Dozens of engineers recently converged on Rockhampton for CREC2012, this year's Central Region Engineering Conference, hosted and sponsored by CQUniversity.

Other sponsors for the event included professional services firms SMEC, AECOM and Cardno, as well as Ergon Energy, Engineers Australia and the Department of Main Roads.

Participants gather for the first session of the conference

Engineers Australia Chief Executive Stephen Durkin said the conference examined how the industry could provide support in rebuilding communities after disasters. It also examined the shortage of engineers across Australia.

CQUniversity's Dr Preethi Preethichandra, who was chairman of the technical program committee, said CREC2012 was a great success with a wide variety of papers from academia and from industry.

"It had five technical sessions and an Engineers Australia session on professional development. The technical sessions were very interactive and had a good balance between theoretical and implementation aspects," Dr Preethichandra said.

"The Engineers Australia session was very informative and interactive and answered many questions the participants had about future RPEQ (Registered Professional Engineer in Queensland) and CEng (Chartered Engineer) status.

"I'd like to thank the sponsors, authors, presenters, Engineers Australia staff and participants for their contributions to make this event a great success."

  
Keynote speaker, Queensland Reconstruction Authority CEO Graeme Newton  
Dean of Engineering Professor Euan Lindsay