Macnamara Russel (1836-1899).
Melbourne, Australia.
Died 1899.[1]
1900 Obituary [2]
MACNAMARA RUSSELL, son of Mr. H. Heathcote Russell, was born in London on the 7th March, 1836.
After serving a pupilage to his father, who was in practice as an architect and engineer, he was engaged on telegraph construction in Egypt for three years.
He then carried out some work for his father in Bermuda, and in 1860 went to Australia, where his first employment was on survey work for the Government of Victoria.
In 1862 he was appointed Assistant Road Engineer to the Province of Otago, New Zealand, and in 1865 Assistant Engineer to the Province of Auckland in the same colony.
Mr. Russell’s long connection with New South Wales began in the year 1867, when he entered the Roads Department of that colony under the late Mr. William Christopher Bennett. He remained in this branch of the Government service for nearly five years, and among the works with which he was connected during that period were the construction of the Gundagai Bridge, with its approaches, over the Murrumbidgee River, and of the Wellington Bridge across the Macquarie River.
In 1873 he entered the Railway Department, in which he remained for ten years, occupying during the greater portion of that time the position of Chief Draughtsman in the office of the Engineer-in-Chief, the late Mr. John Whitton.
In 1884 Mr. Russell quitted the Government service to go to Silverton and Broken Hill, being one of the first to visit those fields. From that time he devoted himself to mining operations. In 1891 he formed one of the syndicate to take up the Mount Lyell Mine in Tasmania, and he was also a Director of the Copper Mines of Mount Lyell West.
Mr. Russell died at Kensington on the 8th September, 1899, at the age of 63.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 6th April, 1886.