George Ernest HamiltonCE (ca.1800 – 8 October 1872) was a British civil engineer who played a leading role in development of the Colony ofSouth Australia.
He was involved in various water supply schemes in England between 1826 and 1840:Shrewsbury,Chesterfield andWolverhampton, and aslipway for thePort of Caernarvon.
He arrived in South Australia in 1850 and was appointed as a member of the firstAdelaide City Council,[1] then in 1853 the firstTown of Kensington and Norwood council.[2] He was an early advocate of steam navigation of the River Murray.[3] He put forward a plan for areservoir on the Torrens Gorge and was appointed Superintendent of the Mechanical Department of the SA Assay office underB. H. Babbage, then Assistant Engineer for the Port Adelaide railway in 1853 and Inspector General of Roads in 1854[4] and Inspector of Main Roads in 1855.[5]
He was Chief Engineer for the Waterworks Department 1857–1858, and responsible for the Torrens Gorge weir nearCampbelltown which failed in July 1858, its first year of operation.[6] Hamilton was called as a witness in 1859 when it was discovered that the contractors Frost & Watson had skimped on materials for the dam wall, but came in for a share of the blame[7] and resigned, to be replaced byJohn England. The partnership of (Thomas) Frost and (Edward) Watson was dissolved in 1860.
He was involved in designing thesmelters at Port Adelaide andWallaroo in 1860.[5] He was appointed engineer for construction of theStrathalbyn andVictor Harbor tramway in 1866[8] and Resident Engineer for the Strathalbyn toMiddleton tramway in 1867.[9] He was appointedJP in 1862.
He and his son, architectEdward Angus Hamilton, were involved in constructing the Kadina to Wallaroo railway, completed in 1866.[10] Their partnership was dissolved in 1866 when George was appointed to the Strathalbyn and Middleton Railway and E. A. Hamilton to the firm ofWright & Woods,[11] (then in 1868 second-in-charge of the Colonial Architect's Department, MLA for Kadina 1870–1871 and later moved to South America).[12]
He was a member of a consortium that was formed in 1870 to lay a railway betweenPort Adelaide andHoldfast Bay.[13]
He returned to Britain and died atAbergavenny, Monmouthshire, aged 73
Hamilton was married to Eliza, who died on 12 December 1858 aged 58 at their home "The Lodge",Kensington.