ANNUAL ADDRESS. XXIX. 



time to join him. Before this, Mr. G. A. Murray had joined 

 Messrs. John and George Russell, and thenceforward managed 

 the financial department. George Russell retired in 1874, and 

 thenceforward until the historic lockout of 1875, John Russell 

 and Mr. Murray carried on the business. Mr. John Russell died 

 in 1879. The other members are still alive. 



As there is at the present time a great boom in dredge building 

 for mining purposes, and as the Russells' were so much to the 

 front in the construction of the early dredges, a short reference to 

 these works should be interesting now. The operations of dredg- 

 ing, for deeping our harbours and rivers, has become such an 

 important part of the work carried on by the Government, that the 

 Works Department now controls, including those on the bucket, 

 sand-pump, and grab systems, forty-five dredges of all kinds. This 

 is a great contrast to the time which some of us remember, when 

 the " old Hercules " was the only dredge in Australia. 



The hull of the "Hercules" was built in the colony at Russell's 

 shipyard (not P. N. Russell), and the machinery was imported. 

 She had a beam-engine, which, I understand from Mr. A. B. 

 Portus, is working still, and originally there was a lot of brick- 

 work about the setting of her old fashioned boiler. 



In the year 1857 the Government required a new dredge for 

 Newcastle, and it was one of the first works taken in hand on the 

 establishment of a department of Harbours and Rivers. The 

 hull was built at Rowntree's Dock, Waterview Bay, by Captain 

 Rowntree ; Mr. Anderson, (afterwards the district engineer at the 

 Wollongong and Kiama harbour works) being the foreman ship- 

 wright responsible for her construction. An imported side-lever 

 engine with its boiler, by Wingate of Glasgow, was purchased 

 from its importers, and on the 19th February 1858, Messrs. P. N". 

 Russell & Co., booked the contract for the rest of the machinery. 

 The finished drawing of this dredge the " Hunter," made by the 

 author over forty years ago, was exhibited at our last annual 

 meeting. With the modifications due to over forty years work, 

 the old craft is still rendering her services to the State. 



