Robert Amos (contractor)

Robert Amos (c.1832—1905) was a construction contractor in New South Wales, Australia. The contracts that he completed were for civil engineering works, especially railway lines and bridges. Most of his work was under contract to New South Wales Government Railways while under the management of Commissioner for Railways, Charles Goodchap, and Engineer-in-Charge, John Whitton. He was in partnership, under the name Railway Contractors, with his brother Alexander Amos and Alexander Kerr, until January 1875. From 1875 to September 1889, he was in partnership with his brother Alexander Amos, using the name A. and R. Amos, and thereafter he contracted on his own.

Based on his age at death, he was born around 1832. His parents were Alexander and Catherine Amos. He had an older sister, Janet, and an older brother Alexander.

It was Amos's brother Alexander Amos who began contracting in the 1850s, in Melbourne, mainly erecting public buildings and carrying out bridge and road works. The company moved its focus, around 1868, when an opportunity became available in New South Wales, construction of a part of the Main North railway line. Amos joined his brother and Alexander Kerr in a partnership for that work. Kerr had managed construction of the Lithgow Zig Zag, for the contractor Patrick Higgins, and later, as a contractor, would build the Main North line from Scone to Murrurundi and parts of the North Coast railway line.

After ending the partnership with Kerr, the two Amos brothers formed a partnership as A & R Amos, and carried out construction contracts on new railway lines between 1874 and 1889, after which the two brothers fell out over money and the partnership was terminated. He had fallen out with Alexander over money in 1889. Their partnership had never been formalized. Their dispute eventually went to arbitration, following which Robert Amos was awarded a payment.