Bradfield, Dr John Job Crew (1867-1943)

posted by Scott Andrew Bird
Tags : Australia

John Job Crew Bradfield was born in Sandgate, Queensland on the 26 December 1867; the son of John Edward Bradfield and Maria Crew.

He received the first part of his education at Ipswich State School and Ipswich Grammar School. Bradfield was the winner of the three exhibitions given each year by the Queensland government, which enabled him to study at Sydney University. He graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering in 1889.

John ceased work with the Queensland Railways on 30 Sep 1890. He had been working in the Southern and Central Division as a Chief Engineer's Department Draftsman on a salary of 150 pounds per annum.

He married Edith Jenkins, daughter of John Ventris Jenkins, on 28th May 1891. They had six children, including Keith Noel Everal; five sons and one daughter, Mary Margaret.

In 1891 Bradfield joined the New South Wales Department of Public Works as a temporary draftsman, becoming permanent in 1895. He was involved in such major projects as the Cataract Dam and Burrunjuck Dam.

In 1896 Bradfield completed his Masters of Engineering, with First-Class Honours and a university medal; becoming a Doctor of Science in Engineering in 1924. In 1909 he became assistant engineer and in 1913 he was appointed chief engineer for metropolitan railway construction. He was sent abroad in 1914 to study the latest methods of underground railway construction and to visit firms likely to tender for the construction of a bridge over Sydney Harbour. War broke out whilst he was abroad. In the next few years wrote many papers advocating the electrification of suburban railways. Work commenced on the underground railway in 1923 and the first stations were opened in 1926.

Dr Bradfield and his family lived in Park Avenue, Gordon, and in 1924 the Ku-ring-gai Shore Council honored him in the naming of a new suburb. The new suburb, Bradfield, was to take up 640 acres of the Council's territory.

In 1924 he received the first doctorate of science in engineering at Sydney University for his thesis on electric railways and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

At the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 19th March 1932 the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game, named the highway linking the city and the northern suburbs via the Bridge the Bradfield Highway.

In 1942-1943 he was deputy chancellor of Sydney University. He died 23rd September 1943 and was buried in the cemetery ( grave transcripts ) at the rear of St John's.

He helped to design the University of Queensland at St Lucia. In his later years he advocated ambitious schemes to irrigate western Queensland and central Australia. He was a councillor of the Institution of Engineers, Australia (1920-24), a member of the Senate of the University of Sydney (1913-43), and a member of the Australian National Research Council.

He is commemorated by the Bradfield highway over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the electoral division of Bradfield which covers an area ranging from Bobbin Head to Castle Cove.