After graduating in Adelaide in 1971, Grant worked for the Public Buildings Department of South Australia. This was followed by several years as a consulting engineer in Adelaide and London.

During this period Grant worked at the Port Stanvac Oil refinery and was involved in planning for hot taps and their refined products pipeline to Port Adelaide.

This experience helped convince Stephen Timms to give Grant a job in 1980 as the design engineer for Pipeline Authority of South Australia.

The next day he was on a plane to Moomba, looking at the route for the 650 km Moomba to Port Bonython liquid pipeline. Grant said “I worked on this job from its inception and was the Owner’s Representative and commissioning manager. This was my first introduction to long distance transmission pipelines and I met many very talented people in the industry, including the late legendary Don Hamlyn and down the track the late Peter Anderson, who taught me a lot, and it was on this project that I caught the pipeliner’s ethic. I also worked on the Wasley loop pipeline, the Whyalla lateral and carried out many projects on the Moomba to Adelaide gas pipeline and the Port Bonython pipeline.

“It was during this time, in 1990 to be exact, that Jeff Shepherd convinced me to join McConnell Dowell which involved moving my family from Adelaide to Melbourne.

“I worked for McConnell Dowell for thirteen years which was a pipelining odyssey throughout Australia, South East Asia, the United Kingdom and South Africa.”

Grant continues “The EPC of the Ballera to Moomba two phase pipeline in 1992 was a watershed project since it was the first class 900 onshore pipeline, the first use of grade X70 line pipe together with being one of the first EPC turnkey projects carried out by McConnell Dowell.”

Currently Grant is working with Epic Energy on their QSN Link pipeline which follows the same route. “Those fond memories and friendships of sixteen years ago all returned to me when I was recently on site.”

Asked about the project highlight of his career Grant says “The Mt Isa gas pipeline constructed in alliance with AGL Pipelines was the most rewarding project that I worked on, especially considering the good relationship with AGL. We jointly carried out all aspects of the project. Stephen Ohl and myself worked out the project budget during the 1994 APIA Convention in Perth and we all performed so well that we finished ahead of schedule and on budget.

“I still consider the alliance strategy is the project delivery method that offers the best implementation advantages. However, the trend for EPC Turnkey to satisfy financing requirements has resulted in very few alliances over the last few years. However, I still consider that the advantages of alliance implementation deserve more upfront effort to plan and resolve these concerns.

“In the 1990s McConnell Dowell embarked on a number of pipeline projects overseas using their key Australian pipelining resources. This resulted in me working in Thailand, UK and South Africa.

“The most difficult project was the Myanmar gas pipeline due to the rugged rain forest terrain and difficult logistics where all equipment, camps and supplies had to be barged in from Singapore.

“Mozambique to South Africa was also a challenging project where instances of a lion escaping from the Kruger national park caused concern on the right of way as did transiting a game park with lionesses that were good hunters, but were kept at bay by the game keepers. On one game park no open trench was allowed at night to ensure there was no impact on the very rare white rhinos.”

Changes that Grant has seen include the world class development of AS2885, the introduction of horizontal directional drilling and trenchless technology. Padding machines and Zap Lock jointing have been other advances. “However the basic pipeline construction techniques remain and have been finely tuned by the construction professionals.”

In construction management systems Grant has seen important changes in safety, environment, quality systems and administration. Grant noted that while carrying out large diameter gas pipeline EPC projects in the UK, they were pleased to be audited virtually every day of every week across all management streams by the client whose small team ran around eight to ten projects on this philosophy.

When asked about his involvement with APIA; Grant told of his involvement as an APIA committee member from 1991 to 1995 and service as APIA President in 1994. At that time, the secretariat was a lone George Tredinnick operating on a part-time basis.

“In 1994 I initiated a strategic planning workshop of senior members of APIA in Sydney under an experienced chairman. This meeting set the guidelines and principles for a strategic plan which eventually led to the organisational structure APIA has today.

“My time with McConnell Dowell was great and I established lifelong friends who are now spread throughout the pipeline industry.

“In 2003 I established Grant Bowley Consulting with David Gratton and worked on many projects including the SESA and SEA Gas pipelines. In 2006 I had dinner with Brian O’Sullivan and joined OSD Pipelines, working on the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline Project and QSN Link.”

Grant is currently General Manager Projects OSD Pipelines.