Kathleen Muriel Butler

About Kathleen Muriel Butler

Kathleen Muriel Butler (1891–1972) was known as 'the Godmother of the Sydney Harbour Bridge'. She played a significant role in the conception and development of the bridge. Technically, her role was as the confidential secretary to the chief engineer, John JC Bradfield. Today she would be recognised as the project manager, tender manager, negotiator, administrator and publicist for the Sydney Harbour Bridge project.

Early promise

Kathleen Butler was born in Lithgow in 1891, one of 7 children. She began her working life as a clerk and typist to Mr WF Burrow, chief officer of the NSW Government testing office at Lithgow Ironworks. Kathleen developed important technical skills in this role. ‘I found delight in specifications and calculations,’ she said in a 1925 interview with the Brisbane Courier. In 1910, at the age of 19, Kathleen was transferred to the Department of Public Works in Sydney.

Sydney Harbour Bridge project

The NSW Government had begun planning a bridge to connect the southern and northern shores of Sydney Harbour at the turn of the 20th century. In 1903, JJC Bradfield was appointed secretary to an advisory board set up to review entries in a worldwide bridge design competition. By 1912, Bradfield had been appointed as chief engineer of the Sydney Harbour and City Transit branch in the Department of Public Works. Kathleen was Bradfield’s first staff pick. Although she had no formal engineering qualifications, Bradfield respected her great aptitude for organisation, mathematics, stenography and contract management.

'The Godmother of the Sydney Harbour Bridge'

Bradfield would come to describe Kathleen as his ‘right-hand man’. In her role as his confidential secretary, Kathleen worked closely with Bradfield on specifications and other elements of the bridge tender. In 1922, while Bradfield was in New York, he relied on Kathleen not only to deal with enquiries about tenders for the bridge but to shepherd the legislation through the NSW Parliament.

In 1924, Kathleen travelled to England after Dorman Long & Co won the contract for the bridge. She led a team of young male engineers supervising the project in Dorman Long’s London office.

Kathleen wrote 29 articles for the Sydney Mail about the bridge plan and, in 1925, the London Evening Standard reported on the significance of Kathleen being the only woman in the room when the minister opened the tenders.

Kathleen was also highly visible in Sydney, appearing at publicity events and at significant moments such as the opening of tenders, the signing of contracts, and the joining of the first rivet on the structure.

Beginning a new chapter

In 1927, Kathleen married pastoralist Maurice Hagarty. At that time, female public servants were required to resign from their jobs under the so-called ‘marriage bar’, and she and Maurice moved to Queensland.

She maintained a close relationship with Bradfield and his wife, attending the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s official opening in 1932 with her young daughter Anne.

In 1936, she again took Anne to visit Bradfield and his wife in Sydney. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, she said she ‘hates to be out of it all’ and was very interested in the Story Bridge (Brisbane) project, for which Bradfield was the consulting engineer.

The legacy continues

Kathleen died in 1972, aged 81. She is remembered as an icon for the Women's Engineering Society and for women in STEM more broadly. As part of the Sydney Metro project, the 130-metre tunnel boring machine being used to dig a new rail tunnel under Sydney Harbour has been named Kathleen in honour of her work.

Check out this fabulous story 

Kathleen Muriel Butler by Bill Phippen – Engineers Australia.

Further references

• BEEDEE (22 March 1932) Women and that bridge! The feminine influence behind the great builders, Australian Woman’s Mirror, Sydney, accessed 25 June 2025.
• Gooding A (9 August 2018) Bradfield, 75 years on – part 2: 'the only woman present' – Kathleen Butler and the Bridge, Strategic Week blog, accessed 25 June 2025.