Decades after Docklands was built, getting into and out of the commercial side during rush hour is difficult, and getting on a tram is almost impossible. Similarly, there’s still no direct connection from the residential areas on the North side of the harbour to the commercial areas on the South. For public transport users the only way out is into the city crush.

Now the design for Fishermans Bend is focused on making the existing crush worse. The only tram route out of the ‘employment zone’ (dotted blue lines) passes through Docklands and into the CBD.  Add to this the fact that Packenham, Cranbourne, and Sunbury trains won’t even go through Southern Cross once the Metro Tunnel is open and the ‘orange’ Metro 2 underground trainline is 40+ years away, a rethink is needed. 

The overlooked fact is 80% of the tram tracks exist for a direct link between the Fishermans Bend ‘employment zone’ and the new ANZAC Station at the Domain – follow the yellow brick road.  Fill in the missing links and everyone wanting to travel on the Packenham or Cranbourne trains, or to the SE using the St Kilda Rd trams can bypass the city crush and save time. 

Connectivity from Docklands to anywhere but the CBD was a disaster for the first couple of decades and getting into the CBD was not easy.  Lots of improvement projects later it’s still far from good.  Why is the government making the same mistake in Fishermans Bend? Most people working in the new ‘employment zone’ will not be living in the CBD – so why is the planning focused on cramming everyone through the already overcrowded CBD?

This is a Melbourne grumble……  For more on the Fishermans Bend project see: https://www.fishermansbend.vic.gov.au/

For the last few days, I have been reflecting on winning the Wayne Wilson Award for Lifetime Contribution in Project Controls at the Project Controls Expo Australia held at the MCG, Melbourne (14-15th Nov): https://projectcontrolexpo.com/aus/ and wondering how much of life is crafted and how much is serendipity? See a brief video of the 2023 Awards event.  

From a very early age I had decided to follow my Great Grandad, Grandad, Father, and Uncles and become a builder – building things is fun. Then at college in 1970 I became interested in project controls and CPM scheduling (mainframe computers were really cool things to make work).  So, after graduating, my career choices were always bent towards project controls on building projects and working for either project controls consultancies, or building companies.

But, ending up in Australia was pure serendipity! In 1972, I had a really good job with a major UK builder and only knew of Australia as the ‘old adversary’ in the Ashes cricket tests. I also used to crew for a friend in his Flying Fifteen (2 person) sailing boat at the Medway Yacht Club and we were doing quite well in the Sunday points series. He had to go away for a weekend and asked me to race the boat to help keep our aggregate points score up.  No problem, I just needed to find a crew. One of the people I would normally ask (a 16 stone London Fireman) was at the club, but the wind was very light – I asked John if he knew someone who weighed a bit less and he introduced me to an Australian girl accompanying him and his wife for a day at the club. A slow race on a sunny day (in England….), talking, exchange of contact details, falling in love, and in 1974 I was following Clo to Australia to get married. Some 20+ years later I realized I was supporting Australia in the cricket (and still do).  

The other factor that is continuing to shape my development is the help, encouragement, support, and challenges I have received; from family, friends, colleagues, mentors, and honorable adversaries. No one achieves anything alone. The people who have helped me over the decades are far too many to name but a lot of memories have been flooding into my thoughts over the last few days – sadly, in many cases it is too late to express my gratitude. For the rest I need to be more open to expressing the gratitude I feel – thank you!

So, to answer the question posed at the start of this post, luck (or random chance) seems to have a significant impact on everyone’s life (it is better to be born lucky than rich), but everyone also has the opportunity to play the hand fate deals them, their way, to achieve their objectives. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, cause unnecessary upset, and fail to properly acknowledge people. Correcting the wrongs, and recovering from failures, is as much a key to growth as having clear objectives and working to be successful; but achieving both of these needs help. The good news is everyone can both help, and be helped, by the people around them, you just need to open up enough to let it happen.  

My lifetime is not over yet! And, the one thing I seem to be reasonably good at is communicating and writing about project management and project controls in a clear and easily understood way.  The world needs good project managers and controls people and with luck I will still be publishing blogs and papers for many years to come. When I started writing and publishing papers and articles there were a range of complex drives, in large part writing is the way I think and learn – but at no time until the last couple of months did I expect this interest to lead to me receiving a ‘lifetime achievement award’. For more on the citation for the award, see more on the PGCS New Page.

The resources at https://mosaicprojects.com.au/PMKI.php is a library of most of my writings to date (and continues to grow), almost all of the papers are free to use under the Creative Commons License which means you can copy, adapt and use the materials in any way that helps you and your career.

Over the years, we have written about the project and its value to Sydney, Australia, and the world on numerous occasions some of the key publications are:

• Avoiding the successful failure (2007)
• Rethinking Construction – Stakeholder Management in the Construction Industry (2007)
• Success and Stakeholders (2009)
• What price should you pay for perfection? (2014)
• Understanding Design – The challenge of informed consent (2014)
• Defining Project Success using Project Success Criteria (2017)

These blogs and papers identify three overriding issues:

1. The project ran massively over time and over budget during construction.
2. To save costs the project was taken over by a government committee which redesigned the interior. Politics and cost cutting resulted in a very disappointing interior.
3. The building is an iconic success.

To rectify the internal shortcomings and revitalize the venue the NSW government committed to a $300 million, 10-year program of works in 2012. The improvements were to be carried out based on the venue’s Conservation Management Plan, to ensure the original design intent for the interiors created by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and completed by an Australian architectural team led by Peter Hall was respected.

The final major project in the NSW government’s ‘decade of renewal’ for the landmark, was the complete refurbishment of the concert hall. Following two and a half years of renovations (and $150 million), this venue opened on 20^th July 2022.  All remaining works are expected to be completed ahead of the year of celebrations in 2023 to commemorate the buildings 50th anniversary.

One can only wonder how much could have been saved if Jørn Utzon had been allowed to complete the project in the 1970s without political interference.

We have lived and worked in modern-day South Melbourne for the last 20+ years, so I thought it was time to focus on history closer to home…… using images of maps I’ve found over the years that show the development of our suburb during its relatively short existence.

The Melbourne area looked very different before settlement:

The city of Melbourne* was founded on the North bank of the Yarra River in 1835 generally where the street grid is marked on the map above. Within 20 years, the road pattern for Emerald Hill had been established (now South Melbourne) and the rail lines to Port Melbourne and St. Kilda built.  For more on the construction of the railways see: The First Steam Powered Railway in Australia.

This map shows the area in 1855 but appears to be showing lots, rather then buildings:

A more details 1864 map by H.L. Cox R.N. shows the actual buildings as at that date:

By 1880 tram lines were under construction connecting through to the city:

By 1890 most of the features recognizable today were in place (Albert Park is the location of the Melbourne F1 race each year):

Thirty years later in 1921 the tram network was established. Most of the tram lines are still operational and the railways have been converted to light rail and join the tram network in the city:

Fast forward to 2022 and apart from changes in the municipal boundaries, not much has changed:

And South Melbourne is still a great place to live and work.

* The name Melbourne was chosen by NSW Governor Sir Richard Bourke on his visit in March 1837 overriding a number of other choices. Melbourne was named after the then British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who’s family seat was in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire in the English Midlands. The Derbyshire ‘Melbourne’ is also the birthplace of Thomas Cook, founder of the world-wide travel agency. Viscount Melbourne became a mentor and personal friend of Queen Victoria.

The term algorithm comes from the name of the Persian mathematical genius, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780 – c. 850). Algoritmi is the Latinized version of his name ‘Al-Khwarizmi’. In his lifetime he produced influential works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography.

From the perspective of numbers, Al-Khwarizmi formalised the concepts of the Hindu-Arabic number system we use today, and the decimal point. 12^th century Latin translations of his textbook Algorithmo de Numero Indorum codified the Hindu-Arabic numerals, and introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world. In medieval Latin, algorismus simply meant the decimal number system which became an English word by the 13th Century (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi).

Another of his books, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing was a revolutionary move away from the Greek concept of mathematics which was essentially geometry. It was first text to describe the use of algebra, in an elementary form, for processes such as solving quadratic equations. The book was translated into Latin by Robert of Chester in 1145, and was used until the sixteenth century as the principal mathematical textbook of European universities. The term algebra comes from the title of this book (the word al-jabr meaning completion).

Then some 200 years ago Charles Babbage, known as the father of computing submitted a one-page paper about an invention, The differential machine. With 25,000 different parts, this machine is to all intents the world’s first mechanical computer. Babbage went on to invent the analyzing machine, a general-purpose computer for which mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote what many consider the first algorithm.

However, it wasn’t until the late 19th century that the term algorithm came to mean a set of step-by-step rules for solving a problem. Then in the early part of the 20th Century, Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, worked out how in theory, a machine could follow algorithmic instructions and solve complex mathematics. And the rest is ‘history’.

For more on the history of numbers, calendars and calculations see: https://mosaicprojects.com.au/PMKI-ZSY-010.php#Overview

Saint Expeditus also known as Expedite, is considered the patron saint of urgent causes, he is commemorated by the Catholic Church on 19^th April.

According to tradition, Saint Expeditus was a Roman centurion in Armenia who became a Christian and was beheaded during the Diocletian Persecution in 303 A.D. The day he decided to become a Christian, the Devil took the form of a crow and told him to defer his conversion until the next day. Expeditus stamped on the bird and killed it, declaring, “I’ll be a Christian today!”

Achieving an expeditious completion of difficult challenges (and avoiding procrastination) has been a problem throughout history.  In the past, some have sought the help of Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, and time (the month of January is named after him), others have prayed to St. Expedius, the patron saint of the patron saint of urgent causes, to bring a conclusion to long running issues (particularly law cases). Maybe this could continue today.

While the foregoing outline is accurate, not much else is known about the Saint. His real name is unknown, possibly Elpidius, and there are several legends dealing with the reason his name was changed to be a pun of rapidity, but the most likely explanation is a copyist’s error. But, notwithstanding the doubtful origins of the Saint name, pictures of him were in existence in Germany in the eighteenth century which plainly depicted him as a saint to be invoked against procrastination and we can all do with some help in this regard. Viable alternatives may be St Anthony (Miracles), or St Jude (Lost Causes).

Global Temperature

In developing a theory to explain the ice ages, Svante August Arrhenius (1859 – 1927), a Nobel-Prize winning Swedish scientist developed the formula that is still used to predict the effect of greenhouse gasses.

In 1896, he was the first to use basic principles of physical chemistry to estimate the extent to which increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) will increase Earth’s surface temperature through the greenhouse effect. These calculations led him to conclude that human-caused CO2 emissions, from fossil-fuel burning and other combustion processes, are large enough to cause global warming. 120 years later some idiots still seem to think the concept is a ‘hoax’.

Even earlier, French scientist Claude Pouillet made the first estimate of the solar constant in 1838 and concluded the temperature experienced on the earth’s surface was much higher than could be explained by the sun’s radiation alone and suggested the atmosphere must provide some form of insulation. Arrhenius confirmed this hypothesis and identified the primary cause of the warming effect.

One factor in the Crossrail success has been the focus of the UK government on developing the skills needed to manage major infrastructure projects focused on the Major Projects Authority. This multi-year investment links proactive oversight and reporting, with research, support and training designed to create an organic capability to make major projects work (more on this later). Another is being prepared to ‘think outside of the square’ to solve major challenges – the focus of this post.

The challenge faced by Crossrail (and to a lesser extent Metrorail) is what to do with millions of tonnes of excavated materials when your project is situated under a major city??  The Crossrail solution has been innovative and coincidentally focused on restoring the environment of my youth.

Wallasea Island unloading wharf

Tidal marshlands may not be the scenery of choice for many but the marshes do have a fascination for those of us who grew up playing in and around them. My home and Charles Dickens 150 years earlier were the North Kent marshes.

Pip at the start of Great Expectations: “Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea…”  and elsewhere “The dark flat wilderness, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it… the low leaden line of the river… and the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, the sea…”

The landscape is not quite as bleak as it was (but still comes close in winter). The marshes have been drained and there are hops and orchards where there would once have been a windswept wilderness. But the Kent that Dickens knew can still be glimpsed if you know where to look, including the graves where Pip was first confronted by Magwitch in St. James’ churchyard at Cooling.

Seals at Wallasea

However, what may be seen as less than desirable real-estate to people not born on or near the marshes is essential habitat for a vast range of migratory birds and native wildlife.  Unfortunately, in the 150 years since Dickens, the draining, farming and urbanisation of the lands around the Thames and Medway estuaries has destroyed much of this valuable habitat. But the tide is turning.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has been on the campaign trail for the last 30 years to re-establish the marshlands in North Kent and Essex.  One of their earlier successes was to convert the industrial landscape of the Cliffe marshes (my home village) into Cliffe Pools.

Cliffe Pools before the RSPB project

The chalk hills and clay marshes were home to whiting works from the early 1700s and Portland cement works from 1866. Several years after the last of the factories finally closed, the flooded quarries used to dredge clay and some of the former industrial sites were brought by the RSPB and are now a steadily improving wildlife reserve.

Cliffe Pools after the RSPB project

On the other side of the Thames, the RSPB and Crossrail have combined in to create a new marshland on a massively larger scale.  Wallasea Island in Essex is an on-going project that has used 3 million tonnes of clay from the Crossrail excavations to start the transformation of drained farmland into coastal wetlands and marshes.  Another 10 million tonnes will be required to complete future stages of the project.  The drained farmland was several meters below the high tide level, protected by sea walls (and under increasing threat from rising sea levels); coastal marshes need to be a bit above sea level. Massive amounts of fill were required for the ‘wild coast project’.

Crossrail solved their problem of ‘what to do with millions of tonnes of excavated spoil’ by shipping the materials to Wallasea Island and working with the RSPB to transform the area. A win-win outcome Crossrail were able to use costal shipping to remove the clay from London minimising road haulage and carbon emissions, and they avoided tipping costs from commercial landfill sites. 80% of the materials were transported by water or rail on a tonne per kilometer basis. The RSPB got a head start on a major project to reinstate a major area of coastal marshland and 1000s of birds are getting a new home.

When completed in 2025, the project will have created 148 hectares of mudflats, 192 hectares of saltmarsh, and 76 acres of shallow saline lagoons.

Wallasea Island is a work in progress, but with at least two major tunnelling projects in London still to come, the Thames Tideway sewage scheme and Crossrail2, and the infrastructure in place to take the excavated spoil completion of this project seems likely.

What is of importance form the perspective of this post is the Crossrail project is 65% complete and on time and on budget – being environmentally friendly and effective are not incompatible!  It will be interesting to see what the Metrorail project does with its excavated spoil.

While we’re not sure of the process used to develop the list (the links are mainly to Twitter), it’s great to see Lynda at #12!  And it’s good to know her work promoting stakeholder engagement, effective communication and team development is being recognised globally.

At the beginning of 2015, Australia’s two major organisations focused on delivering ADR services merged.  LEDAR was the larger of the two with a strong emphasis on mediation and conciliation.  IAMA (Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia) was the older body with a history based in Arbitration and Expert Determination, more recently expanded to include Adjudication and Mediation.

Merger talks had occupied the latter part of 2014, culminating in a large majority of the members of both organisations approving the merger which was formalised by the merger and then the hard work of integration began…… A ‘working name’ of LEADR&IAMA was adopted for the merged entity until a process to define a new brand image for the organisation could be worked through.

As readers of this blog will now one of our major themes is stakeholder engagement, change management and communication.  I must say, for an organisation that largely consists of lawyers, augments with engineers, builders and assorted mediators from many disciplines the path to a new name and brand image has been remarkably well managed.

For any organisation, its name and logo are cornerstones of presenting professionally and connecting business, government and the broader community with its members. Dispute resolution through any of the options offered by the merged entity is no different. But rather than jumping to a ‘name’, the board took its members on a journey to find a name that will enable the organisation to promote excellence in dispute resolution and provide an identity for members, the organisation and current and future clients. Professional help was engaged from Uberbrand to help on the journey.

The Board began by brainstorming and collecting 34 different potential names, some contributed by members (including a couple from me). When reviewed, the 34 names varied in their relevance, their effectiveness in conveying the function and purpose of the organisation and their potential appeal to members, the public and allow an appropriate domain name (URL) to be registered.

The next step was a survey of the joint membership looking at opportunities, values and services and growth opportunities. The survey encouraged involvement in the process as well as helping derive a consensus.

From all of this input, the Board members distilled core features of the organisation as follows:

Our members

• Have extraordinary depth and range of experience and expertise
• Work across the full suite of dispute resolution types
• Have reputation, influence and status
• Are highly professional

Our values

• Integrity
• Innovation
• Excellence
• Collaboration
• Diversity

Our methods

• We champion the practice of dispute resolution
• We support members
• We promote excellence in dispute resolution

Our purpose

• Through our members, we provide people with the means to resolve disputes

Our aspiration

• For people to think of the members of our organisation
• For resolution to be embedded in the way that people settle disputes, manage conflicts, make decisions and grow collaborative relationships

From all of this the new name and logo emerged:

​

The name Resolution Institute was chosen for the following reasons:

• the name as a whole, focuses current and future users of dispute resolution to think highly of our members, and conveys the gravitas of both resolution and of the people, our members, who practise dispute resolution
• it contributes to ‘resolution’ being fundamental to the way people settle disputes, manage conflicts, make decisions and grow collaborative relationships
• the word “institute”  encompasses different features of the organisation. Its meanings include, an organisation that is established to promote a cause and also that delivers educational programs. The Board noticed that it is also sometimes used by not-for-profit organisations which have a membership base. In addition, the word “institute” connotes gravitas. For these reasons, the Board chose this word, rather than others such as “association”, “society” or “council”.

The logo was chosen as it represents coming to a resolution from different starting points. The arcs, as parts of a circle, suggest inclusiveness and belonging. As well as resonating with our values:

• the pattern of woven lines reflects collaboration
• the colours represent diversity
• the modern, forward movement conveys innovation
• the clean crisp lines align with integrity, and
• the blend of colours on a clear white background suggest excellence.

The dinner to celebrate IAMA’s 40^th anniversary in a couple of weeks time will be an interesting transition celebrating 40 years of history (for me 30 years of membership), the passing of IAMA and the opening up of a new and interesting future in the development of ADR in Australia. There’s certainly a new and distinctive ‘brand’ in the marketplace.

The re-branding work has a way to go,  contact details:

•  http://www.resolution.institute/