Engineers Australia Northern Division
Annual Report 2008 Survey House, 14 Shepherd Street Darwin GPO Box 417 Darwin NT 0801 Director Bronwyn Russell Telephone 08 8981 4137 Fax 08 8981 3449 Email nt@engineersaustralia.org.au Website: www.engineersaustralia.org.au
President’s Report My first extremely pleasing duty is to congratulate our immediate Past President Owen Peake on his recognition as an Honorary Fellow. This is a very great honour and I was privileged to be at the Engineers Australia AGM last week in Canberra when this honour was bestowed. Owen well done. After four decades in the Territory, Owen has decided to relocate to country Victoria. I wish Owen
neers Australia Presidents’ meetings. While no solutions are to hand it is a work in progress. Encouraging youth to study mathematics and science and open the door to engineering is an important role. Having Rosemary Carson on board as a consultant certainly helped in this endeavour. I wish to acknowledge the hard work of committee members juggling busy work lives with the needs of Engineers Australia. Thankyou.
and Helen all the best. This year has continued to be busy. Cranes on the skyline, mining and oil and gas developments and of course a shortage of engineers typify our division. Despite this workload many members continue to support Engineers Australia as volunteers and I thank them. As well as many activities in Darwin the Gove and Alice Springs regional groups also ran programs and participated in the management of the Division. I have been involved in judging Northern Division Engineering Excellence Awards and I’m impressed with number, quality and range of projects put forward in this small division year after year. The challenges faced, the ingenious solutions adopted and the application of good engineering is evidence of the quality of our engineers.
I must commend our small team at Northern Division for their tireless work in bringing not only services to members but representing the interests of Engineers Australia on the broader stage. One issue of particular note was the brokering of external funding to establish an inaugural Chair of Structural Engineering at Charles Darwin University. I would like to thank Bronwyn and her changing team, Justine, Karen, and Macgregor for their support and diligence. Peter Hagan Northern Division President
The Year of the Engineering Team has been one of our main focuses with events and activities. This year saw the appointment of Len Chappell a fellow Engineering Technologist to the Electrical College Board as the Northern Division representative. Len and Bob Calaby represented the Division on the Engineering Technologists and Associates national committees and were commended on the work of the Division in embracing technologists and associates. Further to the recognition of the heritage significance and magnificent efforts of the past particularly during World War of construction of the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Alice Springs by the unveiling of a plaque at the RAAF Gates Darwin in December last year a further plaque was unveiled at the Tropic of Capricorn in May this year. Small numbers of members and a huge geographical spread poses real difficulties in providing services. This issue has been the subject of discussion at various forums including the Engi-
Engineers Australia Northern Division Team wishes all our members a merry Christmas and a very happy 2009
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