Weld Australia announces winners of Queensland and NT Excellence Awards

Weld Australia announced the winners of its 2023 Queensland and Northern Territory Welding Excellence Awards at an event at Indooroopilly Golf Club on Wednesday night.

According to a statement from the welding industry peak body, the Excellence Awards are the most prestigious event on the industry’s calendar, and celebrate world-class work being undertaken locally by welders, fabricators and educators.

According to Weld Australia’s CEO, Geoff Crittenden, “This year’s winners feature businesses and individuals committed to the pursuit of innovative, sustainable solutions that minimise risk and maximise project outcomes, as well as initiatives designed to increase the breadth and depth of skilled labour within the welding sector.

A list of winners is reproduced below.

Munster Services Group won the 2023 Company of the Year Award – Fabrication

Munster Services Group was established in 2008 and delivers turnkey engineering, fabrication and maintenance solutions across infrastructure, water, utilities, food processing, and building sectors.

The Runner Up in this category was RUD Australia.

Bridgeman won the 2023 Indigenous Company of the Year Award

Bridgeman is a 26-year-old Supply Nation-certified Indigenous company, specialising in advanced metal manufacturing and construction, for clients such as Tier 1 companies like John Holland, BESIX Watpac, Lendlease, CPB, and Boeing.

Coregas won the 2023 Company of the Year Award – Supplier

Coregas is the only Australian industrial gases company, has been operating since 1974, and manufactures gases locally and distribute throughout Australia and New Zealand via a network of branches and third parties.

Monadelphous won the 2023 Health and Safety in Welding Award

ASX-200 company Monadelphous provides multidisciplinary construction, maintenance and industrial services to many of the largest companies in the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Rockpress won the 2023 Project of the Year Award for the Gunungia Drive Shared Pathway Bridge

Rockpress is a privately-owned Queensland-based manufacturer established in 1972. Its Gunungia Drive Shared Pathway Bridge project presented a unique challenge: constructing a 35-metre bridge within the confines of a workshop designed to handle small to medium assemblies in purpose built welding bays. Rockpress developed jig structures that ensured precision, drastically reduced distortion and minimised misalignment of members caused by possible variances in the section profiles.

BHP won the 2023 Training and Education – Organisation Award

BHP was recognised for its in-house training program, the BHP FutureFit Academy.

FutureFit Academy delivers high-scale, modular 12-month Maintenance Traineeships and 24-month Trade Apprenticeships, and it significantly increases female and First Nations representation in mining and trades.

Clayton Dunne from TAFE QLD Skills Tech and Dave Holak from TAFE QLD East Coast were joint winners of the 2023 Training and Education – Individual Teacher Award

Clayton Dunne is a vocational teacher with TAFE Qld SkillsTech in the Metal Fabrication team, and took a lead role in preparing welders for the Rheinmetall project, qualifying them against the ISO9606 and ensuring they were well prepared for the DIN standard test in Germany.

Dave Holak has over 25 years’ experience and recently gained his International Welding Inspectors qualification. He has spearheaded initiatives to introduce innovative teaching techniques, integrate technology into the curriculum, and establish industry partnerships for experiential learning opportunities.

Brittany Hague from JRS Manufacturing Group was named the 2023 Young Trades Person of the Year

Brittany Hague is an apprentice boilermaker at JRS Manufacturing Group in Toowoomba, and commenced her apprenticeship in January 2022.

Peter Keubler from BOC was presented a special CEO’s Award for services to the Australian welding industry

Peter Keubler is a professional welding engineer and metallurgist with over 40 years’ experience in the construction, fabrication and welding products industries, a qualified International Welding Engineer with a degree in metallurgy, and has held management, technical and consulting positions with a wide range of companies. He is currently employed by BOC as Technical Manager.

The winners of the 2023 Welding Professional of the Year Award

Trevor Vonhoff from CS Energy won the Welding Coordinator category; Andrew Gray from Hivue won the Welding Supervisor category; and joint winners in the Welding Inspector category were Paul Court from Maxcon Industries and Robart Jacob from Melco Engineering.

Picture: credit Weld Australia