He's been everywhere, man

Twenty years after walking into Monadelphous, Martin has worked everywhere from Queensland to the Northern Territory and deep into Papua New Guinea, with stories that include jungles, giant insects and projects that look like they were dropped straight into a movie set.

Martin’s first memory of the company came before he even joined it.

“I was working at the Pinjarra refinery, and this company just seemed to be everywhere on site. I had never heard of them before!” Martin said.

“A few weeks later, I saw an ad in the paper for an engineer in Brisbane. I rang on the Monday, had an interview that afternoon, and the rest is 20 years of history.”

He started out in estimating and project engineering on the east coast, helping update templates and processes, before moving into project management across Queensland and the Northern Territory on sites including Darwin LNG and Gibson Island. Then came a three-year stretch on the AGRP project in the highlands of PNG, a role that left a lasting impression.

“The plants are etched into the forest,” Martin said.

“When you drive between them it feels like something could jump out of the bushes at any moment and you would not be surprised. The insects are huge, and we even had spiders at the door of the supervisor hut that everyone fed.”

After returning to Australia, Martin took on senior site roles in the west, then headed back east to help build the company’s CSG presence in western Queensland.

That chapter led to his becoming an operations manager and, later, playing a key role in the acquisition of iPipe, managing its transition and the early years of the business.

Around the same time, he helped establish the Lihir operation, growing it from a small start into a strong business unit over several years.

These days, his focus remains on what he enjoys most: building something new.

“I like the challenge of starting new locations and different projects,” Martin said.

“Mobilising into very remote places, especially on a tight budget, forces you to be creative. The goal is always to use what you have and turn it into something bigger.

That mindset traces back to a childhood in Home Hill in North Queensland, where he went to a small school and shared some classes with just a handful of other students. An OP 1 result took him to university in Brisbane, where he studied medical engineering before deciding a career in mechanical engineering was the better fit.

“I realised most people you see in medicine are not having a great day,” he said.

“I wanted to work on building things, not just fixing them.”

Asked what comes next, Martin is characteristically focused on the next challenge.

“For now, it is about finding the next place we can put a foot in the door,” he said.

“There is always another project out there.”