 1960, and the next year started work in Kuala Lumpur. An office in New Zealand also opened at this time.

Rankine then did a master’s degree in Traffic and Transportation at University of California, Berkeley. Rankine & Hill rented their first computer on his return, and also started a civil engineering office in Melbourne in 1965.

In 1970 Rankine was invited to join UNESCO's Council of Tall Buildings, becoming Chairman for four years from 1982. His credo was "Service and client satisfaction",

He was invited by the Defence Department to become a technical adviser to the Business Adviser, held this position for eight years, when the position was abolished and he was invited to become Special Technical adviser on major projects to the Department of Defence - a position he held into the 1990s.

In 1969 Rankine and Hill opened a Perth office, and did some work for Alan Bond, and thereby hung a tale. Rankine and Hill did hospitals in Iraq, and an irrigation project on the Euphrates River north of Bagdad.

In 1971 Rankine was appointed to the Technical Advisory Committee of the new State Pollution Control Commission and was involved in the determination of the route of the natural gas pipeline from South Australia to Sydney. In August 1971 he was invited onto Board of Mercantile Mutual Insurance Company where he remained a director for 22 years, retiring in 1994.

1972 saw a restart of South-East Asia operations with offices opening offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur then Hong Kong. In 1974 Rankine was appointed as a member of the Zoological Parks Board but was sacked by Tim Moore when the Greiner Government came to power.

In 1974 he was caught in start of major fighting in Lebanon while in in Beirut, but work flourished in Doha and Bahrain. During his working years he was involved in heavy overseas travel, to the extent that one year he was away for 26 weekends. He had policy of fixing mistakes first, and quickly, and arguing over fault and who was to pay later.

Three highlights of his career which led to interesting experiences were:

1. Inquiries into planning of West Paddington area of Sydney, and the area for expansion of University of Sydney.

2.For UNESCO, the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

3. Association with Southern Pacific Petroleum and Central Pacific Minerals.

Rankine retired at the age of 62. Soon after his retirement, Rankine and Hill were employing over 900 people. The firm later ran down because, in Rankine’s view, no one was prepared to go out and get work.

Rankine was very active in retirement, spending his time between a flat at Potts Point, a farm near Goulburn and travel. He also played golf at Royal Sydney, Rose Bay.

John Rankine died in 2016.

To access an oral history interview with Rankine, John please use this link:

https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney