AGM, Chair’s Address, Annual Dinner and Guest Speaker

Jeremy Barber & Stephen J. Gallagher

The Victorian Chapter of the Australian Geomechanics Society invite you to their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 25 November, followed by their Annual Dinner. During the AGM the outgoing chair Jeremy Barber will give a presentation and we are proud to welcome Associate Professor Stephen Gallagher of the University of Melbourne to talk to us as we dine.

This event is sponsored by Surefoot and GHD.

Outgoing Chair’s Address:

The World’s Most Liveable City and its Future Geotechnical Challenges

Jeremy Barber, GHD (Team Leader, Victoria – Geology, Geophysics and Geotechnical, Principal Geotechnical Engineer)

Abstract

Melbournians take much pride each year about being named the “world’s most liveable city”, however when we look at sustainability index, Melbourne sits lower down the list. With ongoing population growth and continual urban sprawl amongst a host of issues facing big cities like Melbourne, can the city continue to hold its status as world’s liveable city and improve on its standing in the sustainability stakes? If so, what are the infrastructure projects that will help achieve this?

The chairs address will take a speculative look at the types of projects we might see in the coming years and the associated geotechnical challenges. These would include transport projects in increasing complex urban environments, changes to the way electricity is produced and therefore distributed and potential sea level rises. The talk will draw analogies and experiences from European cities, where many cities feature high in sustainability rankings as they have already established a good balance between increasing population densities and sustainability focused cities.

Jeremy is presently working with GHD where he heads up their geotechnical group and is contributing geotechnical input to a number of current and upcoming transport infrastructure projects. During his career to date he has worked on a range of major Infrastructure projects including Regional Rail Link, Adelaide’s South Road Superway, Victoria’s Sugarloaf Pipeline and Desalination Plant, the now “cancelled/postponed” East West Link and a range of mining and power infrastructure projects.

Guest Presentation:

International Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions 346 and 356: Deep Sea Drilling in an International Environment

Associate Professor Stephen J. Gallagher, University of Melbourne (School of Earth Sciences)

Abstract

Australian and New Zealand are members of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), part of 26 nations that deploy state-of-the-art ocean drilling technology to find answers to global scientific questions. IODP advances the scientific understanding of the Earth and unifies the international research community to explore Earth’s last frontier, by drilling deep into the sediments and rocks beneath the seabed.

In the past three years Stephen Gallagher has spent four months on two IODP expeditions. He sailed in 2013 on expedition 346 (Asian Monsoon, Alaska to South Korea) as a member of the scientific party (palaeontologist) and in 2015 on Expedition 356 (Indonesian Throughflow, Perth to Darwin) as a co-chief scientist.

Each expedition had an international team of 30 scientists from Japan, Korea, US, UK, France, Brazil, China, Germany, Australia and Holland that worked on 12 hours shifts 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the duration. Each expedition was supported by 30 technicians and 65 crew with 120 persons on board.

This short presentation will include video highlight of both expeditions and talk about life on board ship and some of the technicalities of drilling deep beneath the earth’s surface on the RS Joides Resolution (pictured) including an explanation of why sea bed drilling matters.

Engineers Australia members participating in AGS technical sessions can record attendance on their personal CPD logs. Members should refer to Engineers Australia CPD policy for details on CPD types, requirements and auditing guidelines.