Fyfe Engineers & Surveyors

The State Government’s 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide released in February this year is already providing positive spin-offs for Adelaide businesses. For planning, engineering and surveying firm Fyfe, the plan has created work from north of Gawler to the Onkaparinga Council area in the south and into Murray Bridge and Mount Barker.

Regional projects at Williamstown in the Barossa Valley, Port Elliot and Victor Harbor in the south are also expected to benefit as a result of increased Federal Government focus, including work on the proposed NBN.

Fyfe’s Managing Director, Mr Mark Dayman, said work ranged from the planning of initial concepts through to surveying potential new housing estates, commercial and employment precincts.

“The 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide is predicated on steady population growth of 560,000 people and construction of an additional 258,000 homes,” he said.

“Plans for some potential developments, such as those at Murray Bridge, Mount Barker and at Playford Alive, north of Adelaide, are already fairly advanced, but there are a number of companies and developers looking further afield.

“These developments will range from new housing and commercial precincts through to aged care, sporting facilities and transport hubs.

“A lot of this work is still at concept stage, but there are certainly some exciting plans being considered.”

Mr Dayman said Fyfe had taken on a number of new surveyors and engineers to help meet the busier workload and had restructured some of its internal operations to reflect the changing workloads.

“At the moment, we probably have 15 to 20 surveyors, engineers and planners working on projects related to the 30 year plan,” he said.

“We anticipate this number will increase further as some of the plans become more advanced.

“While the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide is mostly about preparing Adelaide for the future, it has also given us a focus for restructuring our business to meet future requirements.”

Encouraging Northern Territory school leavers to take-up surveying as a career may be the only way to overcome a growing skills shortage in the top end, according to Darwin surveying firm Fyfe JMA.

Mr Warwick Bryant, Fyfe JMA’s Division Manager, said attracting skilled surveyors to Darwin and then retaining them was extremely difficult because of strong  competition from other States and from the mining industry.

“Lifestyle considerations are also factors as it’s not unusual for a surveyor to come to Darwin, but then move on again in less than a year because of climate and homesickness,” he said.

“This makes it difficult to have enough staff to meet demand, especially with the huge volume of work that is in the pipeline in and around Darwin, and the situation is only going to get worse.

“We are currently looking for one or two senior licensed surveyors to join our team and I understand the situation is pretty much the same for our competitors in the Territory.”

Mr Bryant said the problem was compounded by relatively few people taking up surveying around Australia, despite relatively good pay and conditions.

“One solution for the NT may be to encourage more local school leavers to take on surveying as a career,” he said.

“People who have completed their schooling in the Territory are more likely to stay,especially if they can be trained locally, say through the Charles Darwin University.” Mr Bryant said a template for such a course had been established at the University of South Australia, where a new two year Masters Degree in surveying had commenced this year.

The two-year post-graduate degree is significantly funded by industry through a levy on all new planning applications. This levy was previously used to fund the activities of the Surveying and Spatial Science Institute, the equivalent of the Surveyors Board of the Northern Territory. Students undertaking the course face one year of full time study. The second year is mainly project oriented, with students provided with practical exposure aimed at developing graduates who were technically competent and ready to move into the industry.

Mr Bryant said that while any course in Darwin would need to take local factors into account, the principle of industry funding at least part of the cost of the course was something that should be seriously considered.

“To achieve this, the NT Government would need to legislate to enable the levy to be increased and for the money to be used to help fund the course,” he said.

The Surveyors Board and Charles Darwin University would also need to agree to the move. He said finding enough students interested in undertaking surveying did not appear to be a major issue and he was aware of a number of people who would be interested if the course was offered in Darwin.

Mr Bryant said the average graduate surveyor in the private sector could generally expect to start on a salary of around $50,000, with experienced surveyors drawing salaries of between $85,000 and $120,000 a year.

Fyfe JMA currently has 22 staff with work ranging from the Tiger Brennan Drive project to new housing, retail and industrial developments from Alice Springs to Darwin.

The Managing Director of Adelaide-based engineering and surveying firm

Fyfe has been appointed to the Board of the Australian Pipeline Industry

Association Ltd (APIA), the peak national body representing the interests of

Australia's transmission pipeline sector.

He is the second South Australian on the APIA Board.

Mr Dayman joins fellow South Australian Mr Ashley Kellett, the General

Manager of SEA Gas.

Mr Dayman said his appointment, at the recent APIA Convention in

Queensland, reflected South Australia’s AND Fyfe’s growing involvement in

the national pipeline industry.

He said the development of massive gas projects around Australia was

opening many opportunities for service providers and this growth was

expected to escalate significantly in coming years.

“These developments will almost certainly create opportunities for companies

such as Fyfe to provide specialist services,” he said.

“We are already working on a number of coal seam methane projects in

Queensland and South Australia and recently won a contract as part of the

multi-billion dollar Gladstone Liquified Natural Gas project in Queensland.

“However, we expect work in the industry will increase rapidly in coming years

as other gas projects are developed.”

APIA is a broad association covering all sectors of the gas transmission

industry, including owners and operators, construction companies,

consultancies and service providers.

APIA has more than 400 members.