George Wright
WRIGHT, Ward George, (1868-1931)
George Ward Wright was born in Liverpool, England, in June 1868 to William and Annie Wright. Both William Wright and George’s grandfather Samuel Wright were marine engineers on the then new steamships. George was educated at Leeds Mechanics Institute and Yorkshire College of Science in Leeds (later University of Leeds) where he studied civil and mechanical engineering, physics and chemistry. From there he commenced an apprenticeship with Liverpool-based locomotive engineers Kitson and Co., working in the design office.
In 1886 George Wright and his family emigrated to Sydney, where both father and son joined the Australian Steam Navigation Co NSW, prior to its shipping fleet being sold in 1887. William then moved to the Illawarra coalfields and George transferred his apprenticeship to Morts Dock and Engineering, completing his apprenticeship in 1889. He then joined his father at Bulli Colliery, working on the design and erection of the coke ovens, before subsequently being employed by the Colonial Sugar Refinery at Pyrmont, designing various engineering works.
William Wright moved to Tasmania’s Beaconsfield Gold Mine, then said to be the richest and wettest goldmine in Australia, in 1894 to take up the position of Engineer-in-Chief. George joined his father the following year as an Assistant, and later, Foreman Engineer. In addition to the various design and construction tasks that were the focus of William and George’s daily activity, the most important role was to keep the mine dry, hence large capacity pumps were essential. By 1900, Beaconsfield Mine had the most extensive pumping machinery in the southern hemisphere, while the line was now lit by electricity.
In December 1896 George Wright took up the position of Chief Engineering Draughtsman at Mt Lyell copper mine, later being assigned to the railway department who were undertaking extension of the line from Teepookana to Regatta Point. When that job was complete he moved to the Reduction Works, working alongside the then new General Manager, the internationally renowned Robert Sticht.
By 1900, George Wright was Assistant to the Chief Mechanical Engineer Arnold Macnicol, mainly engaged with steam engines, generators and pumps. Soon after the merger of the Mt Lyell and North Mt Lyell mines in 1903, George was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer for the whole company. The merger heralded a major expansion of the mines and ore processing, including of the steam plant, particularly the turbo blowers and steam turbine electricity generators. Historian Geoffrey Blainey claimed that by 1906/7 Mt Lyell was one of the nation’s five great industrial companies.
However, suitable firewood, as a fuel, was becoming scarce and coal was expensive. AGM Mitchell of Melbourne was asked to investigate the suitability of Lake Margaret as a source of hydro power for the Mt Lyell operations. The Company decided to proceed with the project and, as Chief Mechanical Engineer, George Wright played a central role in the development of this extensive project. As the lake is located in generally inaccessible terrain, construction of the dam, penstock/pipeline, power station and transmission line would have been particularly challenging.
The first electricity from the Lake Margaret power station was transmitted on 28 November 1914, at which time it was the largest hydro-electric power station in Tasmania. George Wright then oversaw the conversion of all Mt Lyell’s steam driven plant to electrical operation. Notably, Sticht publicly gave George Wright the credit for the design and construction of the Lake Margaret scheme. In 1921, when discussing George’s extensive contribution, Sticht also noted that the use of steam turbo blowers was possibly the first such application in the world in copper smelting furnaces.
When Robert Sticht died in 1922 George Wright was passed over for the position of General Manager. As the copper mining industry and Mt Lyell were then in a poor financial situation, George, now aged 54 years, resigned to take up the new position of Resident Engineer and Manager of the National Portland Cement Co’s new project on Maria Island. From an early stage, George had concerns about the feasibility of the project and subsequently resigned in July 1924. He was correct about the potential viability of the project, which closed in 1930 after several years of heavy losses.
George went to Rhodesia as a consultant to mining companies, where he worked for almost two years, but on returning to Sydney in 1926, found that work was now hard to secure. He and his still young family were now facing tough financial circumstances. George joined his former boss, Arnold Macnicol, in consultancy Messrs Macnicol, Wright and Co., but tight economic conditions and then the Depression made business conditions extremely difficult. George died of a stroke on 11 October 1931, no doubt brought on by the stress of his situation. George Wright’s greatest engineering legacy was the creation of the Lake Margaret power scheme and the electrification of the Mt Lyell Mines and Processing plant.
Lake Margaret power station was purchased from Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company by the Tasmanian Hydro Electric Commission in 1985. Significantly, this power station is the oldest hydro-electric plant with a capacity in excess of 4MW still fully operational in Australia (as of 2025).
References: 1932 Institution of Mechanical Engineers - Obituaries, United Kingdom.
Blainey, G, ‘The Peaks of Lyell’, Melbourne, 1954.
Epps, JM, ‘Lake Margaret Hydro-Electric Power Scheme Tasmania - George Ward Wright (1868-1931), Australian Hydro-Electricity Pioneering Engineer’, Bowral, 2024.
Wright, G, ‘Lake Margaret Hydro-Power Scheme, Mount Lyell, Tasmania – included in the 1915 Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers Proceedings, 1915
