Greg Pierce

After being educated in the primary school at Marrickville learning his three R's, Greg won a place at the selective Sydney Technical High School at Bexley, the same school his father Ritchie attended from 1940 to 1942; the training ground for future engineers and technicians. In 1962, aged 12 in Class 1A, Greg was 5'8" and Captain of the 6th XV rugby, setting excellent examples with his consistent low tackling. In 1963 he was in his second year of high school. Even early on Greg was into competitive sports: being in the swimming events and a member of the junior Rugby Union Team. A year later at the young age of 14 Greg was both Captains of the junior water polo team and the rugby union team. That year he showed great leadership and won the L.C. Simpson Trophy for sportsmanship, ability and team spirit. During his School Certificate year in 1965, Greg was promoted to the 1st XV Rugby Union Team and made Vice-Captain of the senior Water Polo Team. He was described as saving the side many times with clearing kicks and excellent tackles in his rugby games. For his all round ability in his sporting activities he was awarded his blue for sport. In 1966, now a mature 16 year old, he excelled in his academic studies and so was made the School's Vice-Captain and Prefect. However, Greg continued to excel in his sporting achievements: winning the Wykeham Prize for leadership and sportsmanship, vice-captain and full-back for the 1st XV Rugby Union team. His greatest achievement for this year was being appointed Captain of the Combined High School's second grade water polo team. A year later he would go on to win the S.Davis Trophy for leadership, sportsmanship, ability and team spirit.

In 1967, after finishing high school, Greg applied for an engineering position of at the then Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board. In those days the professional players were required to have a full-time job to integrate themselves into society and avoid social disasters that so often happen to players nowadays. He was one out of 66 others that were granted positions out of 400 applicants. He went on to do a cadetship in Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales.

Already in 1970, Greg was designing and drafting pumping stations and pipelines to meet the needs of the company. After completing his Civil Engineering degree with Honours, he was promoted to the title Engineer 'E' Grade and moved from the Design Branch to the Construction Branch at Metropolitan Water. Greg was described as very keen, capable and always willing to learn.

In 1973, Greg was appointed leave to tour with the Australian Rugby League team to England and France. Two years later Greg went on tour again to New Zealand, Great Britain and France after commencing duties with the Water Investigation Sub branch. Occasionally Greg would act in higher duties on projects including investigations for water supply for Wahroonga-Hornsby and Ryde-Pymble, main renewal and amplification.

In June 1978 Greg received a congratulatory letter from the Board regarding his Captaincy of the Australian Rugby League Test Team that was to play New Zealand.

In the late 1970s Greg worked on detailed investigations for the Northern Suburbs Water Supply Amplification Scheme at the Northern Group of the Branch. His appraisal describes him as knowing the work very well and a very capable, valuable member of the sub branch. In the mid-1980s Greg worked in management and technical control of the operations and maintenance of the water supply system in the northern regions. As usual he excelled in this position and was described as reliable, loyal, conscientious, versatile and effective as a manager, while keeping a tight relationship with his colleagues. Long and hard hours paid off and Greg was appointed the position of Product Manager in the Northern Division.

In August 1990, Mr Pierce resigned from the Waterboard to pursue opening opportunities in the building industry. In his resignation letter he wrote: "[I] thoroughly enjoyed the 22 years with the Board and particularly the revolutionary period from the mid-1980s" and that he "regretted that he could not be part of the excitement and challenge of further change in the Board and water industry" and he "would miss the people he worked closely with".

When he left Sydney Water in the mid 1990s, Greg became Water Manager at Gosford Council and later Operating Manager for the idyllic Lord Howe Island. Greg's own account in 2012 "Engineering in Paradise" aptly describes his time in the South Pacific island while tackling his major health problems with his wife Marilyn by his side.

"I joined the Lord Howe Island Board (LHIB) in February 2002 as the Operations Manager reporting to the CEO. LHI is part of NSW but has its own Act and as a World Heritage listed property is also subject to many unique environmental regulations. LHI has about 350 residents and legislation permits tourist lodges to accommodate up to 400 tourists per night, although it is not uncommon for over 1000 people to be on the island at peak times. The LHIB is generally equivalent to a Local Government Council with a seven-member Board and an Administration with approximately 60 permanent and casual staff and an annual expenditure of about $10M AUD. As Operations Manager I was responsible for three main business units:

Included the management of the airport, waste composting and recycling (LHI has no landfill), road and drainage construction/maintenance, traffic, playground, sports field and reserves, visitor facilities, construction and maintenance of public buildings, maritime infrastructure including the wharf used to berth the fortnightly cargo ship, moorings, marine facilities, boat ramps and foreshore protection, mechanical workshops, vehicle and plant fleet, public drinking water quality *, wastewater treatment **, groundwater management, incident response procedures and the tsunami plan, land management, development assessment, building certification and compliance.

• - LHI receives an average of 1.8m of rain each year so there are no dams or large reservoirs. Householders and lodges are expected to install sufficient rainwater tanks to meet their needs. in my 8 years on LHI the Board only imported drinking water in the cargo ship's hold once following a couple of dry months.
  • - During my time on LHI all wastewater was treated in on-site septic systems. The resulting effluent was disinfected and generally passed through adjacent reed beds before being used for drip or spray irrigation of nearby lawn or natural vegetation. An investigation of options including a centralised treatment system and cluster systems for nominal precincts on the island has been undertaken but the on-site septic status quo remains at this stage.

Included responsibility for the care, management and conservation of the unique flora and fauna on LHI, protection of threatened species and the preservation of the Island's cultural heritage and World Heritage values. This involved the management and restoration of native vegetation and control of weeds, pest animals and invertebrates, particularly in the Permanent Park Preserve (equivalent to National Park) which comprises 75% of the Island. At the time of my departure we were undertaking multi-million dollar weed and rodent eradication programs that were world's best practice. The Environment team enforces a strict quarantine policy and also constructs and maintains walking tracks and viewing platforms to maximize safety and minimize any disturbance to native vegetation. It is also the core of any search and rescue operation to locate or recover lost and injured hikers. The environmental management of a World Heritage property was a steep learning curve for me. While I had generally complied with strict EPA Regulations during my time as a water and sewage maintenance engineer at the MWS&DB and Gosford City Council I was born and bred in Marrickville in Sydney's inner south-west where the common environmental ethic was 'if its green - mow it'. In fact many of the early European and Middle-eastern migrants in the 50s and 60s adopted the practice of concreting the yard and painting it green.

Included the generation and distribution of all electricity on LHI, the implementation of an energy efficiency and demand management program, determining appropriate alternate energy technologies to be integrated with the base load power generation system and the oversight of all communication facilities. All power is generated by 3 diesel engines with a full capacity back-up diesel generator at a separate location. To try to reduce the high cost, and potential environmental risk, of transporting large volumes of diesel fuel to LHI I sat on an inter-departmental committee of NSW Government to identify sustainable sources of renewable energy including wind, solar, wave, tidal/current and geothermal and various energy storage options to handle base load or adverse weather conditions. After crunching the numbers the IDC determined that there were no viable alternate energy systems that could compete with diesel generation, particularly due to the high costs associated with the isolation of LHI and that it would not be prudent to install developing technologies on an isolated World Heritage Island. However, the IDC recommended that the Board replace the existing diesel engines with more fuel-efficient diesels and this as resulted in a cost saving of approximately 25% per annum for diesel fuel within a two and a half year payback period.

I enjoyed my eight years living and working on LHI, particularly due to the variety of the work and I feel it is one of Australia's, if not the world's, most beautiful places. I encourage everyone to put it on their travel 'bucket list'. Unfortunately flights to LHI are expensive as Quantas has the only 30+ seat aircraft (Dash 8) that can operate on the short runway and it takes full advantage of its monopoly. Notwithstanding, less than 2 hours from Sydney or Brisbane you can enjoy a well presented, un-crowded, sub-tropical World Heritage listed paradise with no litter, graffiti or crime."

Greg was a civil engineer with the Waterboard and Sydney Water, working in Water Investigations and Distribution Branches. He was the first Water Manager in the then new Northern Region at Chatswood. Greg was born in 1950 with his young father in the Small Ships in WWII and his grandfather having served in both WWI and WWII. While working at the Waterboard, Greg was playing professional Rugby League Football as the Captain of Cronulla-Sutherland and Vice-Captain of the Australian Team that toured Great Britain. During these times Greg was liked and respected by both staff and players alike being a quiet achiever in both his professional and sporting careers. When he left Sydney Water he became Water Manager at Gosford Council and later the Operating Manager for the idyllic Lord Howe Island. In 2003 he suffered a major health problem which he stoically accepted with the help of his supporting wife Marilyn. Now reaching the age of 60 he has returned to the mainland settling at Avoca Beach. In 2005 Greg was inducted into the Cronulla Shark's Hall of Fame as only one of five of the Shark's Immortals having played 206 games from 1969 to 1980 and coached the Sharks from 1981 to 1982. With the associated monetary award he honourably gave it away to the struggling family of a fellow player who had recently died of cancer. Such is the noble character of Greg Pierce as a role model to all young players and to the modern generation of professional engineers who now serve Sydney Water.

"Greg of Team Sharks/ Their really beloved son,/ Played rugby of 2 codes/ Many trophies surely won./ So our dear Greg/ We all salute you,/ Forever in our memories/ You were to all so true!" - Garry Tipping, 22/11/18

"The soul is now just flown,/ From the pain of the earthly body,/ Like a bird out of a golden cage,/ To wander around the heavens,/ And look happily down on us/ In our hour of need!/ Ave atque Vale Greg." - Garry Tipping.

The Open Rugby inaugural World XIII was revealed in June 1978, it was; Graham Eadie, John Atkinson, Steve Rogers, Jean-Marc Bourret, Green Vigo, Roger Millward, Steve Nash, Jim Mills, Keith Elwell, Steve Pitchford, Terry Randall, George Nicholls, and Greg Pierce.