The 84th Victorian Water Industry Operations Conference and Exhibition hosted nearly 1300 people from across the water industry, including a contingent of New
Zealand operators for the first time since 2019. Held at the Bendigo Exhibition Centre on 29 & 30 March, the excellent attendance is testament to the strategic
importance of this event to the Victorian water industry.
David Norman from Melbourne Water representing this year’s conference Hosts in Melbourne Water, South Gippsland Water, Wannon Water and Grampians
Wimmera Mallee Water delivered a very insightful Welcome to the assembled delegates. David talked about the positives that the Water Corporations receive
through the development of their operational staff from supporting them to attend events such as this.
Sarah Thomson from Goulburn Valley Water provided the Opening Address and talked about the move towards operating in a circular economy and the potential future impacts on operations. Sarah described some ways that the water industry can play a significant role in the transition of communities to a lower carbon, circular economy.
Mike Rankin from Water Training Australia then delivered the Keynote Address providing a well-received insight into managing the massive floods in the Torrumbarry area in 2022 and how the everyone worked together to maintain and manage their levee system to protect their community.
The PASS Award was presented at the Wednesday Meet the Exhibitors dinner to Sean Doyle from Barwon Water. It recognised his project which installed an underwater marina dock light into the DAF plant backwash launder of the filter, allowing the operator to observe in real time when the backwash water quality was clear and, in a way, become the turbidity and colour analyser.
The Wednesday dinner included speed painter Brad Blaze who astounded attendees with his skill. Importantly, thanks to some keen bidding from attendees, the
paintings were auctioned off for charity and raised an additional $1,800 which was donated to Water Aid. At the Awards Dinner held on Thursday evening, Scott
Johnson from Greater Western Water won the 2023 Victorian Operator of the Year award. The Young Operator of the Year was Bailey Andersen from Goulburn Valley Water and Gavin Overy from East Gippsland Water was awarded the Network Operator of the year.
Others recognised at the Dinner included Troy Leyden from Fitzroy River Water who won the Award for the Best Paper by an Operator while the Best Poster Award was presented to Li Lau from Melbourne Water.
The Hepburn Prize for the Best Paper Overall at the conference was awarded to Elise O’Keeffe from Goulburn Valley Water who talked about the response to the floods in October 2022.
The event included a comprehensive exhibition with just under 200 expo sites filled by around 160 companies who exhibited the latest in equipment, services, and
process technologies available to the water industry.
We were excited to be joined by the Kiwi contingent and we also had a group of operators join us from Tasmania. They all got into the spirit of the event and participated fully.
The team from UAMTEC, a first time exhibitor at the conference, were awarded the Ron Bergmeier Award for the Best Exhibition Site.
The conference again hosted the Ixom Best Tasting Tap Water in Victoria with the entry from Watersure, the Victorian Desal Plant being judged the winner.
The Victorian water Main Tapping Competition was held with a great roll up of spectators to support the contestants on both days. The Victorian operators were
shown up in the end by the TasWater Team of Cameron Lusk and Lynden Thurstan who beat all comers to win the award with the fastest time. Coliban Water,
Reece Civil and Viadux supported the competition with $1000 donated to the Cancer Council on behalf of the competition winners.
With a drone as the prize in the raffle, everyone dug deep for charity raising $2,500 with all proceeds going to WaterAid.