 John Whitton and his work have been underrated in Australian history, although they provided the operational foundation of the main railway lines in New South Wales.In international references Whitton is recognised as one of approximately twenty of the greatest railway civil engineers in the first century of world railway construction.The achievement of his crossings of the Great Divide was superlative at the time and in terms of British railway civil engineering was only exceeded by the difficult crossing of the Indian Ghats.