NSW Engineering Timeline

This section of the website is under development. Sections in Bold are complete.

• Air Transport
• Buses
• Drainage
• Dams
• Electricity/Power and Communications
  • see also Dams
• Ferries
• Gas
• Mineral Sands Mining and Processing
• Manufacturing and Heavy Industry
• Ports, wharves, jetties & maritime facilities
• Railways
  • Railways
  • Rail Bridges
• Roads
  • Roads
  • Road Bridges
• Suburban Rail
• Telegraph-Refer to Electricity/Power and Communications
• Telephone-Refer to Electricity/Power and Communications
• Tramways
• Trolley Buses
• Wastewater
  • Country Towns Sewerage
  • Sydney and Newcastle Sewerage
• Water
  • see also Dams
    • River Works and Irrigation
    • Country Towns Water Supply
    • Sydney/Newcastle/ACT Water Supply.
• Wireless-Refer to Electricity/Power and Communications

	Pre 1788	1788-1799	1800-1819	1820-1839	1840-1859	1860-1879	1880-1899
DAMS (Year opened)					Lake Parramatta (masonry arch), 1856.		Prospect  (earthfill clay core), 1888. Manly  (concrete gravity), 1892. Stephens Creek (earthfill), 1892. Junction Reefs 1897 (multiple arch buttress). Lake Parramatta 1897 (raised). Cylindrical thin arch dams – 13 built between 1896 and 1908 for NSW country towns. Lithgow (1st cylindrical arch dam), 1896.
		1788-1799	1800-1819	1820-1839	1840-1859	1860-1879	1880-1899

	1900-1919	1920-1939	1940-1959	1960-1979	1980-1999	2000-2019
DAMS Years opened	Umberumberka, (gravity). 1915. Cotter Dam (ACT) completed 1915.	Chichester (gravity), Newcastle water supply, 1923. Cordeaux 1926 (gravity). Burrinjuck 1927 (gravity). Avon  (gravity), 1927. Nepean (gravity), 1935. Hume (gravity), 1936. Wyangala (gravity), 1936.	Woronora  (gravity), 1941. Oberon (slab & buttress). 1949. Oberon (raised),1954. Burrinjuck (raised), 1956. Dungowan (zoned earthfill), 1956. Eucumbene Dam (zoned earthfill), 1958. Glenbawn (zoned rockfill), 1958. Bundanoon (arch), 1959. Suma Park (arch), 1962.	Warragamba (gravity), 1960. Hume raising 1961. Bendora Dam, ACT (double curvature concrete arch), 1961. Blowering Dam (central core, rockfill), 1968. Pindari (rockfill, concrete face),1969. Carcoar (arch), 1970. Talbingo Dam (central core, rockfill), 1971. Wyangala Dam (strengthened) 1971. Avon (strengthened) 1971 Googong (central core, rockfill), 1977.	Mangrove Creek (conc. face, rockfill), 1982. Glennies Creek 1983 (conc. face, rockfill). Windamere  (central core, rockfill), 1984. Hume (upgraded) 1987. Glenbawn raising 1987. Cataract (strengthened), 1988. Warragamba (raised) 1989. Split Rock 1989 (conc. face, rockfill). Nepean (strengthened)1994
	1900-1919	1920-1939	1940-1959	1960-1979	1980-1999

Timeline – Electricity/Power &Telecommunications

	Pre 1788	1788-1799	1800-1819	1820-1839	1840-1859	1860-1879	1880-1899
Power		First windmill, 1797. Water mill at Parramatta, 1798.	First steam engine in Dickinson’s mill, 1815.	Whale oil street lamp, Macquarie Place, 1826.	First gas street lamps, 1841		Garden Palace lit by electric arc lights 2.12.1879. Tamworth first town in Southern Hemisphere with electric street light 9.11.1888. Sydney & Suburban Hydraulic Power Coy 1889-1975.
Telecommunications						All Australian colonies are joined by telegraph, with the completion of a connection to Perth on 9.12.1877. First telephone tested between La Perouse and Sydney on 13.1.1878.
		1788-1799	1800-1819	1820-1839	1840-1859	1860-1879	1880-1899