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Bruce Gardiner

NQ Branch President

General Manager Infrastructure Services 

Cairns City Council 

07 4044 8220 

b.gardiner@cairns.qld.gov.au

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

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

The 2018 NQ Branch conference in Cairns is done and dusted with 137 delegates, Partners, sponsors and trade exhibitors in attendance. The theme of the conference was ‘together towards tomorrow’ which began with a Welcome function graciously sponsored by ARUP on the banks of Trinity Inlet where delegates enjoyed canapes and a cleansing ale or two. The conference was officially opened Thursday morning with a Welcome to Country and opening speech from the mayor of Cairns, Bob Manning. The conference program included 22 presentations across the following day and a half with the conference concluding Friday lunch time. It was great to see so many delegates there to the very end.

Feedback from delegates on the quality and range of presentations has been overwhelmingly positive with highlights from:

·       Reforms to the Natural Disaster Relief Arrangements, Jimmy Scott, QRA

·       The Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative, Nicholas Brooks, Department of Transport and Main Roads

·       The Role of Cities in the Driverless Technology Future by Nicholas Brook, Principal Project Engineer - Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative, TMR

·       The $380 million Mount Emerald Wind Farm by Kim Forde Ratch Australia Corporation

·       Lockhart River Runway Upgrade, Joseph Estrada and Andrew Chiknaikin, GHD.

The Best Paper award was presented to Gary Everson, Manager - Cairns Works at Cairns Regional Council who outlined a range of smart technologies being trialled in Cairns including smart bins, parking sensors, lights, use of dash-cams and robot mowers.

Delegates also enjoyed a session, Build Communication Skills, Energy Lift: Communication that Leads to Collaboration by John Carr from Coach Central based in Cairns. John’s challenge was to try to train engineers in just one hour on how to communicate! Delegates enjoyed the interactive session and hopefully gained some tips for dealing with others.

The highlight of the conference social program was the dinner held at Aqua Luna at the new Cairns Aquarium and sponsored by Flanagan Consulting. This dinner had a very unusual outcome – owing to the exceptional nature of the food and the quantity of it, delegates who would ordinarily head out on the town afterwards, went back to their hotels as they didn’t wish to ruin the enjoyment of their meal (or needed to lay down!). And as a result, the first speaker Friday morning had a full room! This strategy may need to be investigated further by IPWEAQ.

A huge thank you once again to all our Partners, exhibitors and sponsors including Flanagan Consulting Group, ARUP, SeaSwift, Aurecon, Trinity Engineering and Consulting, Shepherd Services, PDM, and host, Cairns Regional Council. As you would all understand by now, these events don’t happen without sponsors and supporters of IPWEAQ – they are critical to our successes so please be sure to utilise their services in your role.

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.

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.

Congratulations also to Joshua Flanders, a graduate engineer with Cairns Regional Council who has been chosen as the next IPWEAQ (Young) Ambassador!

Does your council have an unused training budget? If so, please consider IPWEAQ’s training packages which can be tailored to your needs. In the meantime, we have the following courses coming up in the NQ Branch:

Bridge Inspection Levels 1&2 Workshop (18 CPD hours)

Townsville - 26-28 June 2018

Erosion and Sediment Control Level 2 - Intermediate Training (8 CPD hours)

Townsville - 17 October 2018

And please make a diary note for the IPWEAQ annual conference to be held at Surfers Paradise, 10-12 October 2018. A Call for Papers will be issued shortly so please be sure projects in the north are represented. Similarly, be sure to nominate your projects and people for the 2018 Excellence Awards.

Bruce Gardiner

NQ Branch President

Nominate your council's projects and people for the 2018 IPWEAQ excellence awards!

Complete the online forms for the People Awards and Project Awards.