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Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Appendix 2: Regional Reports
Report from the Vice-President for Australasia
M.C.R. Davies
ISSMGE Vice-President for Australasia
1
INTRODUCTION.
This report contains a summary of the highlights of the
activities of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS) and
the New Zealand Geotechnical Society (NZGS) for the period
since the last Council meeting in Alexandra in October 2009.
1
AUSTRALIAN GEOMECHANICS SOCIETY (AGS)
In recent years the AGS has grown to be the largest Technical
Society within Engineer’s Australia. Its membership currently
stands at 1381 and of these members 900 (65%) are affiliated to
ISSMGE. In October 2009 Graham Scholey was elected as
AGS National Chair and Sam MacKenzie as Vice Chair &
Treasurer. Dr Mark Jaksa has been appointed to serve on the
National Committee as AGS Liaison Officer for the ISSMGE.
The AGS is represented by Chapters in the States and
Territories of the Commonwealth of Australia. Each of these
Chapters has its own regional committee and in the last two
year each has organised a vibrant technical programme. A major
feature of these programmes is series of lecture tours by
distinguished geotechnical engineers. These have included
Rankine lecturers Professor Tom O’Rourke and Professor Chris
Clayton together with former president of the International
Association of Engineering Geology, Professor Paul Marinos,
and Serge Varaksin, Co-Chair of ISSMGE TC17 on Ground
Improvement.
Australian Geomechanics is the “official” journal of the
AGS, which is published quarterly, in March, June, September
and December, by the Institution of Engineers Australia. It is
edited and produced by the Australian Geomechanics Society
and is distributed to all members of the AGS. At the end of
2009 the AGS published a DVD which contains copies of all
papers published in Australian Geomechanics from 1971 to end
of 2009.
The Australian Geomechanics Society has recently
commenced an 18 month preliminary study to consider the
content for an updated national standard for Site Investigations.
The study is being led by Stuart Masterson of the Western
Australian Chapter. The preliminary study will aim to identify
the components of the standard that need to be updated. This
work will be carried out before a decision is made about
whether to manage the update through Standards Australia.
The previous major project conducted by the AGS that was
aimed at giving benefits to AGS members and the community
was the revised Landslide Risk Management guidelines and the
new “Geoguides”. These were published in the Australian
Geomechanics Journal in March 2007. In the first half of 2011,
through its network of local Chapters, the AGS supported a
National Landslide Risk Management Roadshow. The
roadshow (which became known as the “Risky Roadshow”)
provided information to a large number of local government
officers and practitioners about the Landslide Risk Management
guidelines and geoguides.
The AGS has instituted an Engineering Geology course. This
is designed for engineering geologists and geotechnical
engineers involved in civil and mining projects who have a
working knowledge of geology and wish to develop their
engineering geological skills. The course ran for the first time in
Wollongong 2010 and the is due to be held again in late 2011.
The AGS has a number of awards to recognise exceptional
performance of its members. The following awarded have been
made since the last report to Council:
• EH Davis Memorial Lecture (2009) - Professor Buddhima
Indraratna, University of Wollongong, whose lecture was
entitled “Recent Advances in the Application of Vertical
Drains and Vacuum Preloading in Soft Soil Stabilization”.
• Geotechnical Practitioner of The Year Award (2010) -
Andrew Leventhal, GHD Geotechnics, for his significant
contribution to the practice of the geotechnical profession
and the Australian Geomechanics Society over an
extended period.
• Trollope Award (2010) - Dr Shazzad Hossain, University
of Western Australia, for his work on spud-can
penetration for offshore jack-up rigs.
2
NEW ZEALAND GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY (NZGS)
In recent years the NZGS has seen a steady rise in membership.
The last four years has seen an increase of 20% in the number
of members, bringing this to 760 of whom 440 (58%) are
members of the ISSMGE. These are very high numbers relative
to the population of New Zealand (4.4 million) and, possibly,
reflect the increased requirement for geotechnical engineers in a
geologically active developed region of the world.
The Chair of the NZGS Management Committee from 2009
to 2011 was Philip Robins. His successor is David Burns who
was, in turn, succeeded as Vice-Chair & Treasurer by Gavin
Alexander. The society has six branches located throughout the
country each of which has its own programme of technical
events. This includes a range of international speakers, who
usually present their lecture or deliver a short course in a
number of centres. Recent international presenters include: Dr
Chris Haberfield (August 2009); Clyde Baker presenting his
Terzaghi Lecture (November 2009); Professor Wong Kai Sin
(November/December 2009); Professor Antonio Gens (May
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