Title

Celisa Faulkner

CQ Branch President

Engineer - Networks

Celisa Faulkner (Branch President)

Murray Donald (Vice President)

Civil Engineering Advisor

Lorna Oliver 

Manager (Technical Services), TMR 

Ashleigh Tomkins (YIPWEAQ)

Senior Engineer, Asset Management, Gladstone Regional Council

Adam Doherty

Director

Dileigh Consulting Engineers

Stuart Grallelis

Senior Structural Engineer

Dileigh Consulting Engineers

Banana Shire Council, Barcaldine Regional Council, Barcoo Shire Council, Blackall-Tamboo Regional Council, Boulia Shire Council, Bundaberg Regional Council, Central Highlands Regional Council, Diamantina Shire Council, Fraser Coast Regional Council, Gladstone Regional Council, Isaac Regional Council, Longreach Regional Council, North Burnett Regional Council, Rockhampton Regional Council, Winton Shire Council, Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Council.

I’m pleased to report that the CQ Branch Conference held at Barcaldine, 13-15 June 2018 was a great success. You can see the conference wrap up overleaf but some of my personal highlights included Best Paper ‘Public buildings post disaster’ by Stuart Garalelis, the ‘Chip for charity’ to raise funds for MS Queensland, and how well the under 35 contingent were represented at the conference.

I’d like to take this opportunity to again thank long-term friends and our corporate sponsor George Bourne & Associates.

At the conference we also discussed the possibility of running 1-2 hour webinar-style sessions in the future. A number of great topics suggested and the committee is currently exploring options to see if we can make this happen.

Visiting Barcaldine, and the western towns in our branch, are critical to our strong sense of community. There is nothing like the hospitality of the locals. Professionally, it is invaluable to learn about the challenges they overcome with ingenuity and ‘out of the box’ thinking.

At the branch meeting, we developed an initiative which may help council’s do more work internally - a checklist or process-style document for standard jobs These documents would offer guidance about where to start, what approvals might be needed, what standards to look at for very simple jobs. For example, one particular job discussed, was installing a small minor cross drain for a rural access road. The concept for these process documents is that they would help those councils that don’t have the knowledge in-house but do have staff who with some guidance, would be capable of handling the job. The CQ Branch will be investigating this further.

Preparations are now underway for the CQ Technical Forum in November at Hasting Deering in Rockhampton. The date is still to be confirmed and we will advise shortly.

We have also scheduled the CQ Branch Conference for June 2019 in Rockhampton with our valued hosts, Rockhampton Regional Council.

Finally, I look forward to catching up with everyone at the IPWEAQ Annual Conference next month. It’s a packed program and I am especially keen to hear Michael McQueen who is a specialist in demographic shifts – my home town of Gladstone and others like it are susceptible to the risks inherent in sudden movements of people and their earning capacity.

Celisa Faulkner

CQ Branch President

View CQ Branch Conference photos

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Chip for Charity at the CQ Branch conference! 

CQ Branch members who require assistance to attend the IPWEAQ annual conference to be held at The Marriott, Surfers Paradise, 10-12 October 2018 may apply for a branch scholarship. For more information, please contact Leigh Cunningham.

Nominate for the quarterly Member Profile in our e-journal, Engineering for Public Works. And nominate a YIPWEAQ member for the Emerging Leaders series.