Earl Shaver
Director, Aqua Terra International
New Zealand
Earl is a graduate Agricultural Engineer with a Master of Science in Civil Engineering emphasizing hydrology and hydraulics. He initiated and implemented two U.S state-wide sediment control and stormwater management programmes in Maryland and Delaware. 13 years ago he moved to Auckland where for over 9 years he assisted the Auckland Regional Council in the evolution of their sediment control and stormwater management programmes. He is currently the director of Aqua Terra International, Ltd.
Earl has authored numerous technical manuals, given hundreds of presentations and has 40 years of experience in erosion, sediment control and stormwater management. He was the primary author of the Auckland Regional Council's stormwater management guidelines and their Low Impact Design Manual. He has recently written stormwater management and erosion and sediment control design guidance documents for the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Hawke's Bay Regional Council. He is currently finalising guidelines for Tauranga City Council and Environment Bay of Plenty.
Professor Simon Beecham
Head, School of Natural and Built Environments
University of South Australia
Simon Beecham is Head of the School of Natural and Built Environments at the University of South Australia. He is also Acting Director of the SA Water Centre for Water Management and Reuse (CWMR). Simon is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and is also a Board Director for Water Quality Research Australia Ltd (WQRA). Simon’s research interests include water sensitive urban design (WSUD), siphonic roofwater harvesting and the effects of climate change on integrated urban water management (IUWM). Simon is also the author of the Syfon software program which has been used to design the roofwater harvesting system for Sydney’s Stadium Australia and the MCG, as well as the siphonic roof drainage systems at the Norman Foster designed Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong and the new International Terminal Buildings at Adelaide, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur airports.
Professor John Argue
University of South Australia
John Argue’s career as a water engineer was launched when a major flood wave (peak flow over 10,000 cub m per second) in the Lower Hunter River, NSW, devastated the City of Maitland and its immediate environs in late February, 1955: 14 people lost their lives. John was appointed to the resulting Lower Hunter Flood Mitigation project as a design engineer (NSW Public Works Dept), a position he held for 4½ years. Maitland has successfully withstood two extreme floods (1971 and 2007) in the intervening 50 years since the main components of the scheme were designed and constructed.
Following this experience, John spent time as a research engineer at the Water Research Laboratory (UNSW) and, mainly, lecturing in the fields of hydraulics and hydrology at SA Institute of Technology (now Univ of South Australia). His early experience with and interest in flooding has bourne fruit in the form of two practice manuals – Storm drainage design in small urban catchments, published by ARRB in 1986, and the handbook, WSUD: basic procedures for ‘source control’ of stormwater to which John contributed and was editor. Both of these documents see the problem of flooding in the urban landscape as the prime task to be solved by the water engineer. The first manual saw wide acceptance and use across the nation in the 1990s; the second (manual) forms the knowledge base for a series of 2-day workshops organised by Engineering Education, Australia. John holds the post of Adjunct Professor of Water Engineering at the University of South Australia.
Clr Ronald William Clarke (MBE)
Mayor of the Gold Coast City Council
Ron Clarke was elected Mayor of Gold Coast City in March 2004 and again in March 2008, after campaigning on a platform of six basic principles – independence, integrity, inspiration, integration, innovation and impact.
These guiding principles have been constant throughout his extraordinary life, which has seen him scale the heights of sport and business before entering politics at the tender age of 67.
An icon in sporting circles, Ron set 19 world records between 1963 and 1970, in races ranging from two miles to 20 kilometres, more than any other distance runner in the history of track and field. During his career he competed in two Olympic Games, Tokyo in 1964 and the altitude games in Mexico in 1968, to win one Bronze Medal and finish in the top six in his other four events. In the Commonwealth Games of 1962 (Perth), 1966 (Kingston) & 1970 (Edinburgh), he won four Silver medals.
While still competing, Ron also established a successful business career. Among his business achievements is the introduction of sporting brands such as Adidas, Le Coq Sportif and Nike into the Australian market. He has owned and operated a highly successful chain of health and fitness centres in Australia and overseas and has also found the time to author 12 books. Ron has been married to Helen for over 50 years and together they have raised three children.
An accountant by profession, he has put his knowledge to use in a wide range of industries. From 1995 to 2000, he developed and was the Chief Executive of the innovative, eco-friendly Couran Cove Resort on South Stradbroke Island. Ron is also recognised as a philanthropist, his community work culminating in his appointment in 2001 as President of the Council for the Encouragement of Philanthropy in Australia, and also an environmentalist, he was President of the Queensland chapter of Greening Australia for two years, and has recently been appointed an ambassador for Al Gore’s climate change program.
In speaking of his challenge as Mayor of the fastest growing city in Australia, Ron is similarly focused on success. He has set an extensive series of personal goals to help the City continue its growth in a sustainable manner. These goals include the development of an efficient transport infrastructure network to meet the current and future needs of the community. He believes this network should be complemented by a city-wide ferry service, which would offer additional transport, a reduction in traffic congestion and generate tourism potential.
He also identified water supply as one of the major issues to be addressed in the City and is committed to working with regional, state and federal authorities to ensure that the regions water supply is secure. Ron is now looking towards sustainable growth as being the most important issue for the future of the Gold Coast.
Ron embraces his second, and last, term as Gold Coast Mayor. In his own words, “success occurs when preparation meets with opportunity”.
