John Robb (civil engineer)


John Robb was an Irish immigrant to Australia who was responsible for several important civil engineering works.

History

Robb was born in Lislaird near Castlederg, County Tyrone, Ireland, to Arthur Robb and his wife Sarah Robb, née Bird.
In 1854 Robb and two brothers Robert and Samuel left for Australia aboard Fitzjames, arriving at Melbourne in October 1854.
He joined the rush to the goldfields, teamed up with fellow Fitzjames passenger Thomas Stranger carting stone, then formed a partnership Overend & Robb with Best Overend as contractors. Thomas Stranger, whose sister Elizabeth he later married, was with them from the outset and served as their supervising engineer to at least 1888.
Around 1860 Overend & Robb won a contract to demolish Batman's Hill to make way for the projected Spencer Street railway station.
Later projects of Overend & Robb were the Sunbury Industrial Schools and sewerage and water supply works at Coleraine and Yan Yean in Victoria.
He won contracts to build railway lines in Victoria:
He built railways in other States: South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.
Robb was also involved in water reticulation and sewerage projects in Victoria and South Australia, and the screwpile jetty and breakwater at Victor Harbor, South Australia, at the time heralded as an engineering marvel.
His last project was a section of the Cairns-to-Kuranda railway line in far North Queensland between Kamerunga & Myola, which involved a steep climb up the Barron Gorge. Robb’s 1887 tender of £290,094 was accepted, but proved inadequate for the work and expense involved, and though he was awarded another £20,000 after a lengthy legal battle, he lost substantially on the project. He was in 1894 found to be insolvent. The completion of the project is commemorated by a cairn at Kuranda.
Robb was a strong man who barely had a day's illness in his life, and died suddenly of apoplexy. His remains were buried in the Melbourne Cemetery.

Other interests

John Robb married Elizabeth Stranger on 6 October 1858. They had thirteen children, of whom seven survived him:
Their home for many years was "Coonac", Clendon Road, Toorak.