Another big
year has come to pass and after a great start, we suddenly had to find new ways
of entertaining ourselves without restaurants, bars, live music and walks along
the river. At IPWEAQ, we were quarantined at home for just five weeks returning
to the office as soon as restrictions were relaxed. And for some of us, that
was not soon enough. That all seems like a distant memory and doesn’t seem as
bad as it felt at the time. The rest of the year evaporated.
In the December
issue of the journal, we get to celebrate the people who made our Annual
Conference a success and again this year, despite the influence of the C-word,
440 people from our community turned up in Brisbane grateful for the
opportunity to reconnect. While other conferences all around us were
cancelling, we stayed the course and enjoyed a unique event with State of
Origin Game II, and we stood still at the 11th hour on Wednesday 11th
to give thanks to the soldiers who fought and died for us.
One of my priorities
since joining the Institute five years ago, was to ensure we left behind a
well-documented history so that those governing the Institute and our sector
50+ years from now will have an appreciation of our times. This journal was
launched in March 2016 incorporating 100+ pages all about public works in Queensland,
featuring articles about the issues and projects and also the activities of the
Institute and our sector. The Excellence Awards Commemorative Book also
documents the projects and people of our times, and we will soon be launching a
series of individual Commemorative Booklets with all past winners for every
award category – people and projects.
And about to be
launched is our inaugural calendar, Every Community Needs an Engineer 2021 which
features 12 varied projects from across Queensland from the Beames Brook Bridge
in Burketown to the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton to an artificial reef on
the Gold Coast. The objectives of the calendar are to (a) highlight the variety
of projects delivered for our communities by public works engineers and (b)
attract the next generation of civil engineers to our sector, inspired as they
will be by these great projects. Each month will be accompanied by a campaign
to highlight that particular type of project eg January is coastal engineering.
The campaign will include promotions in regional and industry newspapers and
newsletters, in schools and universities.
We are pleased to be continuing our collaboration with the Dream Big project executing an agreement with founder, Jessica Kahl earlier this month. The STEAM Ahead program offers a developmental experience to support and prepare women to become more skilled, confident and qualified.
On pages 17-22 of EPW, we’ve published a Fact Sheet from the
CCC (Crime and Corruption Commission) which arose from a PW-TV session to discuss
what amounts to corrupt conduct for those delivering professional engineering
services without registration as an RPEQ. It was clear there was a lot of
confusion about what can and can’t be done. Ultimately, the solution is to become
an RPEQ and you won’t need to worry if you are over-stepping the mark.
Since we moved
to significantly larger premises in June better equipped to accommodate our continuously
expanding deliverables, we recruited two new Directors: Neal Lake, Director
Engineering Practice (formerly at ARRB) and Scott Britton, Director Policy
& Partnerships (formerly at LGAQ). Neal and Scott join our team of 24
(eight in water and 16 in engineering – all employees of IPWEAQ) who continued
to deliver throughout 2020 in spite of the challenges we’ve all had to endure.
We are already well
into planning mode for 2021 with the President’s Breakfast 5 February to
recognise the contributions to our successes by our Partners and sponsors. The
Breakfast will also launch the 2021 excellence awards and two new awards in the
category, Employer of the Year (Public Works Sector): Private and Government.
We are in for
an extremely busy start to 2021 with four branch conferences plus activities
surrounding the launch of the Every Community Needs an Engineer campaign but in
the meantime, Christmas comes each year with a reminder that people are not
replaceable. Have a wonderful day with your family and best wishes for 2021 –
every community needs you.
Thanks again to
everyone who joined us for the Annual Conference. Thanks for being a member of
IPWEAQ and for being a part of our community.