such construction very costly and very slow. Iron and 

 steel have been tried with success, but structural steel 

 jetties are very expensive both in first cost and in subse- 

 quent maintenance. The latter item becomes a serious 

 consideration, and marine engineers have been seeking for 

 some time past to find a substitute, which, while of sufficient 

 strength, will obviate the heavy maintenance charges. 



Reinforced concrete has been devised with this end in 

 view, and there are now many instances in existence which 

 serve to show how successfully the principle can be applied 

 to various classes of engineering work. It is in Europe 

 chiefly, that reinforced concrete construction has been 

 developed and perfected, and the formulae for the compu- 

 tation of strength devised. In the United States, though 

 a great many reinforced concrete structures have been 

 built, the Americans have followed rather than led. 



The application of reinforced concrete to wharf and jetty 

 construction has not anywhere kept pace with the advance- 

 ment of the same compositions on dry land. The greater 

 number of wharves so built are more or less imitative of 

 timber work. In this part of the world reinforced concrete 

 wharves have been built at Auckland, Tonga, Wellington, 

 Gladstone, Brisbane, and Adelaide, and they are all practi- 

 cally of similar design— pile and deck structures. Nothing 

 of the kind has been essayed, so far, either at Sydney or 

 Melbourne, though, at the latter port, this class of con- 

 struction was recommended by the engineer engaged to 

 report upon the Port of Melbourne in 1908. 



It might be inferred from these facts that we, in Sydney, 

 are getting behind the times but such is far from being 

 the case. Reinforced concrete has been applied in con- 

 nection with our wharfage works, but following an entirely 

 new line of development, we have not up to this constructed 

 any reinforced deep water berths, but considerable progress 



