Dear Members,
Thank you to all that attended the ACLCA member Xmas Party last Thursday evening. It was a fun night and great opportunity to wind down and catch up.
The 2025 Damien Morris Award for Industry Excellence recipient was announced at the Xmas Party. This was the fifth year that we celebrated the career and achievements of the late Damien Morris. Damien holds a special place in our industry here in Qld, not only as a respected practitioner and Auditor but also as our former ACLCA president and committed mentor to early career professionals (ECPs). Sadly, we lost Damien in 2020 and he has been greatly missed since then.
In honour of Damien’s legacy ACLCA Qld and GHD will continue to sponsor the Damien Morris Award for Industry Excellence. This award carries a substantial prize and is intended to support the career development of the ECP award recipient.
This year we were excited to receive 5 sensational ECP nominations. They all should be very proud of their nominations…a great achievement!!
- Adriana Santivanez Olazo – Prensa
- Annaleise Murdoch – GHD
- Sam Watt – Aurecon
- Rebecca Lauterbach – JBS&G
- Charlie Kittel – Butler Partners
Whilst there is only one winner, ACLCA would like to congratulate all nominees and acknowledge the extremely high standard of the submissions. The CLM industry is fortunate to have such amazing young talent.
The judging panel were very impressed and encouraged at the quality of the submissions.
Damien would have been proud of the nominated cohort as they are a demonstration of our industry’s future leaders.
Judging was very difficult due to the standard of the submissions, and we thank all the judges for their efforts in making this difficult decision.
ACLCA extend our congratulations to Sam Watt – Aurecon, as the 2025 recipient of the Damien Morris Award for Industry Excellence. Congratulations Sam!!
2025 nominees (meeting ECP category) are strongly encouraged to consider re submitting next year and future years, and those in earlier stages of their careers will have opportunity to gain more demonstrated experience.
Member companies are also encouraged to consider nominating their fabulous ECPs in 2026 who are at any stage of their career however ensuring all relevant criteria is met in the submissions.
Through finding solutions to the world’s contamination problems one project at a time, investment of time and effort in developing this talent and challenging the regulatory environment within which we operate, we hope the award will be a continuing recognition of the legacy of Damien’s contribution, to support the growth of talented and pragmatic contaminated land professionals into the future.
Sam Watt – 2025 DMEA Recipient
