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Enhancing the quality of life for all Queensland communities

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Glenda Kirk

Branch President

Director Infrastructure Services
Mareeba Shire Council

0438 686 191

NQ Branch Committee 

Natasha Murray (Vice President)

Senior Transport Engineer, Cairns Regional Council


Hari Boppudi

Director of Engineering, Flinders Shire Council


Danny Lynch

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


Neil Allen
Director 

Endgame Projects


Justin Fischer
Manager Asset Engineering, Cassowary Coast Council

Victor Mills
Director, Works and Building Services
Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council

Joshua Flanders (Ambassador)

Graduate - Civil Engineer

Cairns Regional Council 

NQ Branch President's Report
March 2020

I am very pleased to welcome Victor Mills, Director Works & Building Services, Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council who joins the NQ Branch committee. Welcome, Victor! We look forward to working with you.

We have 12 Aboriginal councils within the NQ Branch and we hope to engage with all of them in a more meaningful way going forward. It is coming up to RPEQ renewal time again later this month and as we all know, external CPD audits conducted by an Assessment Entity or the BPEQ have been underway for the past three years.


Now, however, by signing up to a CPD Scheme administered by an RPEQ Assessment Entity your CPD audits can be progressed internally. IPWEAQ now offers such a scheme.

The IPWEAQ assessment scheme requires the completion of 150 CPD hours over three years but ideally, 50 hours per year to ensure currency and keeping abreast of changes in technology and the sector. The following hours can be recorded:


  • Attendance at IPWEAQ courses and conferences (unlimited hours)
  • Contributions to IPWEAQ Working Groups (max 50 hours)
  • Formal post-graduate study (unlimited)
  • Private study eg reading Engineering for Public Works (max 18 hours)
  • On-the-job learning (max 75 hours)
  • Preparation of articles for publication in the journal or papers for delivery at IPWEAQ conferences (max 45 hours per paper.


You will no longer need to maintain and submit separate records of your CPD hours – everything is entered via the IPWEAQ portal. And attendance at all IPWEAQ courses and conferences are automatically recorded against your profile allowing easy tracking and verification of your CPD progress each year.


The team at IPWEAQ will alert you if you are at risk of not completing the requisite hours and/or any compulsory programs. Sign up to the new IPWEAQ CPD Scheme online and see more information on Page 4 of the journal.


To celebrate World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development, IPWEAQ launched a photography competition, 'public works through the lens of an engineer'. A high volume of quality submissions offered us an insight into the daily lives and challenges of our engineers.


Congratulations to the winner from the NQ Branch, Gopan Mondal from Rio Tinto in Weipa! Gopan will receive a GoPro for his photo highlighting the challenges of bridge repairs in crocodile-infested waters. I am sorry to have to announce that the NQ Branch conference for 2020 has been cancelled due to new rules and policies on travel and gatherings.


Like everyone, we are hoping life is back to normal as soon as possible but we are at least fortunate to have the 2020 IPWEAQ Annual Conference in our region this year.

So please be sure to register early for Cairns, 10-12 November as we'll all no doubt be very keen to abandon social distancing rules.

Glenda Kirk

NQ Branch President

Joshua Flanders

IPWEAQ Ambassador, NQ
Graduate - Civil Engineer Design Services at Cairns Regional Council. We met Josh at the NQ Branch conference in Cairns in April 2018 and were impressed with his ability to expertly navigate a media interview then competently delivered a paper on the use of waste recycled glass in concrete as a partial cement and fine aggregate replacement.