George Ernest Hamilton CE (ca.1800 – 8 October 1872) was a British civil engineer who played a leading role in development of the Colony of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

History

He was involved in various water supply schemes in England between 1826 and 1840:

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

and

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

, and a

slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

for the Port of Caernarvon. He arrived in South Australia in 1850 and was appointed as a member of the first

Adelaide City Council The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...

, then in 1853 the first Town of Kensington and Norwood council. He was an early advocate of steam navigation of the River Murray. He put forward a plan for a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on the Torrens Gorge and was appointed Superintendent of the Mechanical Department of the SA Assay office under B. H. Babbage, then Assistant Engineer for the Port Adelaide railway in 1853 and Inspector General of Roads in 1854 and Inspector of Main Roads in 1855.Cumming, D. A. and Moxham, G. ''They Built South Australia'' pub. by the authors, Adelaide 1986 He was Chief Engineer for the Waterworks Department 1857–1858, and responsible for the Torrens Gorge weir near Campbelltown which failed in July 1858, its first year of operation. Hamilton was called as a witness in 1859 when it was discovered that the contractors Frost & Watson had skimped on materials for the dam wall, but came in for a share of the blame and resigned, to be replaced by John England. The partnership of (Thomas) Frost and (Edward) Watson was dissolved in 1860. He was involved in designing the

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...

s at Port Adelaide and

Wallaroo Wallaroo is a common name for several species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies. The word "wallaroo" is from the Dharug ''walaru'', and not a portmanteau of the words "kangaroo" and "wal ...

in 1860. He was appointed engineer for construction of the Strathalbyn and Victor Harbor tramway in 1866 and Resident Engineer for the Strathalbyn to Middleton tramway in 1867. He was appointed JP in 1862. He and his son, architect

Edward Angus Hamilton Edward Angus Hamilton (born 27 February 1831) was an architect and politician in colonial South Australia. Hamilton was the son of George Ernest Hamilton, a civil engineer, and arrived in South Australia on 5 December 1849. In April 1852 he bega ...

, were involved in constructing the Kadina to Wallaroo railway, completed in 1866. Their partnership was dissolved in 1866 when George was appointed to the Strathalbyn and Middleton Railway and E. A. Hamilton to the firm of Wright & Woods, (then in 1868 second-in-charge of the Colonial Architect's Department, MLA for Kadina 1870–1871 and later moved to South America). He was a member of a consortium that was formed in 1870 to lay a railway between

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

and

Holdfast Bay The Holdfast Bay is a small bay in Gulf St Vincent, next to Adelaide, South Australia. Along its shores lie the local government area of the City of Holdfast Bay and the suburbs of Glenelg and Glenelg North European settlement on Holdfast Bay ...

. He returned to Britain and died at

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

, Monmouthshire, aged 73

Personal

Hamilton was married to Eliza, who died on 12 December 1858 aged 58 at their home "The Lodge",

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, George Ernest 1800 births 1872 deaths Year of birth uncertain Australian civil engineers