Dear Members and Friends, firstly, I trust you have had a safe Christmas and holiday season, wishing you and your families a safe, healthy and prosperous 2025. The conclusion of 2024 has been quite significant for the Australasian branch. It gives me great pleasure to advise that our 12th Biennial Refractory Conference, hosted at The Fullerton Hotel Sydney, was a resounding success and full credit goes to the efforts of our hardworking management committee and the attendees who enjoyed the proceedings.
Our keynote speaker Prof Geoff Brooks (Bessemer Gold Medal winner) offered an insightful presentation entitled ‘Green Steel for Australia’ detailing the challenges and opportunities regarding hydrogen and latest extractive technologies.
I was honoured to chair the expert panel discussion, which included Prof Brooks (Swinburne University), Chris Windle (DSF Refractories – UK), Shankar Chatterjee (Almatis – India) and Shyam Nair (Vesuvius – Australasia) who offered their insights into the challenges and opportunities in our industry.
This was followed by three sessions with twelve technical papers, our Ordinary General Meeting and a Gala Dinner. Day two was a tour of BlueScope Steel integrated iron and steelworks, with a special side trip through the steelmaking refractory installations department. Our total conference numbers were as follows: Welcome reception 62; Conference 82; Gala Dinner 80; BlueScope Tour 34.
The conference was a technical and networking success at a location in one of Sydney CBD’s finest hotels. I am also pleased to report that the event was also a financial success, achieving one of our highest recorded surpluses. This puts the Australasian branch in great stead since such income is a primary source of our sustainment. I would also like to thank all our sponsors (ten in total) and we worked hard to ensure they achieved an excellent return on their investment.
During the Gala Dinner, I had the pleasure of presenting a Fellowship Certificate to Mike Walton, our hardworking Treasurer and a longstanding committee member of the Australasian branch (pictured). Mike joined the IRE in 1976 and, whilst the award was ratified last year at the 2023 UK conference, we took the opportunity to present Mike with the certificate in front of his peers and colleagues. We congratulate Mike on his years of membership and valued service to the IRE and look forward to several more fruitful years of activity.
Although the conference is finished and the year young, the committee has a very busy period ahead. This includes renewal of many positions on our board, including mine, as well as aiming for training sessions for Western Australia and/or Queensland. In subsequent editorials we look forward to keeping you updated. Once again, thanks to all those who attended and contributed to our recent conference and wishing all readers of The Refractories Engineer success for 2025. Best always.
Mario Taddeo MI Ref Eng
President, IRE Australasia
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