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The symposium will address the issues surrounding the use of locally available materials in the construction, maintenance and operations of road assets specifically as they relate to northern climatic conditions. Another issue to be addressed is the loss of skilled practitioners through retirement or relocations and with them the knowledge and experience working with non-standard materials. The symposium will also look at strategies available to councils for maximising outcomes when funding is limited. I look forward to seeing you in Cairns next week.

IPWEAQ has recently developed and launched a number of new courses including:

• Drainage for Road Design

• Pavement Rehabilitation Workshop

• Basic Geometric Road Design

• Demystifying Extended Design Domain (EDD) Applications

• Management of a Civil Workforce

If you would like to arrange one of these courses to be delivered in-house at your council or if you would like to attend a public course, please contact Kate O’Riordan.  Three more courses are under development so please also contact Kate if these are also of interest to you:

• Introduction to Urban Stormwater Design

• Introduction to Urban Stormwater Assessment Principles

• Bridge Asset Management – Data Driven Decision Making

I’m pleased to confirm, the NQ Branch conference will return next year to be held in Townsville, 10-11 June. The Call for Papers will open February 2020 however, Craig and Kate are more than happy to receive your suggested presentations at any time. We encourage our younger professionals to submit an abstract and if successful, you will receive a complimentary registration to the conference and another opportunity to hone your public speaking skills. Up to 45 CPD hours are available for preparing a paper for presentation at a conference.

The 2019 Excellence Awards will close 5 July so please be sure to nominate your projects and people for these prestigious awards. Natasha Murray of Cairns Regional Council took home one of the major awards last year for Woman in Engineering and Kowanyama Aboriginal Council was the first winner of an IPWEAQ excellence awards for the Kowanyama Social Precincts. Mackay Regional Council was the winner in the Asset Management category for the Mount Pleasant No.1 Reservoir Refurbishment and Mareeba was Highly Commended for the Mareeba Landfill Surface Waters Management Project in the Environment & Sustainability category. Cairns Regional Council was also Highly Commended in Projects Under $2 million for our Centenary Lakes Nature Play. Overall, an impressive result for North Queensland! And don’t forget to nominate your people for the five people awards!