Australian Tunnelling Society

📢 The Sponsorship and Exhibition Prospectus has now been published for the Australasian Tunnelling Conference to be held in Perth, 10-14 November 2025 📢 With sponsorships and exhibition space already being snapped up, make sure you visit here ASAP to secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/gC37eKVA With the timely theme of "Underground Space: Securing Our Future" the biannual ATC has long been recognised as the premier event for tunnelling and underground engineering in our region and will bring together industry leaders, innovators, and experts to discuss the future of underground construction and engineering.

📢 The Call for Abstracts is now open for the Australasian Tunnelling Conference to be held in Perth, 10-14 November 2025 📢 Submit your abstract here: https://lnkd.in/gvFZZZim The abstract deadline is 31 January 2025 so make sure to stick it in your diary right now! With the timely theme of "Underground Space: Securing Our Future" the biannual ATC has long been recognised as the premier event for tunnelling and underground engineering in our region and will bring together industry leaders, innovators, and experts to discuss the future of underground construction and engineering.

⛳ On what was a perfect day for golf, ATS NSW recently held their annual Charity Golf Day at Parramatta Ryde Golf Course. Battling out for the Peter Watson Trophy, there was an excellent turnout with 104 players that included contractors, consultants and suppliers from NSW, interstate and even Thailand. Huge thanks to David Clague, from ATS NSW, for his wonderful organisational skills, and this year the Chapter would like to give a special shoutout to Rick Fox from Promat, his continued generous sponsorship is greatly appreciated. More thanks go to our other fantastic sponsors that include: The APP Group BarChip Inc. BCS BOSFA Pty Ltd/Bekaert CREGA DYWIDAG Gamuda Australia Heidelberg Materials Herrenknecht AG JENNMAR Australia Kings Engineering MB Solutions Riddwood Consulting Engineers Sandvik Over more than a decade the NSW Chapter has been able to donate over $120K to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research through our charity golf day so thank again to all our supporters who've dug deep into their pockets to support the day.

🚨 BIG NEWS!!! The Second Edition of the ATS Tunnel Design Guideline is now here! 🚨 After a huge amount of work by our dedicated volunteers, with a particular shout out to the Young Members Committee and its former Chair, Brodie Aitchison, the ATS is proud to announce the release of the Second Edition of the ATS Tunnel Design Guideline—an invaluable resource for tunnelling and underground engineers at all levels. This updated edition features six brand-new chapters on key topics, including sustainability, digital engineering, hydrogeology, and more, along with refined content based on industry feedback. Designed to support foundational tunnel design practice in Australia, the guide is a must-have for professionals navigating the challenges of modern tunnelling projects. 📥 ATS members can download the guideline for free. 📥 Non-members can purchase it directly. 💡 Want to learn more? Read the full story and access the guide on our website: https://lnkd.in/g3cV7VYc

🎉 Huge, monumental and enormous congratulations to the ATS's fabulous Shenyan Y, who won our 2024 David Sugden Award 🎉 Shenyan, a senior geotechnical engineer at AECOM and a dedicated member of the ATS Young Members Committee, won the award for her paper titled: ***Evaluating Tunnel Junction Behaviour: A comparative study of 3D and 2D equivalent span analyses*** Our judging panel was very impressed with the paper commenting that it was "concise, well-written and logical", that it was "thoughtfully put together" and had a "great abstract and summary." ATS Young Members Chair, Philip Chin Fung Tsang, presented the award to Shenyan at the recent St Barbara's Day Dinner and Celebration in Brisbane. The ATS runs the annual David Sugden Award to encourage young engineers to develop the art of technical writing. In 2024, the award celebrated its 20th anniversary. In addition to the glory of joining the ranks of other esteemed winners that include Anmol Bedi, Ritesh Mahajan, Mahdi Zoorabadi, David Oliveira, Jurij Karlovšek, Senthilnath G T, Harry Buchanan and Ivan Haryono, (many of whom continue their fantastic careers in the tunnelling industry in Australia and overseas), Shenyan wins $5000 to help her travel to and attend WTC2025 in Sweden. Her paper will also be published, in full, on our website and in our ANZ Journal, April 2025. Congratulations again Shenyan and thanks so much for your service to the ATS! Our volunteer-led organisation thrives because of people like you 🤩

Brisbane WTC2028 here we come 🤞🤞🤞! Make sure you are following our dedicated Linkedin page below to keep up to date on their rapidly growing momentum 😊. More details below:

📢 🎉 Final reminder for this fantastic event in Melbourne. See out the year in style THIS THURSDAY. Limited spaces available so make sure you sign up right now!

"K'ching! K'ching! K'ching!" - the sound of a coin-sorting machine for a risk-based tunnelling impact assessment. Use it well, and we'll accurately narrow down from a list of 1000 assets to a handful of critical ones. I had a fantastic time presenting at the ATS Short Course 2024. Thank you David Oliveira for inviting me to present, Harry Asche & Geoffrey Chan for your kind encouragement, Alberto Dias & Ben Williams for supporting this. I was thrilled to hear how much everyone enjoyed the #coinsorting analogy! The credit for this clever idea goes to a brilliant delivery manager I worked with on Western Harbour Tunnel. One day, while prodding me to refine the design program of 15 tunnelling packages, Edmund A. said to me “Your delivery methodology sounds like filtering and categorizing coins? We highlight the risky ones and work through solutions with our #Acciona & #TfNSW team”—and the rest is history. It’s always amazing to see how a simple yet relatable concept can resonate with others and make technical topics more accessible. Thank you everyone for the positive feedback on my first public speaking stint, and I look forward to more opportunities to share insights and ideas! I myself enjoyed the fun Mt Coot-tha Quarry visit organised by Annalena Chapman and was excited to hear from Neil Cunnington that Worldsensing & Trimble Geospatial has upgraded their wireless battery-operated laser-tilt sensors (GNSS) with a new absolute movement measurement capability. Powered with #AI loadsensing smart technology, the units talk to each other and make total station surveying / convergence monitoring in #tunnels safer and less labour-intensive. They don't depend on cloud post-processing software too! Looking forward to seeing them being utilised on critical assets! #Tunneling #GeotechnicalEngineering #ImpactAssessment #ATS2024 #Aecom #WeDeliverABetterWorld Australian Tunnelling Society P/s A small trivia : a bag of gold chocolate coins to the first person who can spot what's wrong with the coin sorting machine in the picture below.

Hydropower is a cornerstone of renewable energy and sustainability, with tunnels and underground works playing a critical role in enabling these projects. I was delighted to present a lecture on "Tunnel Design for Hydro" at the well-attended Australian Tunnelling Society short course in Brisbane this week! It was rewarding to share insights with engaged professionals and receive positive feedback. A big thank you to the #ATS team for organizing this informative and impactful event. #SMEC, #engineeringpositivechange, #Tunnels, #Hydro, #Renewables, #ATS

Celebrating the Success of the ATS Short Course 2024! 🎉 Over the past two days in Engineers Australia Brisbane office, we welcomed 80+ attendees to the Australian Tunnelling Society Short Course — an established platform since 2007, providing a practical introduction to tunnelling for younger practitioners, seasoned professionals and those eager to join the Australian tunnelling industry. From learning new skills to networking with industry leaders, the energy in the room was incredible. A huge thank you to our speakers for sharing their valuable expertise and inspiring the next generation of tunnelling professionals. Special shoutout to Antonia Theodoulou for her outstanding role as MC, keeping the course engaging and on track! 🎤👏 And let’s not forget the lighter moments — swipe to see our funny faces! 😄 This course proved that tunnellers aren’t just technical experts, but we know how to have fun too! We’re also deeply grateful to our sponsors — MC-Bauchemie International, Delve Underground, Bekaert, BarChip Inc., SMEC, Aurecon, Herrenknecht AG, Pini Group and SYSTRA ANZ for making this event possible. 📸 Here are some highlights from the course! Let’s continue to invest in the future of tunnelling, see you at the next event in two years! Stay tuned for upcoming events organised by us next year! #education #engineering #tunnelling #australiantunnellingsociety #engineeringaustralia #careerdevelopment