BC (Skip) Tonkin
TONKIN, BC (Skip), AM HonFIEAust CPEng (1925-2012)
Skip was born and raised in Wallaroo, South Australia. He attended the Adelaide Technical High School and the South Australian School of Mines and Industry (now The University of South Australia) from which he received the Graduate Diploma of Civil Engineering in 1955.
On turning 18 Skip Tonkin joined the RAAF as aircrew and served in the South West Pacific area until his discharge at the end of the war. He continued his engineering studies and in 1948 joined the City of Woodville as Assistant Engineer. His establishment of the consulting firm BC Tonkin & Associates in 1955 cemented his life’s future direction as the firm grew its practice in civil structural, marine, traffic, environment, transport, and local government engineering, as well as in meteorology.
He became President of the South Australia Division in 1983 and National President of The Institution of Engineers Australia in 1989. In this role he worked to increase the Institution’s profile to reflect the pervasiveness of engineering in almost all fields of endeavour and the role it should play on issues of national importance.
Skip Tonkin built a successful South Australian enterprise by being innovative, by developing new solutions to local problems based upon world best practice and by building partnerships with clients based upon mutual trust and respect. Throughout his life he has been an exemplary member of the engineering profession at local, state and national levels.
He was added to the Engineers Australia South Australian Hall of Fame in 2012.
