James Robinson

6.00 am

My morning starts with another 10-minute snooze, before rolling out of bed and straight on to the bike for my morning commute.

7.00 am – Arrive at the office

After a brisk 16 km to work I’m ready for breakfast at my desk whilst getting through my emails and setting out in my head what needs to be done.

7.30 am – Site visit

The working day starts with a trip to one of my sites to set up the Geotech investigations for the next stage of development. This involves meeting the service locator to locate the underground services so we can safely mark out where we can do our drilling. Given the site is currently under construction I need to liaise with the contractor on-site to ensure our work doesn’t interfere with their construction progress.

I also check out the current development (which I had previously been involved in the design), where the site engineer talks me through the progress and quizzes me on what else they need to be doing. The development is a 4 storey retirement village which has to be founded on driven steel piles, to mitigate the risk of liquefaction. The design stage of this development included liquefaction assessment, lateral spread assessment, vertical pile design and lateral pile design.

11.00 am – Design meeting with project Structural engineer

Once back to the office, I get started on a design for one of my other projects. Firstly I give the projects structural engineer a call to discuss a few details and what his thoughts on the project are. The project is for a commercial development which is looking to pedestrianize their private road, by putting in a tunnel. After chatting through the project details with the structural engineer, I get started on the retaining wall design using both WALLAP and excel. 

12:30 pm – Lunch

The lunch break starts with a quick walk around the Domain with the other grads, to catch up on how everyone is and the plans for the weekend. Once back to the office we head upstairs to the café, where I am often getting stick for my ‘basic’ lunches.

1.30 pm – Continued design and report writing

After lunch, I am ready to get back into the design and start to look at different design options that suitable meet the project constraints. After getting a design I am happy with I get started on the report, so I can send the report and the design to the reviewer to be checked.

4.00 pm – Home time

Earlier start means an earlier finish. I’m off home on the bike to get ready for social footy with some work mates. T+T is really good for flexible working, with management trusting you to manage yourself and your working hours.

5.30 pm – 7 pm – aside Footy

I get some food in me and I’m off to ‘social’ footy. After the game I’m typical home to relax and get ready for the next day.