It may seem amazing to you but up until mid-2021 in New South Wales anybody could call themselves an engineer. You could say you’re a structural engineer and undertake building designs, issue certifications and legally there was nothing wrong with that. Individuals, companies or council authorities might have picked up on that but plenty didn’t.

Imagine if anyone could call themselves a medical doctor and undertake procedures. Some of them might be very good but you would also end up with a load of imbecilic butchers.

That was the potential in the engineering field!

That’s not the case in other states-in Victoria and Queensland you have long had to register as an engineer to practice. I guess, in New South Wales, the government was “just getting rid of red tape“.

Thankfully, in New South Wales there has been a change in the wind. This has come about from the Opal Tower and Mascot Tower debacles along with the problem with flammable cladding. The cladding problem was expressed in Australia with several fires that could have been catastrophic and, at its worst, with the Grenfell Tower Disaster in the UK.

So, as of July 2021, you have to be a member of the professional body Engineers Australia and registered as a structural engineer to practice on class two buildings (apartment buildings) in New South Wales.

WTF? Only apartment buildings??? That means any numbskull can continue to claim they are an engineer, designing houses, industrial structures, office buildings, hospitals, nursing homes etc.

Rest assured that Paul Davis, Principal Engineer of Project X is a registered in the Civil and Structural Engineer with the Engineers Australia and has been a member of the Institution since 1993.