High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Norman Selfe (9 December 1839, Teddington, England – 15 October 1911, Sydney, Australia) was an Australian engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban visionary and controversial advocate of technical education. Today, he is best remembered in the name of the Sydney suburb of Normanhurst, where his grand house "Gilligaloola" still stands. Decades before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built, Sydney came close to building a Selfe steel cantilever bridge across the harbour with its northern foot in McMahons Point. Selfe designed bridges, docks, boats, precision machinery, as well as new refrigeration, hydraulic, electrical and transport systems for the city. Selfe was energetically involved in organisations ranging from the Royal Society of New South Wales to the Sydney Mechanics` School of Arts; the Australian Historical Society to the Central Federation League. As President of the Board of Technical Education, he fought passionately for the establishment of an independent system of technical education to serve the needs of a rapidly industrialising society. Selfe`s efforts in a number of causes went unrewarded during his life, but formed the basis of innovations that were realised later.