Kenneth John Hughes BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING Conferred 8 April 1953

I began engineering at UTas in February 1949. There were only six students doing first year with me, Ken Briggs, Bruce Cole, Gordon Jacques, Peter Jeffries, and Alan Traill. There were several students ahead of us, including several returned servicemen from  world War 2. We started in February to commence three weeks of full time Engineering Drawing and Design 1 (EDD 1). The first two days were spent learning to print in letters and numbers in a uniform manner so that they would be readable on our drawings. Then we spent the time learning to read and make engineering drawings.
Orientation week was next when we were introduced to our timetable for the rest of the year. We also learnt of the extra curricular activities which were available for students who were interested. I was living in Christ College in Park Street only 1 km from the main part of the University and I was able to learn to play table tennis on the table in the common room for recreation. I also decided to play Rugby Football with the University teams.

The academic year was organised on an annual basis requiring six subjects per year. For the first year we were required  to study a whole year of science with Pure and Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry plus EDD 1 plus Workshop Practice, so we were going to be busy!!
Physics lectures and practical work were held in temporary buildings at the then ,new university site at Sandy Bay, some 5 km away. As very few students had motor bikes or cars in those days, I had the transport option of tram or my bicycle which did not have gears and was rather primitive primitive compared to 2020!! The tram was not very convenient, so I opted for my bicycle. This choice did have the advantage of 10 km of “free” cycling exercise 3 times per week! The following is an abbreviated description of the course.

In  year 2 continued with  Maths and Physics and began more engineering subjects, Materials and Structures 1 and Mechanical Eng 1 and continued with EDD 2.  In year 3, Electrical Engineering, Hydraulics 1 and Surveying 1 were added to the curriculum.
In Year 4 we had to choose between civil / structural or mechanical or electrical.
I chose civil/structural and continued with Materials and Structures 3, Hydraulics 2A, Surveying 2 and EDD4 plus Geology for Engineers and Business Practice for Engineers. Our main lecturers were Arch Oliver, Professor Alan Burn who was head of the faculty and Gene Szomanski for Hydraulics.
My major project for EDD 4 was the design of a four span continuous reinforced concrete bridge for a site over a river in NW Tasmania.

CAREER
I began working for the Hydro Electric Commission of  Tasmania on 4 January 1953 at Bronte Park which was a construction village entirely owned by the Commission in the highlands of Tasmania about 160 km NW of Hobart, adjacent to the left bank of the Nive River.
Bronte Park was the head quarters for most of head works of the Tungatinah Hydro Power Development of the Nive River. The Resident Engineer was Mr Les Johnson.
The main source of water is Pine Tier concrete gravity dam 40 m high with a Full Supply Level of 671 m. The capacity of the 3km long Bronte reinforced concrete diversion flume, and the 8 km canal is 47m3 per second; they lead to four small storages and to Tungatinah Power Station of 125 MW capacity on  the left bank of the Nive River a total of about 35 km down stream.

I worked on the supervision of the following structures and facilities: Pine Tier Dam, Bronte flume, and canal, and the Clarence steel and wood stave  pipeline ( an additional supply of water) ,also the concrete batching and mixing plant for the whole of the Bronte and Lake Echo area. (The main aim in the concrete mixing plant was to achieve adequate strength, durability and workability.
Two incidents which occured on during construction of the Bronte Canal were  two landslips  of the shale bed rock into the partially dug canal. These had tb remedied by modifying the alignment and constructing a reinforced concrete flume to replace the canal, in each case for about 300 metres.
Later on I worked on the Echo earth dam which provided the main storage for the Tungatinah and Echo Power stations. One difficulty with construction of Echo earth dam was the  supply of a satisfactory material. Initially a relatively plastic material was used but it proved difficult to dry to optimum moisture content in the prevailing climate which included two unusually wet summers. (Compaction can only be achieved in summer.) Eventually a more appropriate material with a courser grain was found at a higher elevation within about 2 km which was easier to dry and compact. When I revisited these sites in 2016, i.e. 60 years after construction, they all appeared to be in good condition.

In January 1956 I transferred to the HEC head office in Hobart to work on the Derwent Pumping Station and pipeline which was required to pump 3 m3 per second into the Tarraleah  No. 2 Canal. The main issues were the stability of the reinforced concrete pumping station during normal operation and especially during the occurrence of the maximum probable flood in the Derwent River, the reinforcement required for the box-like structure, the trashrack structure, and the concrete anchor block for the pipeline, non-return valve and enclosed surge chamber.

In 1957 i had the opportunity to work for the Electrowatt Company Zurich, Switzerland. I did the surge tank calculations for the Misoxer Power Development and the steel lined pressurised shaft. I also worked on a number pre-feasibility studies,, including of the Homatko River in Canada, the Congo River in Africa and a pumped storage project in Europe.

In 1961-62, I was working with Sandwell & Co, in British Colombia, in the pulp and paper industry on structural work and mill alterations.

In 1963 I returned to Australia and worked with Snowy Mountains Hydro  Electric Authority on upper Snowy and upper Geehi and  Tumut 3 projects.
In 1971, I transferred to the newly formed Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation and I worked on the design of the Bendeela Power station of the Shoalhaven Water Supply and Pumped Storage Scheme.

In 1973-73 I was working on the feasibility study of the Cirebon-Cimanuk  irrigation and hydro power project in Java and, in 1975-76 for the design of this project.In 1977-79 I was Project Manager in Nepal for the Gandaki River Basin Study which includes about one quarter of the area of Nepal, funded by UNDP ( United Nations Development Program). This work was followed by three feasibility studies: Gandaki ‘A’ hydropowerpower development, field work for MarsyangdI hyrdro, and Bagmati hydropower and irrigation protect in the south of Nepal.

In 1983-84 I worked on the feasibility study for the Aspley River pumped storage scheme for the Electricity Commission of NSW.
In 1984-86, I worked on an assessment of the hydropower potential of the whole of Papua New Guinea, for sites with a potential potential of more than 10 MW, based on the recently available 1:100 000 contour maps,  and all available river gauging records.
In 1988 I studied for  a Graduate Diploma in Engineering Computing and Applications at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education.  In 1995-96 I worked relieving the Quality Assurance Engineer on  the supervision of construction of the Jugiong Bypass to greatly improve the alignment, grade and capacity of the Hume Highway.with a dual carriageway.