ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WA DIVISION

YEAR IN review2012

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2 YEAR IN REVIEW

President’s Report Barry Tonkin FIEAust CPEng President, Engineers Australia WA Division

I would like to start by saying ‘thank you’ to our members who assist in all facets of our activity in Engineers Australia. The membership relies on the support from volunteers who run the core activities of continuing professional development through our various groups and committees arranging face to face technical sessions, seminars, workshops and conferences with logistical and operational support of the WA Division staff.

Notable key activities such as the Engineering Excellence Awards, university and TAFE accreditations, helping on university/TAFE engineering industry councils, assisting with chartered interviews and helping at eminent speaker sessions, give members valuable insights for their own development. There are a myriad of ways that members help and their involvement provides depth to the practice of engineering.

It is a pleasure to be part of an organisation in which people give their time and expertise so generously for the benefit of others and our engineering profession, and I thank all of the volunteers who have contributed in this year and in previous times. I very much appreciate the support of my leadership team in the Division Committee, the Divisional Advisory Board of WA and the division staff for keeping our focus on the strategic plan to ensure that our volunteers work efforts were channelled for greatest effect.

In WA, our members are being supported by an outstanding office of dedicated people headed by the Division Executive Director Leanne Hardwicke and an excellent collaborative expert team; they have certainly made my year as President in 2012 a pleasant one. I thank each of them for their support of you and me. I will miss Deputy Director, Fiona Thorniley, who is leaving our team at the close of the year.

Western Australia’s economy changed down a gear in mid-year by the reduced prices of some minerals (such as iron ore) but forecasters remain optimistic for the energetic industrial, mining resources and energy sectors that were affected with the weakening commodity market. In engineering, many of us were testing the market for another position, as some ventured to suggest that the mining boom had plateaued for a while.

Remember the GFC; it was an economic slow-down that lasted a few years, but WA activity continued at relatively high levels and was prepared for accelerating towards the next peak. This unreflected blip in reduced world confidence demonstrated the range and strength of activities in the region. It seems not to have affected the confidence of property experts. I subscribe to an online journal and saw this comment in late October 2012: “Never before has one state been so dominant. WA leads every key indicator. Economic growth. Population growth. Employment growth. And it’s only just beginning. The world’s largest gas projects are now starting, handing out contracts worth billions.” [Terry Ryder; Hotspotting.com.au]

Throughout this year we have had steadily increasing membership, steady CPD activity, growing interest and enrolment in the Chartered program and professional development partnerships. I hope that the surge of interest amongst students and parents in engineering careers continues to bring talented graduates to our profession.

Engineers Australia’s 2012 theme, the Year of the Regional Engineering Team (YoRET) provided a great opportunity to engage with and strengthen our connections to the regional groups and organisations that support the remote areas. Notably, this year could have been community focused but has tended to be inward looking as we restructure our national organisation with the arrival of Steve Durkin as our CEO.

Australian Engineering Week was the main opportunity to publicly celebrate the profession, and the focus of regional engineering was evident, although events and regional initiatives took place throughout the year. In May, the WA Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management hosted a regional conference in Bunbury which was a great success.

The Division’s Reconciliation Action Plan implementation continues, and the launch of Engineers Without Borders’ guide to managing pro-bono work in late 2011 helps WA companies to think about pro-bono engineering. I think it would be good for business to promote real reconciliation and pro-bono engineering with the aim of making it part of the accepted engineering culture of our country.

While the regional engineering theme encouraged opportunities to engage with the public, it has presented a challenge for some groups and committees to reflect that regional theme in their events, and I thank them for trying. I appreciated Brian O’Donnell (past Chair of the Civil College Board) speaking to regional groups across WA. Brian voluntarily flew to WA and spoke in Bunbury, Albany, Geraldton, Port Hedland and Perth about his passion: enzyme stabilised road pavements.

I have had opportunities to visit most of the regional groups during the year. I recently visited the Mid-West group (Geraldton) for an informal weekend barbecue. It was good to return and see the diverse industrial activity still in place in that region. The Peel (Mandurah) and South West region (Bunbury) groups are our most active regional groups and they worked together with CELM to make the regional conference successful.

The Goldfields (Kalgoorlie) and Great Southern region (Albany) groups are growing and becoming more active thanks to the efforts of each group’s Chair and members who are showing renewed interest. A new group at Boddington and the reinvigorated Wheatbelt Group show that regional engineers are still networking and sharing experiences. The Pilbara (Port Hedland) group held a few meetings and site visits throughout the year and the members network regularly.

This year we have been using the YoRET theme to address issues and challenges for our regional engineering workforce, and I hope what we did resulted in a greater understanding and support for regional engineer group activities. There isn’t a national theme next year. I know that even without a nationally set theme that Helen Pedersen as WA President in 2013 will capably focus our year’s activities.

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Director’s ReportLeanne Hardwicke Executive Director, Engineers Australia WA Division

2012 has been a very busy year for the WA Division. More than 12,410 members attended 212 technical sessions, 3 workshops, 1 major regional conference and 14 site visits. I expect that members accessing our CPD offering to increase significantly with the roll out of our webinar technology throughout 2013.

In the Year of the Regional Engineering Team we saw an increase in regional CPD activity. Some groups were more active than others, but our regional presence has strengthened with the formation of a new group in Boddington.

Membership growth continued during 2012, with an 8.1% increase for the financial year. At the end of June 2012, the WA Division membership totalled 14,611, including 5374 student members. We introduced a significant change to the way we communicate with members in 2012 when we replaced our monthly hard copy newsletter with an electronic version. We have also improved the way we deliver our weekly event alert for members. All our groups now have the ability to manage their own webpage so they can post the most up to date information for their group.

To achieve our vision of being the forum for the advancement of engineering and the professional development of our members, we need to continue to work together to support each other and the dedicated volunteers and office bearers across WA.

We have brought members together not only to share technical information, but to network and support each other in less formal settings such as the well-attended Fellows dinner, group sundowner events, the Young Engineers Ball, and Purple Boots cocktail party to name just a few.

Australian Engineering Week continues to be a major focus of our community engagement activities. The student and parent information evenings attracted a good audience, as did our breakfast launch and corporate lunch. The newspaper lift out provided an opportunity to promote engineering to the community, as did our photographic display at the Garden City Shopping Centre. This year saw the introduction of a new community engagement activity during the week – “Canstruction”. Please read all about this exciting competition on our website. The week wrapped up with the announcement of the winners of the Canstruction competition and the 2012 WA Division Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Our excellence awards program continues to showcase the great work being done in the State, and two of our winners went on to win awards at the national level. Chevron’s Gorgon Project Shore Crossing was awarded the Environmental Engineering Excellence Award, representing world’s best practice in environmental engineering for Australia. Woodside’s Pluto LNG Project received

Australia’s highest honour in engineering, the Sir William Hudson Award. Both awards were presented at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards. The outstanding quality of the nominees to our individual awards has been noted by our judges, and we awarded the Professional Engineer of the Year and Young Professional Engineer of the year award to Mr Menno Henneveld and Dr Bay Yeo respectively. Our Professional Engineer of the Year was also awarded the National Professional Engineer of the Year award, which was presented at the National Engineering Excellence Awards. WA has also been honoured by the award of an Honorary Fellowship to Dr Doug McInnes.

Our advocacy activities have strengthened this year. We participated in the Federal Senate Inquiry into Skills Shortages and received some media coverage on skills issues throughout the year. We also launched the Engineering WA 2020 skills report, and have had meetings with Government Ministers, Shadow Ministers and Departmental officers on issues such as local content, registration and skills. The Transport Panel continues its fruitful interaction with government and has produced a policy statement on transport issues that has been approved by the Division Committee.

Our outreach programs to students continue to go from strength to strength. Engquest has attracted 94 schools and 5050 students in 2012 in WA, and we now have a more structured program of schools visits, with members visiting schools in the metropolitan and regional areas to talk to students. This year saw the launch of the very successful “Girl Talk” program, aimed specifically at encouraging girls to think about engineering as a career option. The annual Face to Face Careers Expo for engineering undergraduates attracted around 1200 students and 78 companies. The Science and Engineering Challenge for year 9 students was conducted in regional areas as well as Perth, and attracted approximately 2600 students, from 73 schools, with over 220 volunteers giving their time and energy to assist.

Our Division Principal Partner, Partners and Sponsors have again provided valuable support to the diverse program of events run by the Division, which help to deliver our strategic objectives of community and member engagement. Our activities have also received substantial sponsorship from a wide range of organisations for the Science and Engineering Challenge, as well as less substantial amounts for individual events and seminars throughout the year. We thank all our partners and sponsors for their support, both financial and in-kind.

All Division activities are aligned with the five-year Strategic Plan. The Division’s two key governance committees, the Division Committee and the Division Advisory Board (DABWA), make a strong contribution to the operational plan so that the Division has a sound basis on which to budget for future activities. Elections for Division Committee members, a National Congress representative and College Board members for 2013 have been held. There has been a substantial increase in the number of nominees this year, and the number of division members participating in the process has also increased from 7% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2012.

Thank you to all the staff, volunteers, office bearers and members of the WA Division for creating and sustaining a vibrant engineering community in the State.

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.

Australasian Tunnelling Society Eric Hudson-Smith MIEAust Over the last year the WA Chapter held five technical sessions, with four of these sessions involving international speakers:

• 10 November 2011- Construction Monitoring of Crossrail Tunnel Project, London, UK (Hai-Tien Yu, ITM-Soil)

• 21 November 2011- Highlights and Challenges in Mechanized Tunnelling With Focus on Large Diameter TBM Technology (Karin Bäppler, Herrenknecht AG)

• 18 June 2012- Jurong Cavern Project, Singapore (Matthew Ross, BASF)

• 10 July 2012- Tunnels To And Under Airports (Ted Nye, Mott McDonald), joint session with AGS

• 1 November 2012- History and State of the Art of NATM Tunnelling Method (Prof J Golser, Geoconsult, Austria)

Current Tunnel projects in WA include: The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia Perth City Link Rail Project involves lowering the Fremantle rail lines into a 600m long cut and cover tunnel 1.3m above the existing Joondalup line bored tunnels, eventually to be followed by lowering of the Wellington Street Bus Station underground to enable redevelopment of Perth Rail Yard. Rail tunnel work commenced in March 2011 by the Perth City Link Rail Alliance (John Holland-GHD-PTA). Completion is scheduled for mid-2014.

A $60m contract for a 2.0m diameter TBM pipe jack tunnel approximately 1.2km long with water depth at the recovery site of around 20m was awarded to Theiss Tunnelling in December 2011 for the Wheatstone LNG project. Construction is due to start in May 2013 with completion by November 2013.

The WA Chapter Committee comprises seven members (Craig Adamson, Mike Bluck, Richard Douglas, Gary Goodall, Eric Hudson-Smith, Ron Morley and Barry Moore) and meets monthly. The Chapter has over 70 individual members plus six company

memberships registered in WA.

Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling Eric Lau MIEAust CPEng The Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling (ASBSH) has had another bumper year. The society has continued its efforts to increase its activities in WA. The collaboration with the Mechanical Branch has been quite successful and has enhanced

the discipline of bulk solids handling to a wider audience. The joint technical sessions included several high caliber speakers and outstanding presentations:

• Improvements to Train Positioning Velocity Profiles - John Bills

• WEBA Transfer Chute Systems - Mark Baller

• Trends in Tailings Dewatering Utilising Thickening and Filtration Technologies - Chris Greenwood

• History and design features of Mechanical Power Transmission. CST drives - David Scott

• Stockpiles and bins design - Alan Roberts and Tim Donohue

• Reliable and Sustainable Supply of Bulk Commodities for the Export Market - Peter Wypych

• Designing for wet and sticky ores - Tim Donohue

Two site visits were held:

• Jenike & Johanson material testing facilities in Belmont

• Fenner Dunlop Conveyor Belting plant in Kwinana. This was run in association with the PEEL group.

A one-day Bulk Materials Handling seminar was also co-organised with EA in Fremantle.

The events were well attended and the society looks forward to engaging new members.

Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management David Mofflin FIEAust CPEng Our year began with the running of our second Industry Leaders Forum, hosted by Colin Beckett from Chevron. A clear message that came out of the Forum was that, although there is a huge focus on the massive project spend that is currently underway in WA, we shouldn’t forget the equally huge and much more sustainable opportunities created through the requirement to maintain the assets through their 30 plus years of life. Another theme that also emerged was the opportunity to grow within WA the unique skills required to build world class engineering expertise in Mega Systems Integration.

In December last year, CELM invited Geoffrey Thomas to present his views on aviation and its economic impact on Perth and the world. Geoffrey is Aviation Editor of “The West Australian” and Senior Editor of “Air Transport World”.

In early May, we hosted a sell-out event by Lyndon Rowe, Chairman, Economic Regulation Authority, who discussed The Electricity Market in WA – its Challenges, Structure, and Future. Lyndon discussed the current state of the electricity market in WA, and the impacts of the decision to break up Western Power into four separate Government Trading Enterprises.

4 YEAR IN REVIEW

Group Reports

ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WA DIVISION 5

In May, a very successful CELM Regional Conference was held in Bunbury on the topic of Regional Engineering – Building the prosperity of our State. The Conference was held in support of “The Year of the Regional Engineering Team”, and attracted a strong turnout from the local engineering community. During the Conference, CELM hosted the launch of Engineering WA 2020 Strategy.

In June, CELM held a Boardroom Launch of Professional Engineer of the Year Awards, with the aim of raising the profile of the Awards amongst business leaders in WA. The awards this year attracted a very strong field of candidates, and as a result the profile of the Professional Engineer of the Year Award is continuing to increase year on year.

In August we hosted another sell out event, with over 200 people turning up to the Engineering Week presentation by Colin Beckett, General Manager, Greater Gorgon Area, on Delivering a Mega Project in a Constrained Environment.

As well as the range of successful events we have hosted this year, we have also continued our process of rejuvenating the local CELM Board, with two new appointments this year (Doug Aberle and Greg Steinepreis) complementing the two new Board members from last year. With the ongoing revitalisation of our Board, I am confident that we can continue to deliver a successful range of CELM programs next year.

Civil College Alice Cargeeg GradIEAust Another year passes, and the WA Civil College is gaining momentum following the reforming of the group in late 2010.

Over the past year, the WA Civil College has focused on delivering continuing professional development (CPD) to metropolitan and regional engineers in alignment with Engineers Australia’s 2012 ‘Year of the Regional Engineering Team’.

CPD presentations addressing new technologies for stabilisation of pavements were presented in the communities of Albany, Bunbury, Geraldton, Perth and Port Hedland. Further sessions on dredging projects in WA and piling challenges were presented in Perth, bringing the total number of CPD sessions presented to 7.

This year the WA Civil Branch collaborated with ICE and IPWEA to reach out to a wider audience and provide networking opportunities to WA civil engineers working across the public and private sector. The WA Civil College is represented on the National Civil College Board; this involvement ensures national and State issues are communicated to, and from WA Civil Engineers.

During Australian Engineering Week, the WA Civil Branch provided support to the hugely successful ‘Canstruction’ event at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in support of Foodbank WA.

The WA Civil Branch usually hosts an eminent speaker during the year but unfortunately the circuit did not come to WA this year. The Civil Branch welcomes anyone who wants to get involved

and for more information, please contact Simon Turner (simon.turner@iinet.net.au), Barry Tonkin ( jp4662@hotmail.com) or Alice Cargeeg (alice.cargeeg@gmail.com).

Coastal, Ocean and Port Engineering Panel Murray Jorgensen FIEAust CPEng The Coastal, Ocean and Port Engineering Panel (COPEP) has presented a wide-ranging series of technical presentations that have attracted strong audiences. In the area of land use planning, a presentation on the revisions proposed for the State Coastal Planning Policy explained how they were intending to provide more robust guidance to government agencies for land use and development on or adjacent to the coastline.

There was some focus on ports this year, with presentations covering:

• Port planning – Port of Ashburton: Birth of a Greenfields Port on the Pilbara Coast

• Port construction – Port of Sohar (Oman) Bulk Jetty

• Port operations – Port Hedland Utah Point Cavotec Mooring System

A presentation titled ‘Fine Scale Weather Forecasting’ described how the availability of improved computing power and data sets is enabling finer resolution models to find application not only for wind modelling, but also for use in wave, current, surge, plume dispersal and rainfall models.

A Wave Instrumentation short course in May attracted more than 40 participants to learn about metocean data acquisition and the capabilities of the various types of instruments available to measure waves and tides. Speakers from experienced metocean data collection organisations presented case studies to round out the event.

Electrical Engineering Panel Paul Andriessen MIEAust CPEng The WA Electrical Engineering Panel (EEP) meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30pm. The panel has a core of experienced members who have been on the panel for many years and a few who have been on the panel a short period. The Panel meets ten times a year with the two festive months of December and January not having meetings.

This year the EEP has continued to have National Electrical College representation by Ms. Tiina Ratamo FIEAust CPEng.

Ten high value CPD Presentations were offered this year through the good ongoing interaction with other professional electrical engineering organisations operating in WA. The Joint Electrical Electronic Papers (JEEP) are presented through the combined efforts of EEP, ITEE, IET and IEEE.

Dan Norton has continued to co-ordinate the JEEP program for the EEP this year. It is through Dan’s tireless efforts that many worthwhile CPD hours are offered to the electrical engineers

6 YEAR IN REVIEW

in WA. Topics covered by the papers ranged from Regulations and Standards to a “Student Papers Night” inter University competition, with all events highly attended and enjoyed.

An EEP Subcommittee was formed and Chaired by Peter Willis, to prepare a proposal to Australian Standards to develop a handbook on “Arc Flash”. This subcommittee has now disbanded as the handbook development is now handed over to a subcommittee of Australian Standards Committee EL043.

The EEP has had a successful year holding it’s AGM in November, intending that new members for the panel attend the first meeting in the New Year.

Thank you to all the Division staff who have made the EEP easy to run. Meeting rooms and the auditorium are always available and appropriately set up. Flyers, funds and catering for events were organised effortlessly.

Engineering Heritage Professor 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.

The committee has been particularly active this year, running four dedication ceremonies to mark prominent engineering works, conducting tours of Perth’s bridges during Engineering Week, and initiating the recording of oral histories from five prominent WA engineers.

Early this year we conducted a ceremony to afford National Engineering Heritage recognition to the construction, in the 1960s, of the standard gauge rail segment between Kalgoorlie and Perth, which completed the single gauge connection between the east and west coasts. In July we conducted a ceremony in Carnarvon to recognise the role of the NASA Space Tracking Station, and its staff, in supporting the NASA Gemini and Apollo missions of the 1960s and early 1970s, most particularly the Apollo moon landing missions. The ceremony was attended by Dr Buzz Aldrin, who was the pilot of the Apollo 11 lunar landing module. This site was awarded EHA’s first ever ‘International’ Engineering Heritage recognition.

In September and October we also afforded Engineering Heritage recognition to two projects that were instrumental to the development of the city of Perth - the Causeway Bridges and Perth’s first public water supply scheme (Victoria Dam to Mt Eliza).

Goldfields Group Andries Venter TMIEAust In February 2012 the chairperson for the Goldfields group changed from Gunnar Horn to Andries Venter. Current members of the group are as follows: Anna McLean, Andries Venter (chairperson), Anthony Kerr, Gunnar Horn, Mahinda Kuruppu, Terry Moylan, Chris Morrow, Rowland Whiting (AusIMM) and James Didovich (AusIMM).

The committee had quarterly meetings over the last year, with AusIMM (Kalgoorlie Branch) members Rowland Whiting and James Didovich lent support.

Some of the highlights from 2012 include:

• Participation in the Science and Engineering challenge. This included a visit from Leanne Hardwicke and Barry Tonkin, who both attended our committee meeting and presentation.

• In July 2012 we had a wonderful presentation by Mike Lucas on the progress of re-establishing the historic Loopline railway line and associated infrastructure. Drinks and nibbles were provided afterwards.

• During the committee meeting in October 2012, Chris Morrow was welcomed to the group to represent the YPG’s in the region. Chris will report back at the next meeting on ideas to increase involvement from the YPG’s.

In 2013 we aim to have a closer collaboration with AusIMM, and more member involvement through events, with a possible new

event format.

Great Southern Group Andrew Barker MIEAust CPEng 2012 has been another year with flurries of activity, followed by slow periods for the Great Southern Division.

We started the year with a site visit followed by a talk at the Albany Port Authority, by the Port Engineer on the restoration works for Berths 1 and 2 in February.

March should have been themed “Pavements Month” with talks from Geoff Cocks on “Pavement Materials and Design in WA” and Brian O’Donnell on “Sustainability, Innovation, Recycling”.

In May we had a fascinating presentation by Mike Chambers from BMT JFA consultants on the large project “The Port of Doha Bulk Jetty”.

We had the annual Science and Engineering Challenge in Mt Barker attended by a number of local schools from as far afield as Katanning. It was another great day enjoyed by students, teachers and volunteers.

We didn’t get ourselves organised enough to manage an annual dinner, so will try and make it a biennial event.

ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WA DIVISION 7

We had 20 attendees at a site visit and presentation by the City of Albany on the works for “the Centennial Park Living Stream Project”

Our AGM for the Division was held at the end of November, and we are hoping to sneak in a Sundowner to round out the year.

Hydrology and Water Resources Panel Dr Neil Coles The HWR Panel has had another busy year. As mining continues to develop in the north-west of the State the impact on water resources and communities is of concern to the consulting industry, miners and the State Government. The WA Hydrology and Water Resources Panel has therefore focussed its monthly lunch time talks this year around developments and issues associated with water in the Pilbara.

The talks were primarily themed around design issues associated with flooding and infrastructure, and the consequences of groundwater extraction on long term water supplies for expanding communities in the Pilbara. The talks were literally sell-out events. Topics ranged from “Water allocation planning and mine dewatering in the Pilbara” covering water law and policy to “Pilbara Water Resource Investigations” to provide better information on water availability presented by CSIRO and the Department of Water.

The Hydrology and Water Resources panel has been actively involved in the revision of Australian Rainfall and Runoff (AR & R). In particular with Project 5 - Regional Flood Methods and Project 6 - Loss Models for Catchment Simulations. Members have reviewed methods being recommended for WA and have represented the panel by involvement in the project team (Project 6). These updates are part of the Australian Rainfall and Runoff (AR&R) revisions funded by the federal government and overseen by the Institute of Engineers Australia.

Eminent speaker, Janice Green from the Bureau of Meteorology, was sponsored by the Panel to provide an update on the developments from the Bureau on the Intensity Frequency Duration (IFD) curves for Western Australia. This presentation was particularly popular with over 120 engineers, consultants, Government agencies representatives and others attending the presentation. Peter Hill was also on hand on the day to provide an update on the AR&R Project 6 revisions on “Loss models for Catchment Simulations”. Earlier in the year Grantley Smith presented another in a series of AR & R seminars on floods titled: “People and Vehicle Stability” & “Flow around buildings “ which was also well received.

The City of Perth has been chosen by the NCWE to host the next Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium in February 2014. The Panel is now hard at work putting in the ground work to ensure that we have a highly successful and well attend conference.

Mechanical Branch Eric Lau MIEAust CPEng 2012 has been an exciting year for the Mechanical Branch. The continuing partnership with kindred organisations such as IMechE and ASBSH, has helped deliver excellent events including 11

technical presentations, a Bulk Materials Handling Seminar, a Slurry Pumping Seminar and a site visit to Jenike & Johanson’s material testing facilities.

Several distinguished speakers presented on topics such as chutes, stockpiles and bins, flexible pipelines, train positioning, air traffic management and engineering a rocket car. Hundreds of attendees benefited from the free CPD events. The attendance at the fee-paying seminars, which were heavily subsidised, exceeded expectations.

Providing more value to local EA members has been one of the main achievements this year. Some of the ongoing activities of interest are promoting mechanical engineering, education, University accreditation and impact of harmonised OSH regulations. The committee is always looking for fresh blood and welcomes two new members. I would like to thank all the volunteers and the EA staff who have contributed to this year’s success.

Oil & Gas Facilities Group Dr Julie Morgan Our technical sessions in 2012 were again wide ranging and topical.

There were some conventional supply interest with ‘Rules of Thumb for LNG Developments’ by Nick White, Clough, (presented on his behalf by Dr Julie Morgan), non-conventional supply interest ‘Australian Coal Bed Methane: Principles and Development Challenges’ by Dr Martin Soh, independent consultant, non-conventional end use ‘Australian fuel shortage – a GTL solution by Jonathan Beales, GHD’ and non-conventional suggestions ‘Introduction to Lean Construction, David Trent of KBR and The EPCM of Tender Writing’ by David Lunn and Nigel Dennis, Bid Write.

We once again tackled integrity through ‘Top of Line Corrosion’ by Colin Beasley, Corrosion Consultant, and maximised facilities productivity through availability improvement with Thirl Millachip, S2V.

Early in the year we took a broad look at floating production systems with Dr Jinzhu Xia, Granherne and later revamped an FPSO for a marginal field with Francesco Piasentin, S2V.

We looked at the latest in pipeline field joint coatings, both powder and liquid, with Stephen Drew & James Lawson, Akzo Nobel and saw life through the eyes of saturation divers as described by Ray Farrier, Unitech, a former saturation diver.

Peel Group Andrew Tennent MIEAust CPEng The Peel Regional group of Engineers Australia have enjoyed the Year of the Regional Engineering Team with a variety of technical sessions, site visits and networking with engineers from the region and beyond.

The group concluded 2011 with our annual dinner where members and their partners enjoyed the views over Manjar Bay whilst enjoying a good meal and listening to Dan Loden from Engineers

8 YEAR IN REVIEW

without Borders. It was a good way to conclude the Year of the Humanitarian Engineering with Dan speaking of his involvement with EWB and the opportunities we have to participate in their work.

The first event of 2012 was a sunset river cruise on the waterways of the Peel Estuary where we enjoyed the sights of the area with the City of Mandurah Manager responsible for the waterways. He informed us of the logistics and challenges involved in planning and managing these waterways in an urban setting.

As part of our focus on regional engineering we invited WA Division President, Mr Barry Tonkin to speak about the impact of fly-in, fly-out on regional engineering teams. We combined this talk with our general meeting where our committee members who served in 2011 were recognised for their input. We had two withdraw from the committee due to work commitments but we added another member at this meeting to have a group of six representing our members.

Our group participated in the Regional Engineering Conference that was held in Bunbury in May. This was one of a number of initiatives that were arranged to recognise the Year of the Regional Engineering Team in 2012.

In August we joined with the Defence Engineering Society to host an eminent speaker event on Australia’s Future Submarines. 90 people attended the talk that was delivered by Rear Admiral Rowan Moffitt, who is responsible for the project to determine Australia’s future submarine. The talk was well received by members, many of whom are involved with the existing submarine program at Garden Island.

Geoff Cocks from Coffey Engineers delivered a seminar on pavement design in September to members. He provided this seminar to six regional groups around WA during the year which was a great initiative for our regional members given the quality of the presentation.

During September Dunlop Fenner hosted the group at a site visit to their conveyor manufacturing facility in Henderson. This was a popular site visit being fully booked within a day of advertising. The tour was excellent with members being able to see conveyor belts being manufactured as well as testing and quality control measures being demonstrated in the laboratory.

Retired Engineers Group Mike Corboy FIEAust CPEng During 2012 the Retired Engineers Group held six 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. For the convenience of members we often travel by coach and this year we have utilised a second pickup point near the Wellington Street Bus Station to suit members who use public transport.

The guest speakers at the December 2011 lunch were Division President Professor Mark Bush and Engineering Heritage Chairman Mr Don Young. They gave a very interesting presentation on the World War II coastal defence facilities for Fremantle and Rottnest.

The first visit in 2012 was to the Dreamfit Foundation which uses innovative engineering to overcome the challenges and frustrations of people with disabilities. Other visits were to the Water Corporation Beenyup Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Advanced Water Recycling Plant, the ABC radio and television facilities and City Farm in East Perth, the Tamala Park Waste Management Facility, the Resource Recovery Facility at Neerabup and the Pinjar Gas Turbine Plant. There was also a tour of the Roleystone area and an inspection of the new runway viewing

area at Perth Airport.

Software Engineering Forum Professor 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.

Some interesting discussion topics for 2012 included:

• Estimating Agile Developments

• Social media and the software professional

• Computer Science education

• Open source and the cloud

• Getting investment funds for software projects

• Professional competencies for the software engineer

• The role of software in the technological singularity

• Parallel programming

The topics at the Forum’s meetings are led by members and involve round table discussions of the chosen topic. Interested Engineers Australia members are invited to indicate their interest in joining the Forum by emailing Geoff Roy : (geoff@cadplan.com.au).

South West Group Steve Woodhouse FIEAust CPEng For the South West Group the Year of the Regional Engineering Team (YORET) has been an opportunity to promote Engineers Australia amongst the engineering fraternity and create relationships to build upon in the future.

The South West region has been busy with eight technical events, six social events, six educational activities and a state conference.

Our technical events included presentations such as “Coastal Engineering” held in Busselton and site visits to locations such as the construction site of the new Bunbury Outer Ring Road.

The social program included events for the Young Engineers, Women in Engineering and general activities such as ten pin bowling and a quiz night.

The South West Group is particularly active in the educational area. Our events included the Science and Engineering Challenge,

ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WA DIVISION 9ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WA DIVISION 9

Spaghetti Bridge and Tower Competitions, judging at Science Fairs and presenting at vocational courses being held at the local prison. In addition the South West Group have provided careers advice and attendance to high schools to encourage the participation of students in technical subjects that will enable them to study engineering.

Bunbury was the venue for the 2012 state CELM conference “Regional Engineering – Building the prosperity of our State”. This conference highlighted some of the challenges of building in regional and remote areas and the speakers provided an insight into some of the solutions they had adopted.

The South West Group has been pushing to get some of the Perth presentations broadcast live for the benefit of regional members. We are pleased that this will come to fruition in 2013.

Transport Panel Chris Fitzhardinge FIEAust CPEng 2012 was marked by extensive input into transport policy for State and Local Government. The panel also developed a transport policy position for the WA Division. Federal influence was achieved through representation on the National Committee on Transport Engineering by Bob Peters. Mike Klyne represented the Panel on the Traffic Management for Works on Roads Advisory Group and Sarkis Petrossian was our representative on the Local Government Safe System Project.

A highlight of the year was awarding a free ticket, valued at $1,500 to Jane Agnew to attend the 2012 ARRB Conference in Perth.

The year commenced with the Panel co-hosting the launch of the WA Bicycle Network Plan in March by Craig Wooldridge followed by a presentation by Greg Martin on Transport and Public Strategy. Greg was the winner of the National Committee on Transport Engineering Transport Medal in 2010 and made an impassioned plea for engineers to be engaged in shaping public policy.

Kerry Farley from Arup gave an insight into Perth’s future roads with a presentation on experiences with Managed Motorway Systems in Queensland.

Integrated Transport Planning Guidelines were the topic of the August 2012 presentation by David Igglesden from the Department of Planning.

In September 2012, Michael Pal from Fremantle Ports gave a detailed overview of the challenges of container handling in the Inner Harbour followed by a site visit to the North Fremantle Intermodal Terminal and a container terminal.

Duncan Ellis from SKM then brought us up to date with developments in Bus Rapid Transit in the United Kingdom.

New members of the Panel have been very active and I would particularly like to thank Sarah Jackson and Darryl Patterson for their work in organising events through the year and Flori Mihai and Brendan Marsh for their contribution on policy development.

Women in Engineering Carla Boehl MIEAust CPEng As I reflect on the last 12 months chairing our group of 20 volunteers – almost all young female engineers, it is clear to me that the most essential attributes that helped us succeed were determination and tenacity.

We enjoy problem solving and find engineering a satisfying job and intellectually challenging.

It is our belief that a career in engineering shouldn’t be “too hard” and it is possible to balance work and home given we have the right support from our managers and partners. We are aware of the fact that “working hard and expecting to get noticed” will not take us where we want to be. We are not afraid to stand out and take risks.

We will continue to work to change minds, and get the support from the key people we need to make the difference in gender issues and numbers in the engineering profession.

Our long term vision is to become redundant as a group and “female engineers” will be perceived simply as “engineers”. We hope to stop hearing about issues such as gender conscious and unconscious bias, bullying, frozen careers and unfair dismissal. We’ll continue to volunteer our precious time and efforts to make engineering a great career for women.

Young Engineers Andrew Bhatia MIEAust 2012 was another exciting year for the Young Engineers WA Committee (YEWA). In line with our FY12/13 Plan, YEWA successfully achieved all of its major objectives for the year, with a focus on maintaining and growing interest from our members in the events held throughout the year.

Topics presented during YEWA’s technical sessions included ‘Life & Work in Regional Areas’ presented by Sally James (Rio Tinto) and Amelia Critchley (Clough) in collaboration with the Women in Engineering WA committee, ‘Understanding the 9 Knowledge Areas of Project Management’ presented by Todd Hutchison (People Rich) and finally ‘Technological Developments in Floating LNG’ presented by Steve Kauffman (Shell Australia).

On the social side, the Young Professionals Ball held at the Parmelia Hilton in July saw a record attendance of nearly 300 guests from a variety of industries, getting together to raise funds for Engineers Without Borders Australia. Other events included the annual Quiz Night, held at the Osborne Park Lawn Bowls Club, and the annual Sports Day at Lords in Subiaco.

The Committee has been especially active this year with participation high from all members, from students to graduates and more experienced professionals. A special note of thanks goes to the Executive Committee, and in particular the efforts of Social Coordinator Paul Rainsford (Austal) for his extraordinary commitment throughout the year.

If you are keen to get involved with this vibrant and dynamic Committee then please contact the WA Division Office for contact details.

10 YEAR IN REVIEW

2012 Division Committee The Division Committee, led by the Division President, governs and guides the Division. The Division Committee: determines the strategies of the Division in pursuing Engineers Australia’s objectives; provides leadership and direction to the division groups, division office bearers and division volunteers, and guidance to the division staff; provides advice to Council on behalf of the members of the Division; and provides a public voice for Engineers Australia within the Division.

Division President

Barry Tonkin FIEAust CPEng

Past President

Professor Mark Bush FIEAust CPEng

Deputy President

Helen Pedersen FIEAust CPEng

Advisory Board (DABWA) Chairperson

Helen Pedersen FIEAust CPEng

Women in Engineering Representative

Carla Boehl MIEAust CPEng

Young Engineers Representative

Andrew Bhatia MIEAust

Engineering Techs/Assocs Representative

Will Neethling TMIEAust CEngT

Committee Member

David Mofflin FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member

Professor Tony Lucey FIEAust

Comittee Member

Richard Atkinson FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member

Lorie Jones FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member

Russell Byfield FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member

Terry Spiro FIEAust CPEng

Committee Member

Professor Dong-Ke Zhang FIEAust CPEng

By Alexandra Sparvell

It has been a year of transition for Chartered and the Professional Development Program as we move to the implementation of the new eChartered online system. eChartered is Engineers Aus-tralia (EA)’s new online application and assessment system for Chartered Status and registration, which launched Tuesday 20th November.

eChartered was purpose built based on feedback received from Chartered applicants, PDP participants, engineering employers and staff. Features include;• Fully online paperless assessment and application system in-cluding online verification• A pay as you go approach to fees• More consistent assessment through moderation at point of assessment• Improved online program management tools for PDP Coordina-tors

This new system incorporates the 2012 Australian Competency Standards. The 2012 Competencies were a result of a significant and unprecedented industry consultation process and are more in line with international standards. A clearer process of addressing the competencies through Engineering Competency Claims ECC’s has also been introduced.

A pilot of the 2012 competencies was completed during the year with our 2013 Division President Helen Pedersen attaining her Chartered on the trial. Her feedback on the new system for Chartered included;‘The ECC writing process is free-flowing, and it became an enjoy-able process of career reflection to select key experiences and to distil the importance of lessons learned at each stage of my career.’Helen Pedersen FIEAust CPEng 2013 WA Division President

As part of the transition process we have embarked on a pro-cess of re-signing all Professional Development Agreements in line with our new systems. This has given an opportunity for all organisations to revisit their programs and recommit to the PDP supporting their engineering team to Chartered. To date we have re-signed 80% of the agreements and are on track to complete 90% by the end of 2012. We are also experiencing a spike in demand for our program from new partners to be ready for roll out in 2013.

We look forward to working with our new and existing partners in 2013 to build on the Chartered programs and broaden the relationship to increase the engagement between Engineers Australia and the employers of the engineering team.

A Year of Transition for Chartered and the Professional Development Program

ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA WA DIVISION 11

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Jun-10 12, 658 9 586 6 19 4,992 119 259 2,282 4,356 9 21

Jun-11 13,510 8 612 6 18 5,375 147 272 2,218 4,822 9 23

Jun-12 14,611 9 615 6 17 5,742 161 271 2,390 5,374 7 19

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With thanks to our Partners & Sponsors Engineers Australia WA Division would like to acknowledge the vital contribution of its Partners and Sponsors in enabling us to provide a range of services to our members and to promote the engineering profession to the wider community.

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Engineers Australia WA Division

712 Murray Street West Perth WA 6005

Phone: 08 9321 3340

Web: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/wa