Members were asked to nominate a person, within the BBUGS ‘group’, who they considered had undertaken geotechnical work / investigations worthy of recognition within the 2012 calendar year. Ideally this should be for geotechnical work based in the Bowen Basin, but nominations for members in other mining areas would be considered.

Areas of recognition would include all aspects of operational or academic geotechnical engineering, for example: Consumable development/testing. Operational geotechnical organisation. Monitoring and geotechnical investigations. Procedural / management plan development. Rock Mechanics / ground control research. Education and training. Novel practices. Strata / stress characterisation. Support design.

Awards sub-committee was established to review nominations and decide on a winner. Committee comprised: John Latilla Brian Vorster Paul Cartwright

Proposed medal to be awarded

Unfortunately, the number of nominations received from BBUGS members was low! Only 4 individuals were nominated out of a total of 7 nominations. This was probably due to lack of knowledge of what other engineers are doing.

Runners Up nominations were made for the following three engineers: Peter Craig – Jennmar Joe Hetherington - Megabolt Bill Lawrence – Geowork Engineering

THE WINNER

Mentorship of coal geotechnical engineers ACARP - Underground Committee Member ACARP - strata control task group chair Monitor on 5 strata control research projects Contribution to the establishment of the Centre for Geotechnical Engineering at UQ in Brisbane Continued contribution, dedication & geotechnical support in the industry. Significant contribution to the development of the BBUGS society Coordination of the BBUGS web site, and CPD hrs. Guidance and support of the set up of the Open Cut Geotechnical Society (BBOCGS) For:

DAN PAYNE BBUGS Geotechnical Practitioner of the Year 2012