Building Engineers Australia’s Voice in Newcastle and Hunter Region Friday, 11 March 2016

Article by Tim De Grauw FIEAust CPEng EngExec NER APEC Engineer, Engineers Australia Newcastle President.

Engineers Australia’s work as the voice of the engineering profession gained momentum during February covering many areas of active engagement within Newcastle region. 

Voice for National Registration

ABC FM radio invited Engineers Australia to comment on the conflicting reports about the recent collapse of Milano’s restaurant into Lake Macquarie. Newcastle Past President Michael Van Koeverden FIEAust CPEng NER was interviewed and he highlighted: 

  • The importance for professional engineers to gain Chartered status and join the National Engineering Register (NER).  “EA is like the AMA for Doctors,’ said Mr Van Koeverden.
  • Engineers Australia accreditation of professional engineering courses around the country.
  • The new NER provides for a fast-track registration after 5 years of experience. View webinar* for more information regarding NER. *Please note registration is required to view webinar.

Voice for Infrastructure

Newcastle Division Committee is actively engaging with multiple external organisations to develop position papers, policies and fact sheets. Engineers Australia provided further input to the Regional Infrastructure Committee discussing the revitalisation of Newcastle and the Draft Hunter Regional Plan. We recently met with key stakeholders to learn how the light rail in Israel revitalised their community and region. Vibrant discussion followed and support gained for an integrated master plan to link future key infrastructure planning. Newcastle City Council’s vision for public transport is detailed in their report Connecting Newcastle, including the need to integrate all transport modes.

Voice for Education

During February we met with University of Newcastle and Newcastle TAFE to adapt future engineering courses to meet the needs of industry. This is a very exciting period for our industries and education systems, and Engineers Australia is pleased to be a part of this important discussion. University of Newcastle is exploring a new, flexible industry-focussed course which would allow concentration on local industries such as Aerospace Engineering. Newcastle TAFE is collaborating on a dedicated Associated Degree of Applied Engineering in Renewable Energy Technologies.

We celebrated the Global Day of the Engineer on 24 February with the successful 'Thank an Engineer' campaign. Engineers are involved in our everyday life in numerous ways, but rarely get credited for their work. Another aim of the Global Day of the Engineer is to promote the profession to the general public and inspire future generations of engineers.

We stressed the importance of thanking a humble engineer: one example is the electrical engineer in a power utility who is responsible for ‘keeping the lights on’. Only when some type of power failure occurs does the engineer typically get media attention. If an engineer can manage the power system without obtaining media attention in a major incident, they have been successful but are typically not thanked by the community. Effectively, as a society we are used to having reliable power even during major events compared to many other countries. This concept extends to the successful delivery of our infrastructure projects compared to disasters overseas such as dam collapses.

This is a busy period of Engineers Australia so I encourage members to keep an eye on the industry, watch out for future instances of Engineers Australia advocacy, and - if you see one - do not forget to ‘Thank an engineer’ in 2016.