Back to People Spotlight: Meet Our Team
Environment & SustainabilityWaterStormwater and Flood ManagementSouth Australia
Tonkin's People Spotlight gives you behind the scenes insights about the technical specialists in our business.
James is a Senior Stormwater Engineer who enjoys providing practical solutions that make a real difference for communities.
Drawn to stormwater engineering for its variety and impact, he thrives on work that blends technical thinking with an understanding of people, place, and the environment.
James brings curiosity, experience, and a genuine passion for quality outcomes to his role at Tonkin, where he enjoys working alongside a team recognised as leaders in the stormwater space.
James is a Senior Stormwater Engineer who enjoys providing practical solutions that make a real difference for communities.
Drawn to stormwater engineering for its variety and impact, he thrives on work that blends technical thinking with an understanding of people, place, and the environment.
James brings curiosity, experience, and a genuine passion for quality outcomes to his role at Tonkin, where he enjoys working alongside a team recognised as leaders in the stormwater space.
What made you choose stormwater engineering over other engineering disciplines?
Stormwater engineering is, like all engineering, about problem solving and opportunities. This might be planning for something doesn’t yet exist or a problem that does. Although there are many helpful and essential design guides, practise notes and papers, in my experience no two jobs are the same. Stormwater engineering genuinely requires you to think carefully and come up with solutions that suit the situation on the ground (or under it).
Flooding, and flood prevention, is something that can really affect people’s lives in a substantial way and I love being able to solve these kinds of problems.
It helps too that I love maps, I love mathematics, and I love learning about the weather and climate, and stormwater engineering gives me lots of opportunities to be involved with those things!
Flooding, and flood prevention, is something that can really affect people’s lives in a substantial way and I love being able to solve these kinds of problems.
It helps too that I love maps, I love mathematics, and I love learning about the weather and climate, and stormwater engineering gives me lots of opportunities to be involved with those things!
What is something that stormwater engineers do or help with that the community may not realise?
That stormwater engineers are not only involved in proactive flood prevention (e.g. planning and design for new developments) but also heavily involved in responding to existing or urgent needs of the community. Councils hear from the community in relation to flood problems on their street, and often the first port of call for that Council is to speak to a stormwater engineer who can guide Council in addressing these concerns.
Further to this, the information that locals provide is invaluable to a stormwater engineer. Photographs, personal observations and records (even newspaper clippings) are absolute gold when preparing any kind of flood modelling or stormwater design and can tell you a lot more than what is obvious from the raw data.
How do you build a good relationship with your clients?
For me, building good relationships depends on trust. This involves demonstrating knowledge and experience, and also a willingness to communicate not only the easy news but the difficult. This works in both directions.
A big part of that is actually understanding the needs of the client and the behaviour of the environment at a broader level. For example, a flooding issue may be presenting itself at a certain private property, and the client has requested the design of upgraded road drainage at that property. But what if the intersection flooding is the result of broader flooding problems from upstream that need addressing? Fixing the root cause may resolve not only the problem at hand but a range of other issues that have not come to the client’s attention yet. Digging deeper beyond the simple problem and solution that presents itself initially often creates opportunities that would have been missed otherwise.
So, my role can involve challenging the assumptions previously made, and looking for new opportunities, and I think those types of conversations go a long way in establishing trust with clients.
A big part of that is actually understanding the needs of the client and the behaviour of the environment at a broader level. For example, a flooding issue may be presenting itself at a certain private property, and the client has requested the design of upgraded road drainage at that property. But what if the intersection flooding is the result of broader flooding problems from upstream that need addressing? Fixing the root cause may resolve not only the problem at hand but a range of other issues that have not come to the client’s attention yet. Digging deeper beyond the simple problem and solution that presents itself initially often creates opportunities that would have been missed otherwise.
So, my role can involve challenging the assumptions previously made, and looking for new opportunities, and I think those types of conversations go a long way in establishing trust with clients.
What do you enjoy most about working at Tonkin?
My favourite part of working at Tonkin has to be the people I work with. Tonkin has a reputation for quality and for being leaders in the stormwater space. This reputation is because of our people, and I am surrounded by people that are genuinely good at what they do and are easy to get along with. There is a great level of support amongst the team, and culturally we are encouraged to strive for excellence in the work that we do.
There is also a great variety of opportunities within Tonkin, and there are many around the business that are keen to teach and share their knowledge.
There is also a great variety of opportunities within Tonkin, and there are many around the business that are keen to teach and share their knowledge.