2020 AGS Practitioner Award Inaugural Lecture

Geoff is a Geotechnical Engineer with more than 45 years’ professional experience. A graduate in Civil Engineering from the University of Western Australia in 1971, Geoff then completed a Master of Science in Civil Engineering at Purdue University, Indiana, in 1975. From 1971 to 1989 he was employed by the Main Roads Department of Western Australia, initially as a construction and design engineer, progressing to the position of Head of the Materials Engineering Branch. In 1989 Geoff joined Coffey and progressed to be a Senior Principal. Although he describes himself as retired, Geoff continues to actively contribute to geotechnical engineering as a consultant.

His specialist knowledge is in soft soil ground improvement, construction issues, use of natural materials for low-cost road pavements and forensic investigations. Geoff has been a driving force in developing design standards for WA pavements since 1979. He has also contributed to pavement research nationally through involvement in Austroads projects over many years. Geoff was also a founding member of the WA Pavements Group of the AGS. Throughout his career, Geoff has been an active member of the AGS WA Chapter and in 1987 held the role of Chapter Chair.

Geoff has contributed over 30 publications on a wide range of geotechnical subjects. He has developed and published the design method used for soakage basins in WA. Geoff and co-authors published the paper, “The use of naturally occurring materials for pavements in Western Australia”, that was selected as the Australian Geomechanics Award for best paper in 2015.