Roger William Hercules Hawken (12 May 1878 – 18 October 1947), an Australian

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, was the first lecturer in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

, and then a professor, at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

Personal life

Hawken was born at

Darlington, New South Wales Darlington is a small, inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlington is located about three kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. At the tim ...

, the son of Nicholas Hawken MLC and Mary Jane (née Vance). He attended

Newington College Newington College is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Single-sex education, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primar ...

(1893–1896) and in 1895 won the Wigram Allen Scholarship, awarded by Sir George Wigram Allen, for mathematics. His tertiary education was at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

(B.C.E., 1900; B.A., 1902). He also received a Masters of Engineering from the University of Sydney. He died on 18 October 1947 after a week's illness and was cremated at Mt Thompson Crematorium. He was survived by his wife and five daughters.

Professional life

Hawken's academic bent was evident by 1903 in a remarkably advanced paper to the

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Engineering Society on the structural analysis of bridges. Hawken worked as an engineer in the

Federated Malay States The Federated Malay States (FMS, , Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of four protectorate, protected states in the Malay Peninsula — Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang — established in 1895 by the British government, and whi ...

for four years and then with local government authorities in New South Wales. In 1912 Hawken was appointed as a lecturer at the

. He graduated M.C.E. from Sydney in 1918 after submitting a thesis on column design, a frontier topic of the period, and appears to have had slightly the better of a lively argument with the English engineer, E. H. Salmon, who had written an authoritative text on the subject. Hawken was appointed as professor at the University of Queensland in 1919. Hawken was involved in the founding of IEAust in 1919 and was its president in 1923 and a councillor till his death. At his suggestion in 1928,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

became the first state to legislate for compulsory registration of consulting engineers. In the 1920s, he turned again to earth pressures and the stability of slopes; he thus was one of the pioneers of the study of

soil mechanics Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and ...

, a subject generally neglected until the 1950s. In later work on rainfall runoff and flooding potential and the economic appraisal of engineering schemes, his ideas were well ahead of his time. Hawken was reserved but excessively formal, with a wry, sometimes biting sense of humour. Engineering and the university was his life. He saw the complete engineer as a combination of wide experience and wide culture, encouraged originality in his students, called himself the 'senior student' and was known as 'hanks'. His work included design of an early version of the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...

that did not proceed to construction, and identification of crossing points for the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

. He was involved in many major Brisbane projects including an early Victoria Bridge (the

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

is still standing near QPAC) and the

Story Bridge The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River built to carry vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the long ...

. In 2006,

Brisbane City Council Brisbane City Council (BCC, also known as Council) is the local government of the City of Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. The largest local government in Australia by population, BCC's jurisdiction includes 2 ...

proposed Hawken Bridge as one of 5 names for a new green bridge linking the University of Queensland to Dutton Park but ended up choosing the name Eleanor Schonell Bridge. In May 1947, he was asked to participate in an inquiry into a railway crash at Camp Mountain.

Named in his honour

Two major engineering buildings and library at the University of Queensland have been named in his honour. The first Hawken building was built in about 1964. However it was vacated by the Engineering Faculty after the construction of a new building in about the 1990s. The name Hawken Building was then assigned to the new building, and the old Hawken Building was renamed the Prentice Building, reflecting the Prentice Computer Centre which took over the building. The annual Hawken address, presented by the Queensland division of IEAust, is usually held in its Hawken Auditorium, the main lecture theatre in the Hawken Building. Shortly after his death in 1947, a road leading to the main UQ campus at

St Lucia, Queensland St Lucia is a riverside Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The University of Queensland is the main attraction of St Lucia, with the university and its residential colleges covering a large ...

(then known as Coronation Drive) was renamed Hawken Drive.

References

External links

* D. H. Trollope
Hawken, Roger William Hercules (1878–1947)
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 230–231. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawken, Roger 1878 births 1947 deaths People educated at Newington College University of Sydney alumni Australian civil engineers Academic staff of the University of Queensland