Title

Raad Jarjees

Branch President

Program and Technical Services Manager, Infrastructure Services Department

Ipswich City Council

0457 564 615

Raad.Jarjees@ipswich.qld.gov.au

Gleb Kolenbet (Vice President)

Land Development Engineer, Redland City Council

Craig Young (NAMS-Q)

Manager Civil Asset Management, Sunshine Coast Council

Jessica Kahl (YIPWEAQ)

IPWEAQ Ambassador, Aurecon

Weena Lokuge

Senior Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland 

Casey Lee
Senior Civil Engineering Design Supervisor, Logan City Council

Michael Pattinson
Road Construction Program Leader, Logan City Council

Chris Mantell (YIPWEAQ)

Senior Civil Engineer, Cardno

Brisbane City Council, Gympie Regional Council, City of Gold Coast, Ipswich City Council, Logan City Council, Noosa Council, Sunshine Coast Regional Council, Moreton Bay Regional Council, Redland City Council.

Representatives of the SEQ Branch committee – myself, Gleb Kolenbet and Sophia Andary – hosted a booth at the annual Griffith Recruitment and Careers Fair on Thursday 22 March at the Queensland Cricketers’ Club in Brisbane. The event was very well organised with over 150 students from engineering, ICT and aviation disciplines.

A large proportion of those students attended our booth inquiring about the Institute, and information about employment opportunities in our sector. Many didn’t yet understand the benefits of ‘public works engineering’ and the benefits for our communities. And to this extent, the new IPWEAQ flyer, ‘what is public works engineering’ will help us with that message to High School students and undergraduates.

Following the Fair, I met with organisers to congratulate them on the event and for the opportunity to engage with their students. We offered our ongoing assistance providing information and resources about engineering in the public works sector, and direction and support for students wishing to understand how they can contribute and become our emerging leaders.

We are continuing discussions with SEQ universities on a proposed new SEQ Branch event that will bridge the gap between academic life and practice attracting younger engineers looking for a mentoring platform. This event will include workshops for students and young professionals recognising that young professionals need good technical information including an analysis of ‘lessons learnt’ on a significant project. There will also be opportunities for our younger delegates to network with our more experienced senior members.

Our IPWEAQ team – Paula Paul, Belinda Smith and Craig Moss – also hosted a trade booth at the University of Queensland Career’s Fair in March. See photos of the event on page * of the journal.

The Commonwealth Games are now over and the gorgeous City of the Gold Coast is back to functioning as normal. Our huge congratulations to our colleagues at the City of the Gold Coast for a job well done successfully presenting their city on a global platform. Come October, at the IPWEAQ annual conference to be held at Surfers Paradise, we will benefit from their learnings, challenges and experiences and have an opportunity to inspect some Games infrastructure in the Technical Tours.

There are a number of large scale projects taking shape in the South East corner lead by Brisbane City Council, City of Gold Coast and the Department of Transport and Main Road. Brisbane, Toowoomba and Logan are now running their own professional development events to showcase projects and discuss engineering matters. These events are generally well attended and organised.

We invite our Partners to join with us in delivering Technical Tours for members in SEQ. Contact Craig Moss to arrange a tour of your facility.

IPWEAQ is becoming the Custodian of Generic Local Government Standards Library of Civil Engineering and open space Standard Drawings. Many Queensland councils, specifically the SEQ councils are working hard under the IPWEAQ banner towards a common customisation of CAD and 12d and the good news is that 12d (IPWEAQ Partner) is embracing the idea to benefit all users across Queensland. This offers a wonderful opportunity to reduce the administration for councils maintaining different Standards in terms of town planning, survey, 12d customisation, estimation templates and more. 

It is pleasing to see IPWEAQ continue in its leadership role for our sector bringing together experienced professionals and industry leaders to develop must-needed products and services that serve our communities.

Our next gathering is a Tech Tour of the Komatsu Wacol facility on 20 June which is free for members and $50 for non-members. Please be sure to register early and I look forward to seeing you then!

Raad Jarjees

SEQ Branch President