Peter Waggitt IEng CEnv MIAgrE

After an initial degree in Soil Science from Reading University Peter went on to research revegetation of colliery waste at York University.  His first real job was with a firm of consulting civil engineers where he worked on land and water resource inventory as well as irrigation and drainage matters and rural development overseas. When water wells had to be drilled in Afghanistan in 1973 the team drove three brand new Land Rovers overland as the only way to guarantee having transport on site. A great adventure although pretty well all the roads were sealed by then. Tours in Swaziland and Malaysia and Egypt followed; working in agricultural consultancy;  eventually ending up in Brunei, with Shell,  to teach Ag Eng  including developing the Brunei National Diploma in Ag Eng - designing the teaching workshop at the Training Centre, writing the syllabus and getting the course validated by the then BTEC authorities in UK. The course ran successfully for a number of years, even after Peter had moved on.

A move to Australia in 1987 extended from an initial  two year contract to help oversee regulation of environmental issues in uranium mining in the Northern Territory ( NT) to become a new career – environmental management and regulation of uranium and other naturally radioactive materials. This has included 17 years with the Australian Government. That role expanded to include setting up an EPA for the Indian Ocean Territories of Christmas Island(CI)  and the Cocos Keeling Islands (CKI).   CKI was fascinating with more coconut trees than you would think possible. On CKI  there was the matter of sorting out  the impacts of decades of unregulated phosphate mining whilst dealing with modern resort developments, a national park and 160 million red crabs who were a protected species but wandered everywhere!  It also included working on a major remediation programme at a copper mine in Tasmania that had significant issues with acid metalliferous drainage. This was followed by seven years with the International Atomic Energy  Agency in Vienna from 2004 until 2011.

The main tasks in Vienna were to develop programmes for the remediation  of the uranium mining operations in the Central Asian republics (abandoned when the former Soviet Union collapsed around 1990) and to assist member states who wanted to stat uranium mining as a way to get into the nuclear power market. Both programmes involved a lot of travel and a large number of training courses to be organised and delivered. Peter also helped run a number of conferences and wrote a number of documents as well as participating in developing standards and safety guides.

Seven years in Vienna were followed by a return to the NT to become the NT Government Director of Mining Compliance for eight years. This was an enforcement role looking after all mining operations in the NT including uranium, gold, zinc, lead, silver, manganese and aluminium  primarily; also exploration, quarrying and working with others on legacy mine remediation. Peter has worked in 71 countries, resided in 8 and visited 95 in total.  IAgrE has been with me for 50 years  since the Afghan days and the network of contacts and data sources has proven invaluable.  Now semi retired  sitting on committees for Standards Australia and as an assessor and auditor of professional  standards registrations in the Australian mining industry.