A Tribute to Dan Moye by David Anderson

My first close contact with Dan was in 1954 in the USA, when we met in New York on July 30th and toured the city, finishing on the evening in an off–Broadway jazz club called The Golden Apple. We had a pleasant but sober evening and enjoyed each other’s company.

In 1957 when I was appointed Supervising Engineer of the Snowy’s Scientific Services Division, Associate Commissioner Tom Lang directed me to sort out some specific problems. These included ensuring that the on-going work on developing rock bolts as permanent support in tunnels and underground power stations continued as rapidly as possible. This was a multi-discipline project, in which Dan played a major role, and was aimed at not only producing construction hardware and methods, but also a theoretical framework. I found Dan a tremendous help in this. In addition, with his years of experience there, he had a wide knowledge of the Division’s activities and staff, and was an invaluable sounding board for me. In the years I spent there, we became firm friends.

In 1964 I was transferred to the Tunnels and Pipelines Design Branch. One of its important responsibilities was to determine the extent of concrete lining needed in the normally unlined transmountain tunnels. In practice, this was done by tunnel lining committees, of which Dan was a key member. Final tunnel treatment was very much a matter of judgement, with a lot of weight being given to the geological conditions. Here again, I found Dan’s opinions extremely valuable, and I’m sure the generally very good performance of the Snowy’s unlined tunnels over nearly fifty years is owed in large measure to his experience and sound judgement.

In my later career, many of the projects I worked on required input by geologists as part of an engineering team. By then, Dan’s example and influence had firmly established engineering geology in Australia as a specific career, so that not only those he had trained personally, but many who had never known him were available for such work. He had a major and enduring influence on his profession, both in Australia and through the world.

David Anderson