Dean leads WSP’s national Water Team who are distinguished for their innovative, sustainable, and client-focused work.
His water career began in 1990 developing long-term water supply strategies for regional communities. From then until now, the consistent part of his story has been the theme of water and a drive to keep communities healthy.
How did you come to work for WSP?
After starting my career at the Queensland Water Resources Commission and then Brisbane City Council, in 1994 I joined PPK Consulting who later became WSP.
I was based in the Brisbane office of 50 people and was working on managing water on mining sites. I did that for six or seven years primarily on projects in Central Queensland in the coal fields and in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.
At this time, collaborative contracting was emerging and I worked on the first ever alliance project in Queensland - the raising of the Awoonga Dam in Gladstone, Central Queensland. Which then led me to the second alliance project in the state which was the Port of Brisbane Motorway. Following this, I then worked for a few years in the client's office at Gold Coast Water. The project involved master planning for a community that didn’t exist. At the time the Pimpama/ Coomera area was hobby farms and cane farms and now there’s 50,000 houses plus shopping centres and other services.
Any project highlights?
The Port of Brisbane Motorway and the Gold Coast secondment set me up with a collaborative mindset and working within collaborative delivery models. Both projects have shaped me and how we work as a team and with clients. Those early impactful projects were quite pivotal.
I’m proud of our role on the Logan Water and Infrastructure Partnership, a public and private sector partnership involving Logan City Council, WSP, Downer, and Stantec, that has been going for 15 years and we are hopeful will be extended to a 20-year journey. I was there on day one to negotiate us on to the team and it rapidly became the most collaborative environment I've ever worked in. Logan was our first major collaborative water program and now we have 10 around the country. We have delivered many fantastic outcomes for the people of Logan, some extraordinary innovations and connected with the community in a really deep and beneficial way.
What are you most proud of working at WSP?
How we go about our work differentiates us - it’s our client service and their experience. Our team is connected, customer-focused and passionate and this comes through in all our dealings internally and externally.
Some of that passion is because our team is largely made up of people who are drawn to the sector because they feel they are doing good and making a difference. Talking with friends and new acquaintances about sewerage can be a bit off-putting, so when people ask about what I do for work I say: ‘I keep you safe – I provide clean drinking water, and take your sewerage away so it doesn’t harm you, our community or the environment.’ That normally gets them thinking about water engineering in a different light.
How has community attitude to water changed and what are the priorities for the sector over the coming years?
Pre the millennial drought in the early 2000s, the average person used 300+ litres of water a day and now they use 150 litres a day. For example, in Australia we have introduced extremely efficient, low volume toilets that use one and a half litres of water per flush, whereas some countries still use 15 litres per flush. We don’t usually see people hosing their driveways anymore, so there is community awareness about being careful with water.
The next step for us as a society is moving towards a circular economy, getting used to the idea of recycled water and comfortable that potable re-use is perfectly safe. Other countries around the world are already doing this, such as Singapore.
We need to start having conversations about this and utilising billion-dollar water recycling infrastructure that has already been built but we aren’t bold enough to start using. We are generally a dry country, and this is our opportunity.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
My daughters play netball and I’ve played netball with them and now I coach and umpire netball. My wife is also the Vice President of our local club. So, we’re netball mad for six months of the year when the season is on! I like to keep fit so I cycle and I’ve taken up running. I enjoy gardening and cooking and I love watching sport with my daughters.
Having a good work/life balance is a very important factor in maintaining a long career and we’re very lucky to have a culture that promotes wellbeing at WSP. I love taking advantage of our leave purchasing policy so I can go on holidays with my wife and daughters - whilst they are still happy to be seen with mum and dad!
Find out more about WSP's Water services here.
