Our team of experts

Technical expertise and a professional approach come together at FIELD Engineers. Meet our leaders.

David Hartigan General Manager at Field Engineers
General Manager

David Hartigan

David Hartigan

BEng (Mech), BBus (Mgt), RPEQ, FIEAust, EngExec, GAICD.

Experience:

More than 20 years in construction, maintenance and consulting.

Key areas of expertise:

Career highlights:

  • Leading a multi-disciplinary consulting engineering business
  • Managing shutdown and construction projects throughout the Bowen Basin on draglines and wash plants
  • Expert opinions were provided on various sites including ship loader boom collapse, tower crane rope failure, and ship loader telescopic chute failure at the coal export terminal.
Jon Halliday Manager – Mining and Projects at Field Engineers
Manager – Mining and Projects

Jon Halliday

Jon Halliday

BEng (Mech), WTIA, Global Minerals Industry Risk Management.

Experience:

Over 25 years in the mining industry.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Construction and maintenance shutdowns
  • Draglines
  • Shovels
  • Washplants.

Career highlights:

  • Engineering support, project management and planning of dragline and shovel shutdowns for BMA
  • A critical review of BMA shutdown schedules to reduce schedule duration by 15- 20%
  • Developing innovative survey and alignment techniques for heavy industrial use – up to a 3-week reduction in shutdown timeframes.
Matt Doidge Manager – Commercial at Field Engineers
Manager – Commercial

Matt Doidge

Matt Doidge

BEng (Mech) (Hons).

Experience:

Over 20 years in the mining industry.

Key areas of expertise:

Career highlights:

  • Peak Downs mine – Mine Industrial Area (MIA) upgrades
  • Developing commercial systems in a multi-disciplined engineering business
  • Leading the quality assurance focus area of the firm.
Desmond Searle Manager – Engineering at Field Engineers
Manager – Engineering

Desmond Searle

Desmond Searle

BEng (Mech) – Hons 1A, RPEQ, MIEAust, CPEng, NER.

Experience:

More than 20 years as a mechanical engineer in the consulting, mining and materials handling sectors.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Bulk materials handling system design
  • Pump and pipeline design
  • Feasibility studies
  • Technical due diligence

Career highlights:

  • Bulk materials handling upgrade projects for BHP, BMA, FMG, Glencore, MMG, QAL, Rio Tinto, and South32 transporting bauxite, base metals, gold, iron ore and overburden
  • Technical due diligence projects for mine and port projects in Colombia, and grain terminals in South America
  • Concept identification, selection, feasibility, execution and commissioning of small to large minerals projects
  • Working on a variety of underground, open cut, conveying, crushing, minerals processing, road and rail loading and unloading, port stockpiling, and ship and barge unloading and loading projects.
Matt Posthumus Senior Civil/Structural Engineer at Field Engineers
Senior Civil/Structural Engineer

Matt Posthumus

Matt Posthumus

B Eng (Civil), MIEAust, CPEng, NER, RPEQ.

Experience: 

More than 40 years in civil and structural engineering design and construction.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Infrastructure services – roads, mass earthworks, drainage systems, water supply services, and sewerage services
  • Reinforced concrete, masonry and structural steel.

Career highlights:

  • South Walker Creek Mine – engineering design and modelling of an 8 km light vehicle road and assisting the client during the construction phase.
  • Coppabella Mine – engineering design of a stabilising system for the ROM structure and reinforced earth retaining wall and assisting the client during the construction phase. Developing a replacement methodology for a severely damaged trestle leg along the product conveyor, the associated engineering designs and assisting the client during the construction phase.
  • Hay Point Coal Terminal HPX3 expansion – engineering designs of various structural reinforced concrete elements on offshore structures and assisting the client during the construction phase.

 

Richard Billett Senior Mechanical Engineer at Field Engineers
Principal Mechanical Engineer

Richard Billett

Richard Billett

BEng (Mech), BBus (Econ), RPEQ, CPEng.

Experience.

A mechanical engineer with more than 15 years’ experience with a specialisation in failure analysis of machinery, project engineering for a variety of mining projects, and product development.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Failure analysis
  • Professional expert witness
  • Product design, analysis and development
  • Finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
  • Project management
  • Intellectual property review and development.

Career highlights:

  • Engineers Australia National Excellence Award for marine, power-generating, tidal turbine analysis
  • Ok Tedi Mining Limited (copper/gold) – SAG shell failure analysis, QA for new SAG shell, assessment and design of lifting systems
  • KAZ Minerals (copper), Kazakhstan – a system of work and equipment designed for lifting and removal of vibrating screens from process plant
  • MMG Laos (copper) – acid tank shutdown repair project engineering
  • Cement mill bearing failure analysis
  • Airbag analysis on defective passenger vehicles
  • Design of diathermy surgeon’s tool, pathogen-resistant mask and Parkinson’s freeze of gait medical device.
Slawek Drabot Principal Engineer – Special Projects at Field Engineers
Principal Engineer – Special Projects

Slawek Drabot

Slawek Drabot

BEng (Mech) (Hons), MSc (Comp), GDip (Mment).

Experience:

Slawek has 25 years of product development, manufacturing and construction experience. He specialises in structural design, analysis and testing with a specific focus on structural dynamic analysis.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Development and certification of products, tools and processes for the mining industry
  • Forensic investigation of structures, lifting devices and registered plant failures
  • Design Certification for Design Registration of cranes and pressure vessels.

Career highlights:

  • Establishing statutory and standard compliance for crane operations at ports, mine sites and naval vessels. Establishing statutory and standards compliance for manufacturing facilities
  • Design and development of tools and machinery to facilitate shutdown operations for mining mobile and fixed plant
  • Development, manufacturing and testing of patented products.
Ben Prior Senior Mechanical Engineer at Field Engineers
Senior Mechanical Engineer

Ben Prior

Ben Prior

BEng (Mech) (Co-op) (Hons 2A), RPEQ, CPEng.

Experience:

Engineer with over 19 years of experience in the mining industry including industrial pumping and plant upgrades, project management and front-end loading.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Project management, project and business case development, and project engineering
  • Pumping system design, including fluid reticulation systems and mine dewatering
  • Mechanical design for plant and equipment upgrades
  • Feasibility studies, including concept design, preliminary engineering, capital cost estimating and options evaluation.

Career highlights:

  • Manufacturing plant improvement projects – front-end loading for major equipment upgrades
  • Fire system operational improvements including fire risk assessments – various sites
  • Process plant upgrades – reagent system and piping circuit modification design.

 

John Grimmond Senior Crane & Rigging Engineer at Field Engineers
Principal Crane & Rigging Engineer

Jonn Grimmond

Jonn Grimmond

BEng (Civil) (Hons), RPEQ, MIEAust, CraneSAFE (endorsed assessor), CICA, HRW licence, Cert II Surface Extraction Options.

Experience:

An engineer with over 19 years of experience in construction management, engineering and operation roles. Jonn has strong analytical and planning abilities and has managed various projects throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Major inspection engineering oversight
  • Structural and mechanical analysis and design
  • Incident investigation involving heavy machinery.

Career highlights:

  • Queensland Rail Museum – historic overhead crane fleet assessment and compliance audit
  • Australian Defence Force – Naval lifting and safety plant compliance audit
  • Orica – standard operating procedure development for all site lifting documentation.
Andrew Pedruzzi Senior Engineer at Field Engineers
Senior Engineer

Andrew Pedruzzi

Andrew Pedruzzi

BEng (Mech), D.PM, RPEQ.

Experience:

Over 13 years of experience in complex engineering projects predominantly with mechanical and structural design elements.

Key areas of expertise:

  • Mechanical and structural design and systems – draglines and shovels
  • Mechanical metrology
  • Plant inspections and data collection.

Career highlights:

  • Dragline UDD reversal, and swing planetary upgrade projects
  • Shutdown Cost Initiative – upper rail replacement
  • Gregory Mine and Meandu Mine dragline shutdowns
  • Orica La Mont boiler upgrade
  • Mechanically aligned every new or overhauled tub in QLD and NSW since 2019
  • QAL Mill upgrades – changeout support.