Adventures In Engineering

The Adventures in Engineering storybook series for children in Years 4, 5 and 6 will be published later this month. Written by Juliet Schaffer and illustrated by Narissa Amies, the six storybooks showcase real life civil engineers delivering real-life projects for our communities. The aim of the series is to inspire future generations of public works engineers.

When the Dam Runs Dry tells the story of Seren McKenzie and how she brought water to the drought-stricken southern downs region when the Storm King Dam ran dry. Clarissa Campbell features in If Only Animals Could Talk – a story about engineering ingenuity ensuring the safety of the stormwater network while offering a creative solution to protect local fauna.

Using crushed recycled glass in concrete is another innovative engineering solution highlighted by Josh Flanders in Walking on Crushed Glass.

Monishaa Prasad’s commitment to designing flood mitigation solutions for Rockhampton Regional Council is featured in Fighting Floodwaters.

The construction of the City of Gold Coast’s Palm Beach artificial reef features in Zoe Elliott-Perkins story, Engineering a Reef. Tom, our only fictional engineer tells the story of the relocation of the town of Grantham following the 2010-2011 floods in Moving A Town.

Available as e-books and in paperback, individually or in a set, the Adventures in Engineering series links to the Australian Curriculum for maths, science, design and technology, English, geography, civics and citizenship.

Thank you to our first five engineers for contributing their stories to the stories and for their technical guidance on the illustrations by Narissa to ensure that they are appropriate for the targeted readership but also accurate.

Our thanks also to Juliet Schaffer for her time writing the accompanying stories and delivering the project on time and on budget.

The Adventures in Engineering series demonstrate that being an engineer requires creativity, innovation, and collaboration and are sure to inspire our younger would-be engineers to embark on a career that that makes a difference to people, communities and our fauna and flora.

If you have a story about being a public works engineers you would like to see featured in the next part of the series, please contact the CEO, Leigh Cunningham.