Brianna took her first step towards mitigating climate change through innovative engineering when she joined BG&E’s Brisbane Buildings team, following a university Careers Fair where the Cross River Rail project was described to her as “designing a structure that’s underground.”

The Brisbane team provided civil engineering services for the project by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, which entailed a 10.2 kilometre rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, including nearly six kilometres of twin tunnels under the Brisbane River and central business district.

She says, “The project sounded much more interesting than anything else I had heard that day at the Careers Fair.

“I also liked the idea of working in a smaller team where I would learn from senior engineers.”

Brianna’s favourite project to date is the $140 million Transit Oriented Development Ferny Grove Central, which will deliver a landmark transport hub with over 1,400 retail and commuter carparks, 82 residential apartments and shopping and entertainment amenities. BG&E is providing structural engineering services for the innovative urban project, for Honeycombes Property Group.

Brianna says, “I’m particularly excited to contribute to Ferny Grove Central, since this is located in my local area and will become part of my daily routine.

“However, I enjoy all projects I bounce between, since I’m always interested in working on different elements and learning new skills every day.”

Brianna’s ultimate career goal is to achieve a leadership role, to ensure more representation of women at higher levels of seniority, while implementing increased sustainability measures in engineering designs.

She says, “There’s a lot of new sustainability research and ideas at the academic level, but the transition to industry application seems to be much slower.

“I won’t speak on behalf of my whole generation, but it’s likely sustainability will be a big focus point for our work, since the adverse effects of climate change will be increasingly felt during our lifetime, if we keep going how we are.”

Brianna is undertaking a timber design course next semester, as part of her studies at the University of Queensland (UQ) and hopes to apply knowledge gained to her BG&E projects.

With a packed schedule of full-time study, part-time work and extracurricular activities such as netball and being President of UQ’s Civil Engineering Student Association, Brianna’s personal superpower is time management.

In her downtime, she is known for never turning down yummy food, and is not adverse to the occasional Netflix binge, having recently watched all ten hours of the Ginny and Georgia show in two days.

Brianna says, “I am also usually planning my next holiday during any downtime I have, after the travel bug got me in high school when I went on a school trip to Japan.

“So far, I have been to five out of seven continents, but my goal is to visit them all.”

Brianna’s adventurous spirit and love for the world she plans to protect through sustainable engineering, is clearly depicted in the above image, where she is about to jump off a bridge in Ecuador in South America.