Today across the world is Global Day of the Engineer #globalengineer where we recognise and celebrate the profession and the people who have chosen to pursue a career in engineering.

In just a couple of years, Civilex (now Symal) has grown its small engineering team into an ever-expanding workforce who work across many industry sectors on some of Victoria’s most diverse civil infrastructure projects. We visited one of our Project Engineers Rory Harbeck out at the Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road project site who shared about his engineering journey.

Rory studied a Civil and Infrastructure degree at RMIT. His father has been a civil engineer for 50 years which influenced him growing up along with his sister who is in the business development field within the construction industry. He started his career with CPB as an undergraduate and participated in their graduate program. He was seconded to work on the Princes Freeway duplication project and lived and worked out at Gippsland for 18 months before working another 6 months on the Tullamarine Freeway widening project.

It was in 2017 that Rory moved to Civilex as a Project Engineer. He knew many of the people at Civilex including Operations Manager Matthew Gurney. Rory says, “Civilex had a good reputation – it was seen as an up and coming civil contractor within the industry with plenty of room for professional and personal development and career progression. I decided I wanted that opportunity.”

And Rory is not looking back on his decision. He has been able to work on a variety of large civil projects at Civilex (now Symal) – from car parks with VicTrack and Metro Tunnel works to the High Capacity Metro Train depot in Pakenham to improving the safety on one of the longest – 18.5km and most dangerous stretches of rural roads – the Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road contracted to VicRoads as part of the government’s initiative Towards Zero.

Rory started out with the team at the Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road project in November 2018 and he’s there until it’s complete. “I really appreciate the hands-on approach – for me, it’s the best way to learn. I also find the culture is unique within the construction industry – the teams across all Civilex sites are hardworking yet friendly with a good bond forged between the labour force and construction management.”

Outside of work, Rory maintains his fitness by playing football with Yarra Valley Football Club and is a keen triathlete participating in a series of events: Pier to Pub – the largest ocean swim in the world, Mountain to Surf within the beautiful Otways, and the Gatorade Series.