Title

Enhancing the quality of life for all Queensland communities

Bruce Gardiner

NQ Branch President


General Manager Infrastructure Services 

Cairns City Council 

07 4044 8220 

b.gardiner@cairns.qld.gov.au

NQ Branch Committee 

Glenda Kirk (Vice-President)

Contracts and Project Management Officer, Mareeba Shire Council


Natasha Murray (NAMS-Q)
Senior Transport Engineer, Cairns Regional Council


Sandra Burke (Professional Development & Branch Events)
District Director (Far North) Program Delivery & Operations, TMR 


 Hari Boppudi (YIPWEQ)
Director of Engineering, Flinders Shire Council


Danny Lynch

General Manager Infrastructure Planning, Assets & Fleet, Townsville City Council


Neil Allen
Director Infrastructure Services, Townsville City Council


Councils in the NQ Branch

Aurukun Shire Council, Burdekin Shire Council, Burke Shire Council, Cairns Regional Council, Cassowary Coast Regional Council, Carpentaria Shire Council, Charters Towers Regional Council, Cloncurry Shire Council, Cook Shire Council, Croydon Shire Council, Etheridge Shire Council, Flinders Shire Council, Hinchinbrook Shire Council, Mackay Regional Council, Mareeba Shire Council, McKinlay Shire Council, Mornington Shire Council, Mount Isa City Council, Richmond Shire Council, Tablelands Regional Council, Torres Shire Regional Council, Torres Strait Island Regional Council, Townsville City Council, Whitsunday Regional Council

Branch Scholarships

NQ 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. Please contact Leigh Cunningham.

NQ Branch President's Report
September 2018

Our regional branches are becoming quite sizeable with around 137 delegates this past year in SWQ, CQ and NQ. This makes it a little more challenging when choosing locations however, Craig Moss, our Director Professional Services is developing plans for greater engagement with our colleagues in remote areas.


Most of you are well aware that random RPEQ audits are in progress so please be sure you are keeping up with your annual quota (to attain or maintain) of 50 CPD hours. You don’t want to attempt 150 hours in one year at the last minute! Professional Development courses planned in the north and across the border include:


Erosion and Sediment Control, Level 2 Intermediate Training (up to 8 CPD hours) – Townsville, 17 October


Critical Risk Management (up to 7 CPD hours) – Townsville, 25 October


Managing Unsealed Roads (up to 16 CPD hours) – Cairns, 30- 31 October


Type A, B & D Sediment Basin Design (up to 8 CPD hours) – Darwin, 8 November


Administration of Construction Contracts (up to 16 CPD hours) – Cairns, 21-22 November


Bridge Inspections Levels 1 & 2 (up to 18 CPD hours) – Darwin, 26-28 February 2019


If there’s any specific training required for your council, please contact Craig and he will tailor a program specifically for you and your team members.


And speaking of team members, this year’s excellence awards has a new category for the people awards – Team Member of the Year - to recognise anyone in your team who contributes to your projects. This includes supervisors, Works Officers and other support staff who are not engineers (managers and administrators).


If you haven’t done so as yet, please be sure to register as soon as possible for the 2018 IPWEAQ Annual Conference – this includes the annual excellence awards. Up to 16 CPD hours are available including participation in any of the four Technical Tours courtesy of our colleagues at the City of Gold Coast.


The NQ Branch will be well represented at the conference with presentations from:


Gary Everson, Cairns Regional Council - delivering his Best Paper award winning presentation on ‘technology – tried & tested' 


Joshua Flanders (IPWEAQ’s new Ambassador) also from Cairns Regional Council - use of waste recycled glass in concrete as a partial cement and fine aggregate replacement


Justin Fischer and Anthony Folan, Cassowary Coast Regional Council – Flying Fish Point rock revetment, remediation and application of fish friendly features.

Branch President's Report
continued ...

At a local level, Natasha Murray, NQ Branch Committee member, has been busy encouraging high school students to consider a career in public works engineering. Natasha presented to two groups of students at a ‘Women in Careers Workshop’ at St Monica’s College in Cairns to explain engineering and its various disciplines and specifically what is involved in public works engineering Natasha also coordinated a team which hosted a trade display at the Careers and Employment Expo in Cairns earlier in the year. Our sincere thanks to Natasha for all her efforts working with future engineers for our sector.

I look forward to catching up with you at the 2018 IPWEAQ Annual Conference and look forward to representing a strong contingent from the north.

Bruce Gardiner

NQ Branch President

Congratultions Joshua Flanders! IPWEAQ's new Ambassador

Josh Flanders, a graduate engineer with Cairns Regional Council, impressed IPWEAQ with his maturity, capabilities as a spokesperson and presenter, and with his leadership potential.

Thank you to 137 delegates, exhibitors and sponsors for making the NQ Branch Conference in Cairns a huge success. 


See photos and the conference wrap-up.

Thank you to our exhibitors for donating prizes for the President's Charity conference raffle. We raised $400 for MS Queensland!