By Tony Malkovic
The importance of water to Western Australia was a recurring theme at the 2014 WA Engineering Excellence Awards – with all seven award-winning projects being water-based.
The
Mundaring Water Treatment Plant in the Perth hills won the Infrastructure and Building award, as well as the Engineering for Regional Communities award. And in inner Perth, the project to improve water quality at
Hyde Park’s lakes won the Environment award and the Small Company Projects award.
Chevron Australia was another major winner on the night, winning the Innovation and Development award for the construction of three deepwater pipelines that crossed the continental scarp to feed natural gas from the
Jansz-Io field to Barrow Island.
More than 350 people attended the awards night, which was held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. There were seven project categories in the awards, as well as five awards for individuals.
The WA Division President of Engineers Australia, Will Neethling, TFIEAust CEngT, paid tribute to the problem solving skills of WA engineers.
“In WA, we do great engineering work and we produce great projects,” he said.
“In fact, I believe we punch way above our weight compared to the rest of Australia.
“We find solutions to meet clients’ needs and requirements, then we often deliver over and above what’s required.”
The Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Housing, Bill Marmion MLA HonFIEAust CPEng – a Chartered civil engineer and former chair of the Engineering Excellence Awards – paid tribute to the high standard of entries while also acknowledging that some firms were doing it tough in the wake of the slowdown in mining investment and construction.
“The Government’s industry support is aimed squarely at challenging engineers to explore new heights in innovation and excellence because this is vital to WA being competitive in what has become a global profession,” he said. With engineering able to be carried out almost anywhere in the world, he said it was important to focus on quality and cost effectiveness.
“If we can effectively market our engineering expertise and find more efficient ways of working, the challenges of global engineering will become lucrative opportunities for our engineers here in WA,” he said.
Major Hughes explained that the pursuit of excellence was part of his regiment’s ethos.
“I’m honoured that I’ve been able to fulfil the regiment’s expectations in that particular ethos,” he said.
“Secondly, why do I do it?
“We’ve heard before about dangerous environments. The Diggers in the regiment work in particularly dangerous environment. It behoves us all to make sure that they win on the battlefield and, more importantly, that they come home safely to their wives and children.”
Other Individual Award winners include:
- Paul Copland TFIEAust CEngT, of WorleyParsons, winning the Engineering Technologist of the Year award
- Emmanual Ollandezos AFIEAust, of WorleyParsons, winning the Engineering Associate of the Year award
- Paula West FIEAust CPEng, a Senior Reliability Engineer with Alcoa, winning the Young Professional Engineer of the Year award; and
- Anthony Sims AMIEAust, Strategic Development Manager at Pritchard Francis, winning the Young Engineering Associate of the Year award
The seven category winners are:
Resource Development
Winner:
North Rankin Redevelopment Project - Setting new benchmarks for integrating offshore greenfield and brownfield production facilities
Submitted by Woodside Energy, WorleyParsons and KBR
Infrastructure and Building
Winner:
Mundaring Water Treatment Plant
Submitted by GHD and Acciona TRILITY Joint Venture
Environment
Winner:
Hyde Park Lakes Restoration Project
Submitted by Advanteering - Civil Engineers and GHD
Engineering for Regional Communities
Winner:
Mundaring Water Treatment Plant
Submitted by GHD and Acciona TRILITY Joint Venture
Control Systems, Networks, Information Processing and Telecommunications
Winner:
North Rankin Redevelopment Project
Submitted by WorleyParsons, KBR, Woodside Energy, Honeywell, I&E Systems, Transfield Worley
Innovation and Development
Winner:
Jansz-Io subsea Pipeline Scarp Crossing
Submitted by Chevron Australia
Small Company Projects
Winner:
Hyde Park Lakes Restoration Project
Submitted by Advanteering - Civil Engineers and GHD
Image caption: 2014 Overall Award recipients from Woodside Energy Ltd.