Year In Review 2014
IN THIS ISSUE
President’s Report | General Manager’s Report | Group Reports
President’s report
Our Division focus was on the challenges faced by our profession in changing times and promoting regulation of engineering in WA. Whilst we cannot control the market in these challenging times, we have adjusted some of our approaches both financially and practically in response to the changing economic climate.
Will Neethling TFIEAust CEngT President Engineers Australia WA Division
Division First and foremost I thank the Division Committee and Division Staff for all their support during the year. It has been challenging in some respects and a few individuals need special mention. Alexandra Sparvell stepped in as Acting General Manager when our former General Manager, Leanne Hardwicke resigned. Francis Norman and Helen Pedersen assisted during this period and their volunteer hours are appreciated. Leanne Hardwicke resigned in early September after a long career with EA. We wish Leanne all the best for the future and thank her for her contribution to the Division. The recruitment process is well advanced and a new GM is expected to commence in January 2015.
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The initiative to revitalise the drive for a regulatory scheme for engineering in WA was also a focus in 2014. Early in the year meetings with Government officials indicated strong support. During the middle of the year it stalled due to a perceived lack of government funding. I am pleased to report that it is now back on track and that the incoming Division President, Francis Norman, will be following through into 2015 to ensure the momentum is maintained. Increased engagement with tertiary institutions is a top priority for our organisation. Stronger links with the tertiary sector have been forged during 2014, and this will support delivering increased value to our student engineers in 2015. Prof Alex Baitch, National President, met with industry leaders to promote the Chartered brand, attended the WA Engineering Excellence Awards, and inspected the Australian Maritime Complex at Henderson during his visit to WA. The Division Committee met with parliamentarians in our ongoing efforts to strengthen relationships externally and ensure that engineering is in the forefront of people’s focus. At last year’s meeting we were asked to develop a submission on Floating LNG
to the WA Parliamentary Committee. This was completed and the FLNG final report was launched in early December. Our President-Elect for 2015, Francis Norman did all the hard work – thanks Francis! Our WA Engineering Excellence
Our WA Engineering Excellence Awards highlighted that, despite the challenging times we live in, WA has once again delivered some iconic and excellent projects Awards highlighted that, despite the challenging times we live in, WA has once again delivered some iconic and excellent projects, and the individual awards were no less impressive. Thanks to Chris Fitzhardinge and his judging panel for evaluating the projects, and to the judges of the Individual Awards. Thanks also to all the staff who worked tirelessly to make the event a success! In our ongoing efforts to maintain relevance to as many members and potential members as well as industries as possible, the Oil and Gas Facilities Group was re-established and it is now a vibrant and active group. A new Mining and Mineral Processing Group was also established towards the end of the year and we
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA DIVISION
look forward to seeing it grow in 2015. These are the largest two industries in WA and we intend to service members in these sectors better. All our Panels, Societies and Special Interest Groups have been active and successful in 2014. I thank each and every volunteer and office bearer who volunteered time to make our association what it is. Without volunteers we cannot function at all. Your dedication to ensuring our profession remains vital and current is very much appreciated. Our partners who provide sponsorship are vital to our success. Not only do they support us financially with sponsorship, but they support us in many other ways as well. They are the organisations that support our Chartered program, they provide guest speakers for events, and they promote EA within their organisations.
National To maintain links with, and relevance to national matters, we have a number of people participating in various roles at national level, including Congress representatives, members of Colleges and of course the Presidents’ Forum. As reported last year, a number of national initiatives were commenced. New Regulations were introduced and discussions began on a new governance model. This year we saw the implementation of the new Regulations which have a focus on EA being more cost effective in these challenging times, Colleges being the custodians of the Body of Knowledge in their engineering
discipline, and more national consistency in the way Divisions operate. The proposed new governance model which was debated last year has gained momentum. Further discussion took place this year and the proposal is now to have a member ballot in February 2015. A lot has been written about it elsewhere. We encourage members to read the information available on the EA website, make comments as necessary and then to exercise their right to cast a vote in February. We thank our outgoing National President, Prof Alex Baitch, for his dedication to the profession, and we look forward to working with our new National President, Dr David Cruickshanks-Boyd in 2015.
2014 Division Committee Will Neethling TFIEAust CEngT Division President
Helen Pedersen FIEAust CPEng Past President
Francis Norman AFIEAust CEngA Deputy President
Richard Atkinson FIEAust CPEng Committee Member
Fadi Dorkhom FIEAust CPEng Committee Member
Sebastian Bunney MIEAust CPEng
Committee Member
Jason Flowerdew MIEAust Committee Member
Paula Sothern MIEAust CPEng Committee Member
Jolanta Szymakowski MIEAust Committee Member
Rob Rowbottam FIEAust CPEng Committee Member
Andrew Tennent FIEAust CPEng Committee Member
Barry Tonkin FIEAust CPEng Congress Representative
Mark Bush FIEAust CPEng Congress Representative
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General Manager’s report
The CELM Engineering Frontiers series was a new initiative for the WA Division, launched in 2014, which gained momentum as the year progressed and distinguished leaders of the profession were secured to deliver thought leadership reflections on their own experience and development. We had presentations from the following leaders:
Alexandra Sparvell Acting General Manager Engineers Australia WA Division In 2014 Western Australia Division delivered a comprehensive collective of initiatives that strengthens Engineers Australia as the leading source of career development and professional home for life for the engineering profession. We have brought members together to not only share technical information, but to network and connect members with key stakeholders within our WA community. We have also continued to work closely with engineering industry employers to deliver value through our partnership programs. This year has seen the WA Division deliver a broad scope of activities and initiatives to its 15,625 members. Our dedicated volunteers have successfully delivered over 7950 technical sessions, workshops and site visits, equating to delivery of 12900 continuing professional development hours.
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Erica Smyth, Chair – Toro Energy Limited
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Peter Meurs FIEAust CPEng, Director Developments – Fortescue Metals Group
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Colin Beckett FIEAust, General Manager – Greater Gorgon Area for Chevron Australia
Two of the Engineering Frontiers events were filmed and published onto Engineering Online, the online learning centre for engineers with activities to benefit CPD credit. The annual Careers Expo was held in March attracting 750 engineering undergraduates and over 60 exhibitors. The expo provided fundamental career and professional development advice for students and connected them with industry. We continue to work closely with our Schools Engagement Sponsors, Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia to harbour the already existing strong partnerships EA has with the institutes, and provide a clear value proposition; offering students the right products and services at the right time. Another successful year of Australian Engineering Week wrapped up in August, with a busy schedule of
events that celebrated the engineering profession. The events were aimed at highlighting the important contribution from engineers and to bring these stories to the fore. This was delivered through the 32-page Engineering Week 2014 lift-out in The West Australian, student nights and presentations Janet Holmes a Court and Andrew Harding, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto Iron Ore – China, Japan and Korea. The week wrapped up with the announcement of the winners of the 2014 Canstruction Perth competition at the Cocktail Party closing event. This was the third consecutive year WA Division has hosted Canstruction Perth, providing over 6000 meals for needy families. The WA Individual Awards received a record number of submissions in 2014, and saw Major Bruce Hughes CSM FIEAust CPEng recognised as the 2014 WA Professional Engineer of the Year, Paula West FIEAust CPEng as WA Young Professional Engineer of the Year, Paul Copland TFIEAust CEngT for WA Engineering Technologist of the Year, Emmanuel Ollandezos AFIEAust for WA Engineering Associate of the Year, and Anthony Sims AMIEAust for WA Young Engineering Associate of the Year. The $5 billion North Rankin Redevelopment project entered by Woodside Energy, WorleyParsons and KBR won the Overall WA Engineering Excellence Award, as well as two Category Awards. The importance of water to Western Australia was a recurring theme with all seven awardwinning projects being water based. Overall membership in WA mostly remained steady from the previous
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA DIVISION
financial year, with increases across most Grades of Membership. This data reaffirms the recognised importance of sustaining membership during these challenging economic times, so we achieve strength in numbers to build the profile of the profession. Our work with industry continues with a number of new companies forging partnerships to support their people towards Chartered most notable was the signing of Inpex to complete the group of high profile Oil and Gas companies supporting Engineers Australia and Chartered within their organisations. Our Division Principal Partner, WorleyParsons, as well as all of our Partners and Supporters have again provided valuable support to our broad scope of activities initiated by the Division, aimed at delivering our strategic objectives for member and community engagement. We thank all our Partners, Supporters and Hospitality Sponsor for their support, both financial and in-kind. I also extend a very sincere thanks to all the volunteers, office bearers, staff and members of the WA Division for their integrity, support and encouragement in continuing to work toward strengthening the profile of the profession, despite the challenging economic times.
Current Staff List Alexandra Sparvell Acting General Manager
Nikki Angelucci Marketing and Communications Manager
Rod Wesley Events Manager
Sharleen Mantle Member Program Coordinator
Lorraine Crosbie Member Services Officer
Christine Moran Business Development Manager, Industry
Adam Nelson Business Development Manager, Membership
Keith Collins FIEAust CPEng National Assessor
Doug McInnes OAM HonFIEAust CPEng
National Assessor
Jim Brown FIEAust CPEng National Assessor
Steve Algie FIEAust CPEng National Assessor
Elisa Reale Chartered Membership Officer
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Group Reports Panels, branches and groups of the Division provide a focus for learned society activities in College disciplines, technical specialities and special interest areas. Committees organise regular technical and broad interest presentations, seminars and conferences and may also prepare position papers on matters affecting the particular discipline. Asset Management Council John Sander The Perth Chapter of the Asset Management Council (AMC) has experienced a number of significant events throughout the course of 2014. After 6 years as the Chapter Chair, Andrew Morgan has now taken a role as Commissioner of Certifications for the AMC at a National level. The committee has appointed John Sander as the new Chapter Chair. Andrew has left a great legacy of development and achievement for the chapter to move forward with. Well done Andrew and many thanks. The development of Young Asset Management Professional has been a key objective for us and with the nomination of Yuna Kim to the committee, we are in good hands. We remain the largest chapter of the AMC in Australia and are all working hard to stay the biggest and the best. In June we hosted AMPEAK - Asset Management Promote, Educate, Assist, and Knowledge; the annual 6 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2014
national conference for the AMC. This was a great success and brought together both international and local delegates. The release of the ISO 55000 suite of management standards for Asset Management in early 2014 has set a solid framework and guidance for all asset intensive organisations to gauge and measure themselves against. Several of our chapter individuals provided key roles and input to the development of the standard over the last few years and continue to provide input and guidance. Recently we held a Certified Asset Management Assessors examination in Perth to become one of the first groups to certify individuals as qualified assessors against the standard. Our year wraps up with our Christmas Party and networking event overlooking the Swan River. We have achieved a lot throughout the course of 2014 and have an even bigger year of events and presentations planned for 2015.
Australian Geomechanics Society Colin Dickson MIEAust CPEng The WA Chapter of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS) comprises over 230 members representing every aspect of Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology. We have had another very active year with 14 technical events, accruing more than 1,500 CPD hours. Highlights included a one day seminar on Soft Ground Engineering, with key note lectures by local and interstate speakers, the Géotechnique Lecture by
Prof. Byron Byrne (Oxford), the Terzaghi Lecture by Prof. David E Daniel (Univ Dallas), the John Jaeger Lecture by Prof. Ian Johnston (Univ Melbourne), a special deep sewer tunnel lecture by Prof. John Endicott (Hong Kong) and a ‘sold-out’ joint event with the Structures Panel by Rob Day and Joe Mucillo. Other joint events were organised with ATS and AusIMM. The topics covered in the technical presentations included mining geotechnics, pavement design and innovation through Alliance contracts, diaphragm walls, tunneling, offshore infrastructure and foundation modelling. Details of past and future presentations can be found at: www.australiangeomechanics.org High quality presentations were seen in the two regular annual competitions: the Dr Baden Clegg Award for under-35’s and the GFWA Prize for final year undergraduate projects in geomechanics. Both of these awards involve the finalists delivering short talks on work they have undertaken, which are judged by a panel of practicing engineers. The WA Chapter also continues sponsoring annual Geomechanics awards at UWA and Curtin University for the students that present the best combination of thesis and seminar on a geotechnical topic. Perth was confirmed as the host city for the 13th Australia New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics (ANZ 2019) at the recent AGS National Committee Meeting. This is the second time Perth will host the event, 35 years after the fourth conference in the series in 1984. The AGS committee will be involved in managing and promoting this event and will have members on the local organising committee.
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA DIVISION
Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling Eric Lau MIEAust CPEng The mission of the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling (ASBSH) is to enhance the discipline of bulk solids handling through research, education and sound engineering practice. Membership is open to anyone involved in bulk solids handling. In Western Australia, four excellent technical presentations were organised. Topics included Fatigue Assessment of Welded Joints in Rotating Equipment, Practical Dust Management and Improving the performance of bulk material feeders. The main event was a well-attended three hour workshop on “Poor Handling of Bulk Solids can be a Big Drain on Your Profitability” by the Chair of the ASBSH, Prof. Peter Wypych who flew in from Wollongong, NSW. For more information on the society and how to join, please refer to www. engineersaustralia.org.au/australiansociety-bulk-solids-handling
Construction Panel
Hydraulic Fracturing. In March, Thomas Jacobs, Partner at Jackson McDonald presented on the legal principles relating to time in construction projects, covering case studies, standard form and bespoke contract clauses. Steve Lieblich, Principal at Lieblich & Associates presented “Rapid Adjudication of Construction Contract Payment Disputes” in June. The presentation clarified what sort of contracts are covered by the Construction Contracts Act (WA) 2004 and how the Act affects a contract. In August, the Construction Panel hosted a session jointly presented by Dr Sean Brady, Managing Director at Brady Heywood and Mr Greg Steinepreis, Partner at Squire Patton Boggs. The session was titled “Responding to Engineering Failures – the technical and legal response”.
Electrical Panel Neil Midolo FIEAust CPEng The Electrical Panel has continued to meet regularly throughout 2014 with the main focus on CPD and standards.
Leo Coci MIEAust CPEng (Ret) The Construction Panel held a series of interesting technical sessions in 2014. The first was titled “What the Frac? Warts and all!” and was presented by Howard Thomas, Executive Consultant for Evans & Peck, in March. Howard explained the difference between conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon formations, the importance of unconventional formations for the industry, and risks associated with the practice of
In conjunction with IET, IEEE and ITEE the Panel has presented a series of papers throughout the year with topics including project and asset management, earthing and risk, microgrids and wave power and mining automation. Members of the Panel have played a key role in an initiative to develop an Arc Flash guide and have been active on standards committees. The Panel also continues to be
active in the area of student awards and is working in conjunction with the universities to ensure that the award criteria remain relevant. Panel members have continued to attend university prize giving on behalf of EA to present awards. The Down to Earth Conference was hosted in the first week of November. This Conference is a continuation of a series of conferences shared between Perth and Newcastle and attracts earthing experts from all parts of Australia and overseas.
Engineering Heritage WA Prof Mark Bush FIEAust CPEng Engineering Heritage Western Australia is the WA chapter of Engineering Heritage Australia, the branch of EA that fosters ways and means for its members and the general public to access and celebrate Australia’s rich engineering heritage. Activities include the identification, researching and nomination of engineering works and projects for heritage recognition, and the design of public interpretation panels that are mounted with accompanying heritage marker discs at the relevant sites. The committee also manages the collection of oral histories from prominent WA engineers and organises public events with an engineering heritage focus. We have an active committee of 13 members and meet every two months. The committee has been successful in having two new engineering sites approved during the last year for heritage recognition: Fremantle Fortress - Leighton Battery in Mosman Park, and the Stirling Bridge in
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Group Reports Fremantle. Dedication ceremonies will be held at these two locations. We also have three new nominations under way, and several in the scoping stage, dealing with subjects ranging from mining structures to railways to lighthouses. The committee is also contributing to national affairs. It is playing a leading role in developing training opportunities for heritage engineers in conjunction with other Divisions, and will participate in the EA National Convention in November. Information about these projects, including the nomination documents and ceremony reports, can be downloaded from the EHWA website: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/ western-australia-division/westernaustralia-branch-engineeringheritage-panel
ITEE Panel (Information, Technology And Electronics) Robert Williamson AFIEAust CEngA EngExec 2014 has been as usual, a busy year for the ITEE Panel (WA) with a regular program of jointly sponsored technical programs running throughout the year. The Panel provides a forum for the members of the disciplines of Information, Technology and Electronics (and other related areas, such as Mechatronics and Software) to interact through both CPD and networking activities. The Panel comprises ITEE members as a committee, as well as members who act as liaison with IICA; ACS/ITEE; YE WA. Together, the committee provides oversight of a technical programme to: uu
Deliver a series of professional development events with the support of the WA Division staff
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Provide networking and social interaction opportunities for members
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Work in a collaborative manner with associated professional bodies. In this area, collaboration with IICA, IET, IEEE is fundamental to providing a breadth of technical sessions, reflecting the range of interests of ITEE members
Great Southern Group Alan Millar MIEAust CPEng The year started off with an interesting tour of the concrete refurbishment of the CBR silos which are prominent on the Princess Royal Harbour’s foreshore. However, this year the focus was all about the ANZAC works in Albany. Several construction projects including lookouts, buildings, and street upgrades provided great opportunities for site visits with few expenses spared to offer high public amenities for visitors and locals alike.
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Provides expertise to Engineering Excellence awards, and
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Supports students in ITEE disciplines through awards for high achievement.
The Science and Engineering Challenge was cancelled this year however there is strong support to have this event return for 2015. It is the key event of the year where local engineers engage with the school community, and in previous years has been very successful.
The SEF (Software Engineering Forum) is run under the auspices of the Panel. Panel members are also involved in activities at national level through College Board membership, accreditation and other opportunities as appropriate.
Overall it has been a quiet year with the focus already shifting to events for 2015.
We are always looking for new people interested in serving on the committee and contributing to the professional
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development and enrichment of members involved in ITEE disciplines.
Midwest Group David MacFarlane AFIEAust The Midwest Group has produced another active year for members and friends in the MidWest. The year started with the Spaghetti Bridge competition finals held at the Centro Stirlings Shopping Centre on Saturday December 7. Some amazing bridges were presented for testing with the winning bridge carrying a load of over 26 KG before failure. The AGM was held on January 28, and in March we held a membership drive; in which both events were well attended. Engineers were well represented at the Youth Science Forum in June; this event attracted 110 high school students interested in engineering careers. The main feature is the career speed-dating session which is the most effective way (we have ever seen) of giving students an understanding of just what these careers will entail. David MacFarlane, Chair, gave the keynote speech at the official opening of the Geraldton Library of the new LEGO Club. We hosted two technical presentations, one on Supercomputing delivered by Dr Mark Beckett, Deputy Director and Head of Supercomputing at iVEC at CSIRO. The second presentation was delivered by Mr Dennis Foo and covered the moving of the Giant Alcoa Primary Crusher. A technical tour was arranged of the new Greenough River Bridge. The tour was arranged to be a couple of weeks ahead of completion of the bridge decking. This $8 million dollar project was completed ahead of time and under budget by Georgiou Construction. The engineering courses offered at
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GUC continue to gain support, all be if from a low base with the courses being offered for the first time in February 2013. Highlights for 2014 were awarding a number of scholarships, firstly to second year civil engineering student Matthew Harp who has received two scholarships, one from the Hollomby Foundation provided by the Bundiyarra Community Aboriginal Corporation and the other from the Commonwealth through the University of Southern Queensland. The Midwest Group has regular engagement with CSIRO, The Geraldton Museum, Geraldton Library and the Geraldton Universities Centre.
Oil and Gas Group James Westcott FIEAust CPEng The group committee was reformed in March 2014 and successfully organised six diverse and interesting presentations during the year. Dr Rod Houston from the CSIRO introduced the activities of Australia’s premier scientific research organisation and focussed his presentation on Floating LNG, one of the game-changing technologies of the oil & gas industry. Prof Mark Randolph presented the activities of the UWA Centre of Foundation Studies which has done some world-leading work in the area of offshore structures and how they interact with the unique soil characteristics of Australia’s Northwest Shelf. Our own committee member Ramesh Bajaj gave a thought-provoking talk on good oilfield practice, and the catastrophic consequences that occur when things go wrong. We heard from Jinzhu Xia from Granherne who gave a comprehensive overview of floating structures and some of the challenges faced in the design of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels.
Marjosbet Salazar from Schlumberger covered the recent developments in survey technologies for reservoir exploration and development. Finally, Dr Paul van der Beeke from Golder Associates gave a very good presentation on how climate change will affect the oil & gas industry, and require engineers to address new challenges, both related to mitigation and adaptation, that were unforeseen when many oil & gas facilities began operation.
Peel Regional Group Andrew Tennent FIEAust CPEng 2014 has seen the Peel Regional Group of Engineers Australia arrange multiple technical sessions and site visits, allowing development opportunities and networking for Engineers from the region and beyond. The activities for 2013 were completed in late-October with our annual dinner, where members and their partners enjoyed a presentation by Ray Vergone, a Project Manager from Alcoa of Australia. Ray spoke to the group about the development of the Myara bauxite mine in the Darling ranges. This has been one of the largest projects in the Peel region in the past few years. The 2014 program commenced in March with a technical talk, focusing on geotechnical challenges in the local area. Peter Didonna from WML in Bunbury was the guest speaker and his presentation was well received and attracted members from a range of areas & disciplines. The general meeting for the Group was also held on this night, where we recognised the input of our committee members who served in 2013 and invited interested parties to join the committee. We had two new committee members join the group, and acknowledged the work of Alan Robinson who served on the committee for the past four years.
A tour of the submarine rescue facilities at HMAS Stirling on Garden Island was enjoyed by a group of members in June. The Navy hosted the tour that highlighted the facilities that are in place to train submariners to escape from a submerged submarine. It was a great tour and we appreciate the assistance of the Navy in making this visit possible. The Group ran a very interesting technical talk on the redevelopment of the Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre in July, hosted by the Mandurah City Council. The Project Manager, Matthew Hall, described the project including the proposed use of geothermal heating for heating the water in the swimming pools. A site visit to KETO Pumps in Henderson was arranged in August. A group of engineers were able to tour the recently built facility where the design and manufacturing facilities used to produce slurry pumps and related products were viewed. A technical talk on transfer chute design for bulk materials handling was enjoyed by members in Kwinana in September. Carrie Hartford from Jenike & Johanson presented a very engaging talk focusing on practical aspects of transfer chute design. In October a chartered status Engineering Competency Claim (ECC) writing workshop was held in Mandurah to support local engineers looking to progress to a chartered status.
Retired Engineers Group Mike Corboy FIEAust CPEng During 2014 the Retired Engineers Group held seven functions to give our members and their partners the opportunity to keep in touch with one another, with Engineers Australia and with developments within the community.
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Group Reports There was a diverse range of visits during the year including to the Hillarys Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre, the Woodman Point Quarantine Station, Cockburn Central Development and the billion-dollar Gateway WA Perth Airport and Freight Project. The Group also visited the Avondale Discovery Farm at Beverley which dates back to the 1830’s when the land was assigned to the Colony’s first Governor Captain James Stirling. During the year there was an interesting talk entitled Navigating the Maze of Retirement Villages and as a cultural interlude earlier in the year there was an outing to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts performance of West Side Story. In December this year at our Christmas Lunch and AGM Neil Bennett, Media and Communications Manager at the Bureau of Meteorology, addressed the Group. We welcome eligible members to join our Group and participate in our activities.
Society of Building Services Engineers Warrick Brown MIEAust CPEng The Society of Building Services Engineers WA Chapter (SBSE WA) had two major goals of 2014; the first was to continue the great relationship with CIBSE, and hold joint technical sessions on a monthly basis. This was achieved, with a mixture of spoken technical sessions held on the Engineers Australia premises, and hands on site visits held throughout the year. The standout site visit was the trip to the CSIRO Supercomputer Data Centre, for which the limited spots were snapped up quickly. The second goal of 2014 was to prepare for the 2014 Engineers Australia Convention, on 27 November. SBSE was invited to be
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part of the National Electrical Building Services Symposium (NEBSS) at the 2014 Convention. As well as SBSE contributing directly to the event, NEBSS was viewed as the perfect platform to relaunch SBSE Nationally. Terry Spiro, the SBSE National Chair, coordinated efforts from all of the state divisions to ensure that the SBSE contribution to the 2014 Convention was a recognised and meaningful one. 2015 will see SBSE growing stronger than ever. Following the national relaunch, all states will have an active SBSE chapter, which will allow national collaboration, both internally and with other recognised committees. For information regarding SBSE events, or on how to get involved please contact the WA Chair, Warrick Brown: warrick.brown@outlook.com
Software Engineering Forum Prof Geoffrey Roy FIEAust CPEng The Software Engineering Forum meets on the first working Monday of each month. It brings together a number of members and other interested professionals who are involved with software development, deployment, software project management and related educational programs. The Forum is a collaborative venture of the ITEE College of Engineers Australia together with members from IEEE, IET and ACS. The forum provides professional development activities for software engineers and others involved in the design, development and procuring of software systems. For 2014 the major theme was SEMAT (Software Engineering Method and Theory), and this provided a focus for most of the technical presentations/ discussions. While this model is being promoted as a “new” approach to software design and development, the Forum provided a wide range of discussions of the pros and cons of these proposals and their relevance of
practice in WA. Other sessions included a review of the proposed discipline profile for software engineering and the related refinements of the Stage 2 Competencies. These are intended to assist with the assessment of applications for CPEng status within the discipline area of Software Engineering. These proposals are being prepared by the ITEE College Panel for consideration of the ITEE College Board. The topics at the Forum’s meetings are led by members and involve round table discussions of the chosen topic. The meetings are interactive and encourage attendees to bring their own experiences and interests to the table. Interested Engineers Australia members are invited to indicate their interest in attending the Forum meetings by emailing Geoff Roy (geoff@cadplan.com.au).
South West Group Kevin Norton MIEAust The South West Group had a very busy year beginning in February. We have supported professional development and networking with 15 technical, educational and social events during 2014 and at least two more in the works before the holidays. Technical presentations to our members have ranged from Main Roads WA projects to 3D laser surveying to water resource planning in the South West. We have had technical tours of local power stations, refineries, as well as construction product manufacturing and fabrication plants. We have continued our active involvement with the Regional Advisory Committee and the Learned Society Advisory Committee with the aim of bringing the needs of and challenges facing regional engineers to the forefront in both Divisional and National-level discussions.
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Our commitment to our local schools continues through our Annual Spaghetti Bridge & Tower Competition, presentations to schools, participation at the South West Super Science Spectacular, and a continuing push to re-instate the Science & Engineering Challenge that was, unfortunately, cancelled by Rotary Club. We added to our school presentation capabilities with the purchase of a working model steam engine! Our Group members continue to value social networking opportunities and we strive to provide them in our Young Engineers and Women in Engineering events. Our Group’s Committee has even begun exploring the possibility of a “South West Engineering Excellence Award” ceremony and dinner for 2015 as a way to promote the accomplishments of the South West’s engineering profession, both within the engineering community and to the wider, general community. All in all a most successful year, thanks to our untiring committee members and the continued support of WA Division. Thank you one and all!
Structures Panel WA Raphael Woon FIEAust CPEng The Structures Panel WA has delivered another successful program of technical seminars to support continuous professional development of structural engineers. This year has seen an eclectic range of topics presented at our monthly meetings together with the inaugural Structures Panel Award that was some 3 years in gestation. The first presentation for the year with near capacity registrations, seized the moral high ground with “Ethics and the Professional Engineer” presented via a panel of three speakers. Perspectives were taken from Engineers Australia, an organisation and a practising engineer.
The April seminar on “Bridge Remediation Practise in WA” and May’s seminar on “Blast Resistant Building Design” were two of the more down to earth topics that gave an insight into the design issues faced with these types of structures. The Structures Panel & AGS co-hosted a very popular seminar, with an over capacity attendance on “Use and Abuse of Springs to Model Foundations”. Other equally interesting technical seminars further enhanced our understanding of structural materials e.g. Timber (July), Concrete (Sept) and Stainless Steel (Nov); were presented throughout this year’s program. Main Roads also showcased two of their in-house research topics on an alternative approach for shear strength assessment and “How to raise a bridge’s IQ”; a cryptic titled seminar on bridge load assessment and condition monitoring. The Panel also hosted seminars to introduce the new ASI- Code of Practise for Fabrication and an update to the Wind Loading Code. This year the Panel continued to support a number of EA initiatives including the annual Canstruction global design and build competition that have allowed young structural engineers to showcase their aptitude and ingenuity in an enjoyable and engaging medium, whilst supporting the local community with donations of tinned produce to Foodbank WA. The Structures Panel will hold the inaugural “WA Structures Panel University Award” which is a prize awarded for the best final year thesis on a topic related to Structural Engineering. This award and the associated cash prize are intended to promote structural engineering as an attractive course of study and a future career. The Awards evening will also offer a networking opportunity between undergraduate engineering students, the WA Division and the engineering industry. With the active support of EA and WA universities, it
is intended that this will be an annual event. The Structures panel would like to acknowledge and thank our Sponsors and speakers who have generously donated their resources and time to support our efforts and activities. Our successful program this year could not have been achieved without their active support. Thank you.
Transport Panel Chris Fitzhardinge FIEAust CPEng The 2014 technical program commenced with an overview of Perth bus operations and its crucial role in managing congestion presented by Mike Somerville-Brown and Martin White from PTA. This was followed by a joint event with CILT WA on the challenging area of Emergency Relief and Human Logistics with speakers Duncan Powrie from the Challenger Institute of Technology and Elle Hilton from Toll. In August the Panel hosted two events, the first with Will Golsby from the RAC discussing advocacy and the innovative Attention Powered Car and the second Ross Hamilton from PTA presenting on the major project, the Forrestfield Airport Link. This was followed in September by a panel discussion led by the Managing Director of Main Roads WA, Steve Troughton, on future directions for road network operations in Perth. In October, Reece Waldock hosted a joint breakfast session with CILT WA and REAAA on transport challenges in Western Australia. The Annual General Meeting was held in November and included a presentation on the work of PATREC by Professor Sharon Biermann. The final technical presentation was made by Antony Johnstone from Aurecon on the Traffic Signals Safety and Efficiency Project.
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Group Reports The Panel was represented in discussions on the formation of a new Transport Technical Society by Brendan Marsh and Chris Fitzhardinge. Membership on the Traffic Management for Works on Roads Advisory Group was for first part of the year by Mike Klyne and then by Darryl Patterson. The Panel developed a position paper on Service Centres on Highways and Freeways during the year. A positive meeting was held in October with the Minister for Transport, Dean Nalder, to discuss how the Panel could support transport initiatives in Western Australia. A sponsorship agreement for Panel activities was made with GTA Consultants. A long standing and very active member of the Transport Panel, Sarkis Petrossian, passed away in September 2014 and will be missed by the members of the many transport and safety organisations he was involved with. I thank my colleagues from the Transport Panel for their continued strong support for the panel and its events.
Women in Engineering Jagdish Strachan MIEAust CPEng After a gentle start to the year, the focus of Women in Engineering (WIE) in April 2014 was to re-group and assess our plans for the remaining year. Following on from 2013, WIE successfully completed the Organisational Dynamics Report, a practical guide to influencing an organisation’s culture and crafting a culture that values differences. A brief summary of the report was launched in June. Subsequently, the full report was made available to the WA
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Division, with the intention of linking the report to WIEWA’s webpage. In July, Professor Sally Male teamed up with WIEWA to run a workshop aimed at improving gender inclusivity in the engineering workforce. Drawing on literature worldwide, the workshop threw light on female and male engineering students’ encounters in male-dominated engineering workplaces and how engineers can improve the gender inclusivity of workplace interactions. A similar session was run at Murdoch University in October, which generated the same level of enthusiasm and debate after the event. WIE’s recent event, a panel session on ‘Finding Your Own Style’, was generously sponsored by HopgoodGanim, a law firm in the city. The event received fantastic feedback, both for content and audience diversity, ranging from University students, engineers to corporate lawyers! Apart from running EA focussed events, WIE also supported Robogals in their recent Training Convention with a talk on advocating diversity. Our final event of the year will be the Sundowner/AGM in December, aimed at promoting, supporting and celebrating diversity in the engineering workforce.
Young Engineers Paul Rainsford GradIEAust Although the Young Engineers WA membership numbers took a hit this year, the Young Engineers WA committee numbers continue to climb. With a tremendous attendance to committee meetings, a larger room had to be found to host the ever expanding group. The YEWA Committee, through their connections in their companies and industry delivered a wide variety of
interesting technical tutorials and events this year. Technical tutorials of a high calibre including, ‘Differing Approaches to Corporate Volunteer Work’ by Katie Haynes; ‘“Just A Number” Work Safety and Workplace Fatality’ by Helen Fitzroy; a talk about ‘Mobile Mining Equipment in an Integrated Environment ‘ from Mal Jones of 3D-P; and another amazing session by Steve Kauffman discussing Shell’s ‘Prelude FLNG Project Update’. Joint events with Engineers Australia including three professional development workshops and a ‘StepUp Your Career’ session were also hugely successful. Socially, the Committee hosted our annual Gatsby-themed Young Professionals Ball, Sundowner, and in collaboration with MERGE (Emerging Architects), the annual Sandcastle building competition. Relations were made with other committees of similar age and interest this year including, the Young Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (YIPWEA), Young Builders Alliance, and Young Lawyers committees with a hope of more collaboration and/or competition of events in the future. A huge thank you goes out to our speakers, committee members, Engineers Australia, and all event partners and collaborators. Through ongoing efforts and commitments by all, we look forward to ever growing and exciting years ahead hosting many events, tutorials, site visits and collaborations between young professional bodies. With the larger support and backing of Engineers Australia in the future, more engaging events aimed at delivering member benefits are certainly on the cards.
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA DIVISION
Partnering with our organisations to support Chartered
PDP Signing with INPEX Australia
By Christine Moran 2014 has been a year of delivering enhanced services to industry organisations, and renewing strategic priorities for Business Development Teams both nationally and in the WA Division. For 2014 there is a continued focus on our partnering with industry and in particular the 80 plus organisations who support and acknowledge their engineering teams capabilities and standards. This demonstration of capability and competence expressed through the internationally recognised and globally understood credential of Chartered.
PDP Signing with Powertech
in 2013, this year, now has itself firmly embedded within the PDP and accessible to our organisations. The second half of the year has seen the launch of Engineering Online, called EOL. An online learning centre designed to support the professional development of engineers and related professionals across all disciplines. It has been developed and managed by Engineering Education Australia (EEA) on behalf of Engineers Australia, and currently features hundreds of short courses, videos and technical presentations that have been sourced from industry professionals and educational institutions around the world.
The first half of the year has seen the delivery of our much anticipated PDP Resource Tools into our PDP organisations. This new suite of online tools such as fact sheets, matrixes, guides and documents were developed exclusively to assist PDP Coordinators and also the PDP participants. These resources answer PDP questions, process, and assist organisation prepare engineering participants on the PDP and give guidance to individuals who are working towards their Chartered status.
We also welcomed the release of My Portal, being the membership communication and online service first release. As well as giving the members the function to manage and customise their details it has given them the ability to contribute to, and host all activities regarding their Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Additionally the implementation of the Get Your Chartered Started (GYCS) program, which was originally piloted
We welcome newly signed Professional Development Partners: uu
INPEX Ichthys
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Powertech
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Primero Group
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Newmont Mining Services
Year to date has seen our National Assessors acknowledging new Chartered members on a weekly basis with Professional Interviews for Chartered steadily increasing. November 2014 marks two years since the launch of our new eChartered systems. We now have 1500 West Australian engineers enrolled and progressing towards Chartered status. Enrolments this year in WA equate to 16% of the national total. Regarding Chartered pathways, our eChartered systems confirms the PDP delivers a more efficient way for individuals to work towards their Chartered credential (regardless of age), and evidence states that the system currently supports 72% of enrolments through this pathway. Additionally, with all professional interviews being conducted this year in WA, 44% of interviewees were PDP participants. New year 2015 we look forward to additional advances in the delivery of our credentials.
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ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA DIVISION
All Graduates
All Students
Companion
Affiliate
15,625
AMIEAust
Jun-14
TMIEAust
15,889
MIEAust
Jun-13
AFIEAust
14,611
TFIEAust
Jun-12
FIEAust
13,510
Hon FIEAust
Total Membership (as of 30 June)
Jun-11
Total for Key Member Categories
Financial Year Ending
Membership Statistics
8
612
6
18
5,375
147
272
2,218
4,822
9
23
9
615
6
17
5,742
161
271
2,390
5,374
7
19
10
639
8
18
6,084
175
269
2,356
5,721
8
18
14
667
8
20
6,099
177
254
2,277
6,085
8
16
With thanks to our Partners & Supporters Engineers Australia WA Division would like to acknowledge the vital contribution of our Partners and Supporters in enabling us to provide a range of services to our members and to promote the engineering profession to the wider community. PRINCIPAL PARTNER
PARTNERS
SUPPORTERS
SCHOOLS ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM SPONSORS
HOSPITALITY PARTNER
14 | YEAR IN REVIEW 2014
712 Murray Street West Perth, WA 6005 Phone: 1300 653 113
engineersaustralia.org.au