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Entura Director reflects on diversity and inclusion at ANCOLD 2024

28 November, 2024

A group of Entura’s dams professionals attended the 2024 ANCOLD Conference in Adelaide in November. Richard Herweynen, Entura’s Technical Director Water, reflected on how the demographic mix of ANCOLD attendees has changed over his many years of attending the conference and what more the sector can do to foster the greatest array of talent.  

“I have always enjoyed seeing ANCOLD continue to evolve, and the last few years have been no exception,” said Richard. “I can certainly say that the demographic at my first ANCOLD conference in Sydney in 1998 was very different from the more diverse cohort in Adelaide in 2024!” 

Richard was involved in the development of the original strategic plan and launch of ANCOLD’s ‘Young Professionals’ in 2010-11, and he was “amazed to see how dynamic and healthy this group is now”.  

“I was excited to hear about the rebranding of this group to ‘Emerging Professionals’ and to hear about the group’s planned initiatives to support up-and-coming engineers, such as Entura’s talented emerging professionals including Kate Hammerton and Sammy Gibbs,” he said. 

Another ANCOLD initiative launched at the 2024 conference was the inaugural Women in Large Dams (WILD) breakfast.  

“It was inspiring to hear from the panel of women leaders and to hear their advice to individuals, organisations and the profession as a whole,” said Richard. 

“I noted how at the individual level there was a lot of encouragement to women to be bold, say yes to new opportunities, embrace their difference, seek out mentors, and mentor others. But it was also important for all of us gathered at ANCOLD to reflect on how much our how our organisations must continue the effort to create safe and inclusive spaces for women to thrive in their careers, make it easier to shape a manageable work/life balance and juggle caring responsibilities, and achieve greater representation of women in leadership and senior technical roles – things we’re working hard to achieve at Entura.”  

Richard was also impressed by a panel discussion at the conference that featured three recent migrants to Australia who are now working in the dam industry.  

“This was another important conversation for ANCOLD to start and for each of our organisations and us as individuals to continue,” said Richard. “The session made me particularly aware of the sense of professional isolation that many new migrants experience.” 

Reflecting on the session, Richard noted the following actions for those keen to support greater cultural diversity and inclusion in their workplaces: 

• Make an effort to talk to a range of people at these sorts of events. 

• Encourage networking, buddy systems and catch-ups to break down barriers. 

• Be mindful, aware and patient. 

• Try to help new migrants understand Australian standards. 

• Encourage international engineers to share their experiences and international projects with the wider team and industry. 

• Continue to create safe and supportive environments for people from diverse backgrounds.  

Richard was pleased to see ANCOLD embrace a vision of greater diversity and inclusion in the dams sector.  

“With the great engineering and scientific challenges facing the world, our profession needs to make every effort to attract, develop and retain talented people from every walk of life,” he said, “and diversity and inclusion doesn’t happen by accident.”