Bushlight India project submitted by CAT Projects received the top accolade at the 2011 Engineering Excellence Awards which were held at the Darwin Turf Club in the “Skyline Marquee” last night. The gala event, in its 30th year, has grown from strength to strength since the first Awards in 1981. Over 320 people from the Engineering profession gathered to celebrate the Northern Territory’s latest engineering developments and talent.

CAT Projects from Alice Springs has built on their previously successful remote Australian Bushlight endeavours to develop, design and construct two pioneering self-sustaining community power generation projects in two remote Indian villages. This system has potential to be used in most underprivileged communities throughout the world and CAT Projects are currently negotiating expansion of this system with representatives of United Nations.

Northern Division Director, Bronwyn Russell, says “While project entries were down in 2011, the calibre was extremely high and the judges had a difficult task”.

“The regions featured prominently in this year’s awards to include Borrooloola and Alice Springs. The Territory’s wet season was one of the wettest on record in 2011 with over 3.5 metres of rain which once again proved the resilience of our engineers in overcoming the many obstacles that they faced,” Mrs Russell said.

Another Alice Springs project which impressed the judges and received an Engineering Excellence Award for Environment and Sustainability was the Solar Power Station developed and installed at the Alice Springs Airport. This project, developed under the Alice Solar City program, has produced a major solar array power station that now provides in excess of 20% of the airport’s daily power needs.

The Alice Springs Airport Solar Power Station also won the “Australian Solar Energy Society Award for Sustainability”. The following projects received Highly Commended Awards:

• McArthur River Bridge, submitted by Departments of Lands and Planning Construction and Infrastructure and Steelcon;
• Bridging the Gap – Territory Growth Towns Report submitted by the Departments of Lands and Planning, Construction and Infrastructure, Housing, Local Government & Regional Services.

The People’s Choice Award followed a weeklong display of posters at Casuarina Shopping Centre where interested public were encouraged to cast a vote for the project of their choice. This award was won by “Tiger Brennan Drive Extensions” by a vast majority.

The President’s Award this year has been won by “The Palmerston Boat Ramp” project. President, Len Chappell said, “This is a project which has surpassed the expectation of the client brief. The land based fishing jetty extends the use of the facility to members of the public who do not own boats”.

The People in Engineering Awards were well supported in 2011. The judging panel were impressed by the achievements of people working in our profession in the Northern Territory. The panel had no hesitation in recommending the following awards to:

• Dr Friso de Boer from Charles Darwin University in the category of Professional Engineer of the Year;
• Lyndon Frearson from CAT Projects in the category of Young Professional Engineer of the Year, with Nerida Beard from Power & Water Corporation taking out a highly commended award in this category;
• Engineering Associate of the Year went to Jaswant Deo of RP Management Services.

The winners from the Northern Territory’s Engineering Excellence Awards have the opportunity to go to the Great Hall of Parliament in November to compete for the Engineers Australia National Awards.