Life Memberships

At the 2020 Stormwater NSW Annual General Meeting, I had the honour of bestowing life membership upon three long serving members of the Committee; Brett Phillips, Murray Powell and Peter Bennett. I’d like to reiterate the congratulations and thanks to these gentlemen, who have served the Committee faithfully for over 20 years.

Dr Brett Phillips is a Director at Cardno NSW with over 30 years of experience in stormwater. He also held down the Editor-in-Chief for the Australian Journal of Water Resources for over 20 years. He joined Stormwater NSW in 2003. He has been a stalwart of the organisation, becoming its Treasurer in perpetuity. Brett took on the role of Treasurer in 2006/07. In 2012 Brett was the recipient of Stormwater Industry Association National President’s Award. Brett has been instrumental in overseeing the improvement and strengthening of the associations’ finances, having experienced a period during his early memberships when the organisation almost folded.

Murray Powell has been a member of Stormwater NSW for 25+ years, having joined in 1994 whilst he was working at the NSW EPA and becoming a Committee member in 1996. Murray went on to establish Optimal Stormwater as a leader in the Operation and Maintenance of Stormwater Systems. Murray has generously downloaded years of knowledge and experience into the Stormwater NSW Operations and Maintenance Guideline and is leading the way in training stormwater professionals. Murray served the Committee as its President for 3 years (2007/08 – 2009/10) and has served as its Secretary since 2017/18).

Peter Bennett has followed in the footsteps of his father, Kevin Bennett, who himself was a long-serving Committee member and Treasurer of Stormwater NSW. Peter represented on the Stormwater NSW Committee for 14 years (2006-07-2019/20) and stepped down this year to concentrate on his other passion, bushfire, where he currently has a central role as a community representative to the NSW and Federal Inquiries. Peter is the Principle Designer at Baramy, a leader in design innovation in the stormwater industry.