Paul Noonan

B.E. Chem, Hons

Paul brings many years of environmental engineering experience to his role of senior consultant at Graham A Brown & Associates. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Newcastle.

Paul began his working life at BHP Newcastle Steelworks where he was a chemical engineering trainee before becoming an environmental engineer. Remaining at BHP for ten years, Paul undertook a variety of work including contaminated site investigations, media briefings, tender preparation, environmental auditing, project management and ecology rehabilitation. In 1994 he won BHP’s Most Innovative Chemical Engineering Research Project.

Following BHP’s closure, Paul became a senior environmental engineer with URS Australia. There he was involved in environmental auditing, sustainability auditing, advice to key clients, environmental site investigations, developing sampling techniques and incident response.

Paul then became Principal Environmental Engineer at RCA Australia, utilising his previous experience and expanding upon it to manage a diverse range of projects and functions. Alongside client relationship and business development responsibilities, Paul was Technical Director for major industrial site remediation projects in the Port of Newcastle area including the former BHP Steelworks sites, Koppers Mayfield West and the Steel River site.

Paul considers some of his most rewarding accomplishments to include developing the approved remedial solution for the 110-hectare Steel River site, as well as the environmental conservation of a previously uncontrolled 310-hectare industrial waste site. He was also able to gain the trust of regulatory stakeholders to enable a seven-hectare estuarine rehabilitation project otherwise impossible to due administrative constraints. Paul shows the motivation to solve problems and implement practical solutions in all his work.