Chris Warnock
Engineers Australia - Queensland Division Past President 2015
WARNOCK, Chris
FIEAust CPEng
CAREER
Chris graduated with BEng (Civil) from QIT (later QUT) in 1975, after winning an engineering scholarship with Queensland Rail (QR) in 1973. He retired professionally in 2016, some 41 years later, after working 30 years in the public sector; a further 13 years in the private sector; and acquiring further academic qualifications.
Chris’ public sector career was primarily with QR, with secondments to major projects, such as the Merivale Rail Bridge over Brisbane River; a 2-year secondment to Australian Trade Commission (AUSTRADE) in Canberra as Australian Railways Sector Manager; and performing consultancy assignments, including advisory services to the Thai Government on pre-privatisation positioning for the State Railway of Thailand. His QR career was diverse, finishing as Manager of QR/BCC JV (CityTrans) for integrated public transport in SEQ, and inaugural advisory board member to establish TransLink within Queensland Transport.
In 2003 Chris joined Lend Lease to establish and manage a Queensland consultancy business. Chris then continued his private sector career as a consultant, project director, company manager, and company director. Throughout the final 5 years of his career Chris was project director for the various design phases of a greenfield 400km heavy haul railway.
Chris performed numerous industry volunteer roles, including Property Council of Australia (PCA) as Qld Infrastructure Committee Chair (2009-2012) and Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) as Annual Awards Judging Panel (2016-2024), being Head Judge (2018 – 2024). However, his major volunteering commitment was to Engineers Australia (EA), in a range of roles including Qld Transport Panel member (1993 – 2012), Qld Division Committee (2012-2016), Qld Dep President (2014), Qld President (2015), and National Infrastructure Media Spokesperson (2015-2016). He was awarded the EA Queensland President’s medal in 2018.
Presidents Highlights 2015
Whilst EA Qld President in 2015 Chris achieved several significant outcomes, including setting 5 priority policy issues for engineering in Queensland (Infrastructure, Water, Energy, De-skilling in public sectors, and Regional Development); initiating Policy Position Papers for each issue (Chris drafted the first of these for Infrastructure which was published by EA nationally in October 2015); undertaking a state-wide campaign tour to embed EA’s national reform agenda; and playing a key role within the Engineers in Queensland Parliament presentations to advocate the EA agenda. Chris also undertook several briefings of Federal Parliamentary Representatives in Canberra regarding EA’s national infrastructure agenda.
From Chris’ Qld Deputy Presidency to Immediate Past Presidency (2014-16) he represented EA on various State Government planning panels, prior to his EA retirement in 2017.
Sources:
Biography supplied by Chris Warnock 2024
