Dear Members and Friends as we welcome 2026, I wish all our Australasian Branch members a safe, productive and prosperous year ahead. A quick reminder that membership invoices for 2026 have been sent from the UK and if you have not done so already, I encourage you to renew your membership.
Since our last publication I was honoured to attend and make a presentation at our institute’s UK Annual Conference in Sheffield during November 2025. I was warmly welcomed by our UK members and the IRE council, and it was a great opportunity to meet and get acquainted with the hardworking team who keep our institute running successfully. The conference, which was followed by a training day, was a fantastic event, which I greatly enjoyed. It was an opportunity to see how our colleagues in the UK run their conference and gain some new ideas which we will consider introducing into our next Australian Conference.
The Australasia Branch has held our Training Day in Bunbury WA. While we had expected fifty attendees, it is extremely pleasing to have welcomed 68 attendees for the training day with approximately half of those attending the practical training session the next day, where a gunning demonstration was facilitated by Veolia. The main training theme was heat transfer, with three excellent presentations provided, one from Karl Barnett (Vesuvius) taking the group through various testing methods, data variations and effects. Two presentations from Wayne Wright (Ref Met) included a detailed tutorial of calculations, data variation and practical applications with variability of inputs.
Other presentations, also of excellent quality, included ‘Creep rupture failure in stainless steel anchors and how to calculate’ (Wayne Wright), ‘Overhead protection systems’ (Nico Van Der Merwe – South 32), ‘Refractories in reducing environments’ (Neil Ayre – Shinagawa), ‘3D laser scanning advancements’ (Garth Johnson – 4D Delta), ‘Forging resilience and unleashing FEA in refractory’ (Bhagirathi Singh – Calderys). The day also included an open discussion on safety hazards of overhead refractory, the importance of proper risk assessment and some experiences were shared on suitable risk controls.
We thank our sponsors, Vesuvius, Veolia, Shinagawa, Calderys, Refractory Management Services, 4D Delta, CIVMEC and Antec. Also, special thanks to the organising team led by Wayne Wright with support from Garth Johnson, Lee Button and Gavin Thompson. These members volunteered their time to make this event a success.
Also reflecting on 2025, we extend a warm welcome to our new members, and it is pleasing to report that the Australasian Branch welcomed 21 new members who joined after attending the December 2024 Conference or the November 2025 Training Day.
Looking forward to 2026, we are preparing for another Training Day, likely to be held in Brisbane during March or April. Our 2026 Conference planning has also kicked off, and we are planning for either Sydney or Wollongong and currently proposing this will likely be mid to late October. Further announcements will be made on this shortly.
Wishing you all the best for 2026.
David Hollott MI Ref Eng
President, IRE Australasia
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