Dam Notice
Due to recent heavy rainfall in Far North Queensland, Koombooloomba Dam is now spilling.
Vessels on the dam are restricted to 4hp or less.
Dam Notice
A career built on sliding door moments
While completing an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at the University of Queensland, Nic got to work closely with engineering students and researchers.
The job opened his eyes to the world of engineering, so naturally the next step was to begin university studies in engineering.
Having completed his apprenticeship and continuing to study at university part-time, Nic accepted a role with Mount Isa Mines – but instead of working in the mine, he was assigned to the power station that supported the mine – so beginning his career in the energy sector.
“This power station was a 100-year-old gas-fired boiler (converted from coal) and steam turbine. It was so old it was heritage listed!” he said.
“This was a great learning experience for me. A lot of the station operations involved manual adjustments – people would give me directions over a two-way radio and I would adjust a valve or lift the dampers until we achieved the desired result.”
Moving to Dalby
Nic’s next move was to Dalby, taking on the role of Operations and Maintenance Supervisor at Alinta Energy’s Braemar Power Station. This was another sliding door moment for him. Alinta had just signed a $130M contract to implement major turbine upgrades across five open cycle gas turbines – three of which were at Braemar Power Station – and Nic volunteered for the role of managing the planned outages.
“This gave me a fantastic grounding in outage planning and implementation. There was a lot of learning as we went. Each outage is unique – it comes with its own challenges and problems to solve.”
Nic joined CleanCo early in 2022 as Outage Manager for our southern sites – Swanbank gas-fired power station and Wivenhoe pumped hydro – coordinating planned major overhauls to help ensure these assets continue to operate safely and reliably.
For the past three years Nic has been focused on Unit 2 Overhaul at Wivenhoe and the C5 Major Inspection at Swanbank – an $80M project that saw an additional 360 people working on the site at the peak of the project.
“C5 was the biggest outage program of work ever undertaken at Swanbank E and CleanCo’s biggest ever Asset Operations led project. It was a fantastic project to manage and be part of. I am grateful for the support of the site team and to work for an organisation that prioritises safety and reliability, allowing our teams to perform maintenance to a high standard.”
Nic says the role of Outage Manager combines his technical knowledge and people skills.
“For me, it’s the perfect role. I get exposure to interesting challenges and to work with passionate, experienced people across the business to ensure a good outcome for the site and the organisation.
“It’s great to know I am supporting the reliability and safety of our assets, which is good for CleanCo and our teams and also good for Queensland.”