Monthly Archives: December 2022

Commuting, Current Affairs, WA

An Engineer’s daughter

A personal reflection on Clough Engineering

If your mum or dad is an engineer then so much of your childhood is about the built environment.

For one thing you have to wade through photo after photo of bridges and buildings to find the one photo of you as a two year old. 

Forget it if you’re the youngest.

As kids we went to the openings of bridges as often as our friends went to the zoo.

Clip of film dad took of the construction of Stirling Bridge. This is most of an 8mm film which ends with a couple of minutes at the Perth Zoo and includes the only film of my brother as a child.

At the opening of the Stirling Bridge in 1974 for example, we got to walk through the hollow centre.  Wearing matching tracksuits we ate sausages in bread and had the railing pointed out to us.

My sister Cath and I at the opening of Stirling Bridge 1974

Have you noticed the railing ‘disappears’ as you drive past it so you can see the river?

My dad was the Project Engineer.  It was his first big project and it was not without it’s challenges.  Like the day driving down Stirling Highway he noticed the crane at an alarming angle.

It might be Stirling Bridge to you, but to me it is “Dad’s bridge”, and to my children “Grandad’s bridge”.  And yes, they will point out the cool railing.

Dad worked for Clough Engineering which this week went into insolvency having been sold by the family a decade ago. I’m feeling sentimental.

Clough built this city.

Not just Stirling Bridge, but the Narrows, and Mt Henry Bridge.

I was too young for the Narrows but I can tell you they had a hot air balloon at the Opening of Mount Henry in 1982.  Dad was Director of Engineering for that one.

See the balloon in the background? Yep that’s the family photo at the opening of Mt Henry.

They built Cinema City – remember that?  Okay perhaps not one of their more notable projects.

They built Prix d’Armour – that folly of Lang and Rosa Hancock in Mosman Park, now demolished.

And Clough built the Polly Pipe.  The Graeme Farmer Freeway tunnel under Northbridge (which always flows well in both directions).  I took my kids to the opening of that one and we walked through with thousands of others in both directions.

Walking through the Polly Pipe
And you got a certificate to prove it.

I grew up with Clough.  I worked in the library one summer. Photocopying mostly.  I even went on a date with Bill Clough, the youngest son.  My dad worked for Clough for the majority of his career, ending up as Chairman, so the company feels like family which is why I feel sad about today’s news.

But the thing about the construction industry is that you build things.  Things that last even if the company is no more so I’ll still be driving around the city that “dad built”.

And you can too.

Oh and remember to check out the disappearing railing next time you’re in Freo.