One issue surrounding the West Gate collapse that attracted attention at the time, but disappeared as time rolled on, is related to the independence of one of those appointed to the Royal Commission. In conducting research for our project, we became interested in the allegation from the unions that Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith, one of the Royal Commissioners, had a conflict of interest and should not be involved in the investigation. This was dismissed as fanciful at the time by the government.

We decided to examine this allegation to see if there was any substance to it. From a range of sources, this is what we found…

In early November 1970, rumours began circulating in Melbourne that one of the West Gate Royal Commissioners, Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith, had strong links with Freeman Fox personnel. and that, if this were true, he might not have the necessary objectivity to take up the role. The Solicitor-General Mr Murray QC, assisting the Commission, felt it necessary to publicly refute newspaper suggestions that Sir Hubert was director of companies that may in future have dealings with Freeman Fox and Partners. Mr William Kaye, appearing for John Holland Constructions, said his client was confident that the Commissioner would be detached and objective.

However, ‘future dealings’ was hardly the point. Aged 69 and in private practice at the time of the Royal Commission, it appears clear Shirley-Smith had enjoyed life-long personal and professional associations with several Freeman Fox partners, including Sir Ralph Freeman senior and junior, and was close friends with the West Gate Bridge designer, Sir Gilbert Roberts.

Via the office of Clyde Holding, then leader of the Federal Labor opposition, a long and well-researched typescript regarding Shirley-Smith’s biography was sent to the Victorian Trades Hall Council. Holding subsequently wrote that if Labor colleagues had known this information when Shirley-Smith was appointed, they would not have supported his selection. Holding advised his intention to make a statement exposing Shirley-Smith’s multiple conflicts of interest. Through our own research, we have been able to verify much of the information in this document.

In April 1970, Shirley-Smith was invited to write a column for ‘You and Your Job’ in The Observer. Waxing lyrical about engineering work, he used his own career path to highlight the many opportunities for social contributions available to those in his profession. After Shirley-Smith qualified as an engineer in 1923, he had been hired by the late Sir Ralph Freeman, one of the designers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (with Bradfield) and father of the senior partner of Freeman Fox at the time of the West Gate collapse. At that time, Freeman (snr) was a consulting engineer for Dorman Long (with Roberts and Dr Oleg Kerensky, senior partner, Freeman Fox). Shirley-Smith wrote, ‘Working for such an inspiring personality was a privilege which any young engineer was lucky to have. It fired me with an urge to follow the big bridges which in the years to come I did…’.

In the 1930s, Shirley-Smith worked for Dorman Long alongside Ralph Freeman (jnr) on bridges and a major steelworks project in Africa. In the early to mid 1960s, all are involved in another massive project, the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland – Roberts was the designer and Shirley-Smith led construction. Those experiences became the subject of a paper he and Freeman wrote together for an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) conference in 1945 for which they received the Telford Premium Prize. In his presidential address to the ICE in 1967, Shirley-Smith praised the ‘safety first’ approach Freeman (jnr) took to everything he did, saying that the zealous testing work he performed ‘was typical of the all-embracing thoroughness with which Sir Ralph tackled every job.’ So close was the working relationship between these men, the anonymous author of the typescript argued that it would be a much easier task to list projects where Sir Hubert had not worked with them.

In 1953 Shirley-Smith also published a book on bridges – Roberts and Kerensky read drafts and offered comments. Shirley-Smith and Sir Ralph (jnr) were both active in the Institution of Civil Engineers and, indeed, Sir Hubert succeeded Freeman as President in the mid-1960s. Although Freeman Fox was dismissed from the bridge project in the wake of the Royal Commission, it was a Dorman Long – Holland joint venture that completed the work. Shirley-Smith had been a director of Dorman Long for several years.

Only months before his appointment to the West Gate Royal Commission, Shirley-Smith wrote that engineers must respond urgently to the question of safety in construction, because of the human and financial costs. Cited in The Observer, he contradicted the emphasis Commissioners would later place on union conflict in the West Gate Royal Commission findings. He said, ‘much more working time is lost through accidents than through strikes.’ This has resulted in us asking the question whether the damning evidence against his former colleagues at Freeman Fox encouraged Sir Hubert to recant this position, and to start ‘flinging mud’ wherever else it would stick — including on the unions on the bridge who took several actions in pursuit of improved health and safety in the months before the collapse. In examining the transcripts of the Royal Commission, it is our observation that accusations are often levelled at the unions — alleging that they contributed to the collapse through industrial action — but there is no evidence presented to demonstrate causation.

In 1969, Shirley-Smith said he was proud to be known as one of the ‘Sydney Bridge Gang’, the team of five architects who designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1920s (reported in The Australian). In Sydney to speak at a conference of the Institution of Engineers, Sir Hubert’s speech was about the importance of safety. ‘I think we lost 10 or 20 chaps on the Sydney bridge,’ he said [it was 16]. ‘On the Firth Road Bridge in Scotland in 1962 we had only two killed. That was much better, but still too many.’ However, he was not averse to blaming victims for their own injuries and deaths. ‘Thank goodness the bad old days of bravado and risks are nearly finished. Chaps used to be a bit silly about safety helmets and such. They said they were hot and uncomfortable. There was some sort of bravado attached to the work and safety measures seemed to interfere with it.’ Nonetheless, Shirley-Smith reiterated that ‘[a]ccidents on bridge work still cost five times more than industrial strikes in England – about $100 million a year.’ He said, ‘We’ll have to stop this. We’re always going to have bridges – though their form may change – so we must make the work safe for the men.’

Anon (1970) The Sun, 6 November.

Anon (1970) Melbourne Truth, 14 November.

Anon, undated, ‘Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith – Biographical Details’, Typescript, VTHC files, 2001.0020 Unit 378, UMA.

Holding C (1970) Letter to Ken Stone from Clyde Holding, Legislative Assembly, VTHC, 16 November, VTHC, 2001.0020, Unit 13, UMA.

Shirley-Smith H (1961) ‘Spanning the Forth’, The Guardian, 14 February.

Shirley-Smith H (1953) The World’s Great Bridges, London, Phoenix House.

Shirley-Smith H (1970) ‘You & Your Job: Civil Engineering – A million cubic yards between life and death’, The Observer, 5 April.

Oliver A (1998) ‘Obituary: Sir Ralph Freeman’, The Independent, 1 September.

West Gate Bridge Royal Commission (1970) Vol 1, transcript of the first day, 28 October, Melbourne.

Williams G (1969) The Australian, 16 April.

Photo of a section of the collapsed West Gate, now located at the West Gate Garden at Monash University. Photo from Billycan Press.