Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Yeates Monument Lookout - On section 124, Hundred of Willunga, named in 1977. He was appointed as an Assistant Engineer in the Highways Department during 1936 and, after occupying the positions of District Engineer, Engineer for Materials and Surveys, Supervising Engineer, Assistant Chief Engineer and Senior Assistant Chief Engineer, became Commissioner of Highways and Director of Local Government on 14 May 1966.
As the fourth Commissioner of the Highways Department, he was primarily responsible for the department’s first Testing Laboratory and the Northfield Workshops and Asphalt Plant.
He contributed, significantly, to advancement of stone crushing procedures and plants, pavement design procedures, road maintenance organisation and the rural road network of South Australia. Mr Yeates was the author of articles concerned with arterial roads in relation to town planning, on the stabilisation of sand clay, on road construction with special reference to district roads, and he prepared evidence for presentation to committees regarding the container method of handling cargoes and the State transport services.
It was during his term of office that the construction of a duplicate wing of the Highways Department office building at Walkerville was commenced. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, bestowed on John Yeates the decoration of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in June 1969.

The cairn and lookout commemorate John Norman Yeates for his 49 years of public service to South Australia.

John Norman Yeates gave 49 years of outstanding public service in South Australia, eventually becoming Highways Commissioner and Director of Local Government. He retired at the end of 1969, bringing to a close a successful career, during the latter part of which he supervised most of the important engineering assignments carried out by his department. These included building sections of the Stuart Highway, the Salisbury Munitions Works, the Gawler and Mt Gambier aerodromes, Northfields workshops and research laboratories, the Walkerville central administration building and most of South Australia’s modern highways. The “John Yeates Lookout,” near the recently completed Willunga Hill deviation, was named after him.