{"id":7385,"date":"2019-03-18T02:15:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T18:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/young-alumni-stories-award-winning-darwin-engineer-keeps-community-top-of-mind\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:09:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:09:16","slug":"young-alumni-stories-award-winning-darwin-engineer-keeps-community-top-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/young-alumni-stories-award-winning-darwin-engineer-keeps-community-top-of-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Young alumni stories: Award-winning Darwin engineer keeps community top of mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Brandis may have begun his civil engineering career in Perth, but when he moved to Darwin he truly began to see its positive impact upon other people, their communities and lifestyles.<\/p>\n

Brandis relayed his epiphany moment to hundreds of his peers on stage at the 2018 Northern Territory Engineering Excellence Awards held at SKYCITY Darwin\u2019s beachside pavilion, after being awarded the title of Young Professional Engineer of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing that stood out to me [after I moved to Darwin] was the sense of community,\u201d Brandis said, during his acceptance speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs engineers, everything we do, every decision we make, is about the community. We might be working for a developer, but ultimately the developer is delivering infrastructure for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandis says he felt a great sense of honour and was very humbled to have been selected for the prestigious award, and later invited to the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s great that Engineers Australia is providing opportunities to celebrate and recognise the efforts and contributions of our next generation of industry leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Paul
Paul Brandis at the 2018 Northern Territory Engineering Excellence Awards: on stage (left), with his wife, mass communication specialist and comedian Amy Hetherington (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the past five years, Brandis has worked as a civil engineer for Byrne Consultants, which is involved in designing civil projects across the NT in the areas of land development, roads and intersections, stormwater management, water and wastewater.<\/p>\n

Brandis has been involved in the design and construction of Henbury School, a purpose-built high school in Darwin for students with disabilities. The project was recognised with six awards at the prestigious 2017 Master Builders NT Excellence in Building and Construction Awards.<\/p>\n

With assistance from Charles Darwin University students, he has also created an NT-first, automated sediment control system for converting dirty stormwater to clean water using chemicals to drop out suspended sediments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Byrne Consultants, we get exposed to a diverse range of opportunities, which allows us to fast track our professional development and avoid getting pigeonholed,\u201d Brandis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great working for a place that values working as a unified team to deliver high-quality engineering outputs with a community focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandis was selected by the consultancy to develop new subdivision development guidelines for the NT\u2019s Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics, to ensure a uniform approach to subdivision across the Territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to consider a variety of contexts, including types of infrastructure, degrees of remoteness and regional differences in environmental conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been extremely rewarding to seek feedback from subject matter experts on the NT\u2019s existing standards and to gain insight into current industry innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Paul
Working at the Humes concrete precast yard in Winnellie, south of Darwin International Airport.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brandis believes he has always been an engineer at heart. As a kid, he was constantly pulling apart his toys and gadgets to investigate how they worked. Then, in school, he began to feel a natural inclination towards mathematics, science and work that involved problem-solving.<\/p>\n

Curtin\u2019s civil and construction engineering degree<\/a> provided him with a fundamental understanding of key engineering principles and, more importantly, encouraged him to pursue a commitment towards lifelong learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost careers require a level of continued professional development and engineering requires an ongoing commitment to keeping abreast of emerging industry practice. If we don\u2019t have the tools to keep up, we\u2019re going to fall behind fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurtin\u2019s engineering degree has a good mix of theory based and practical based classes. There\u2019s no better way to learn than getting your hands dirty!\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandis believes his decision to get involved with additional activities, including the Student Ambassador program and the John Curtin Weekend enhanced his university experience and set him on the path towards community-focused engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese programs gave me a point of difference when securing engineering work placements. But the most rewarding part was being able to make a difference to the lives of prospective students and offer a helping hand to rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Darwin
Brandis thinks Darwin is a great place to build a career and broaden your horizons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Brandis returns to Perth annually to visit family and friends, he confesses he very quickly fell in love with the NT capital since moving there for work and doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll be leaving any time soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly think Darwin is Australia\u2019s best kept secret,\u201d Brandis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got all the perks of a small town in terms of community spirit and taking 10 minutes to get anywhere, but also the perks of a major city in terms of work and recreational opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This story is part of Curtin\u2019s Young Alumni Stories<\/a> series where we celebrate the achievements of Curtin graduates 35 and under. Learn more about the Young Alumni Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An NT-first stormwater sediment control system and an award-winning school for students with disabilities are just a couple of the projects Paul Brandis has worked on since moving to Darwin in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":7386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-7385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Alumni Innovator series","content":"

This story is part of our\u00a0Alumni Innovator series, which recognises\u00a0Curtin and WAIT alumni who\u2019ve\u00a0thought outside the box and excelled in their field.<\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Paul-Brandis-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 04:01:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7385"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=7385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}