The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association shares the sad news of Max Kimber’s passing last week.
Today we share with you the sad news that one of the stalwarts of the Australian pipeline industry, Max Kimber, has passed away. Max was an active leader of the pipeline industry throughout the 50+ years of his career, being a key driver of the Australian research program and the establishment of our long-standing research sharing agreement with our counterparts in Europe and North America.
His initial career was with Post Master General’s Department (the predecessor of Telstra) in which he designed and supervised construction of long distance radio communications systems in remote areas of South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland which provided subscriber trunk dialling, and interstate and international television transmission between the Eastern States and Darwin and Perth. The skills and techniques acquired during these projects stood him in good stead for future work with The Pipeline Authority.
He joined the newly formed Pipeline Authority (TPA) in Canberra and after a period of international experience, overseeing key parts of the Moomba-Sydney pipeline (MSP) construction, including communications, coatings and environmental aspects. He was instrumental in development of the pipeline business, including the Moomba to Port Botany Ethane pipeline. Through TPA he provided advice to the Federal Government on regulatory reform and later contributed to development of the Council of Australian Governments’ Principles for gas reform.
He was Chief Operating Officer of TPA until it was privatised in 1994, whereupon he formed a consulting business.
Through the consulting business, Max played a holistic role in the Australian pipeline Industry, addressing commercial, regulatory, technical and director roles of businesses associated with energy transport. He contributed to the divestiture of most of Australia’s publicly owned gas transmission energy assets, and development of the Duke Eastern Gas and Tasmanian Gas Pipelines.
He was a founding Director of the Victorian Gas Transmission Corporation from 1995 to 1997, playing a key role in transitioning that business to a privatised gas transmission company. Subsequently he was a director of Gorodok Pty Ltd (Moomba to Port Botany Ethane Pipeline) from 2001-2006. Max was then appointed a director of SEA Gas as a representative of its part owner, the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, and also a director of the Collgar (WA) windfarm in 2008. He also served on the boards of a number of pipeline companies and of APIA/APGA.
In 2007, Max was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the natural gas pipeline industry.
Max will long be remembered for his continuing leadership in the technical development of the industry. An early failure of the MSP saw Max persuading the TPA to join the Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) as a full member, gaining access to the whole of PRCI’s active research program, and fostering his continuing involvement with key technical people in that organisation. He saw the need for an equivalent research program focussed on Australian pipelines and was a founding member of the APGA Research and Standards Committee (RSC), serving as Chair from 1996 to 2007.
Through these contacts and in association with RSC, he negotiated the formation of the Tripartite between APIA/APGA, PRCI and EPRG, giving all Australian pipeline RSC members access to some of the world’s best and most comprehensive research. He attended the first Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) of the Tripartite in 2001 and contributed a paper to the 2003 JTM in Berlin authored by the chairs of the AS2885 sub-committees that espoused the need to understand the laws of nature so that the Standard could set down effective laws of man.
Continuing his commitment to outstanding research, in 2005 Max was appointed to a 3-year term on the College of Experts at the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the assessment of university research grants in the fields of Engineering and Environmental Science. He served as Chair of this assessment and selection panel in 2008.
Together with Ken Bilston he developed the philosophy that the best way to protect the people from the risks posed by high pressure pipelines was to protect the pipelines from the people, and developed the approach of the Standard to pipeline safety risk management design by threat identification and management of risk on a metre-by-metre basis so that all threats are identified and designed out. Only those that present a residual threat are analysed for ongoing risk. The Standard was (and is) unique in that it required the risk of rupture in High Consequence areas to be designed out.
One of Max’s oft quoted phrases was that pipeline engineers need to have Pan, Zoom and View; that is, a holistic understanding so that they can manage the diverse and multidisciplinary needs of the pipeline industry to achieve Control through Understanding. He played an important role in the establishment of the Energy Pipelines Cooperative Research Centre (EPCRC) and was instrumental in attracting Professor Andrew Hopkins to join and contribute to the Public Safety program of the EPCRC.
Max was elected to Honorary Life Membership of APGA in 2013.
Throughout his professional career, Max was involved in a number of aspects of community service, including management of Foodbank in the ACT, secondary school and aged care facility boards.
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