As the new President of Stormwater Australia, I am honoured to lead an organisation that plays such a vital role in shaping our nation’s future. I step into this role with a deep appreciation for the work of my predecessors and a clear vision for the path ahead.
Stormwater Australia is dedicated to advancing sustainable stormwater management across the country. Our sector is essential to building resilient, liveable communities — protecting our waterways, managing flood risks, and ensuring the efficient use of one of our most precious resources.
Our role is to bring together professionals, governments, researchers, and communities to share knowledge, promote best practice, and drive innovation. Through national conferences, technical resources, policy engagement, and advocacy, we are working to ensure stormwater is recognised as an integral part of Australia’s water cycle and urban planning.
A key priority during my term is strengthening collaboration with our state-based associations. By aligning local expertise with national strategy, we can ensure the unique needs and insights of each region help shape our shared agenda.
Together, we can support the stormwater industry by promoting excellence, advancing integrated water management, and empowering our members to lead meaningful change.
I invite you to explore our website, connect with your local stormwater association, and get involved in the important work we do. Together, we can work together to build a more sustainable, water-sensitive future for all Australians.
Michael is a Water Resources Engineer with experience in research and engineering consulting. He is passionate about delivering multiple liveability benefits to Australian communities through integrated water management.
Michael is the Winner of the Stormwater South Australia Excellence Awards Young Professional Award 2020. He is a member of Engineers Australia and is Chartered in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering.
He has delivered over 50 stormwater planning, concept, functional and detailed design projects for local and state government, and private developer clients in Australia.
Michael has been Project Manager for a number of catchment scale stormwater management plans addressing flooding mitigation, water quality and social benefits. He has experience in detailed design and construction phase support for stormwater projects.
As an Adjunct Lecturer with the University of Adelaide, Michael remains an industry advisor and student mentor for smart water research.
He has been a Committee Member for nearly a decade, and is Treasurer for Stormwater SA.
Aaron is a Civil Engineer with 15 years’ experience in WSUD design, integrated water management and strategy development gathered during his career spanning across the public and private sector. He is passionate about the design and implementation of innovative water servicing and resilience strategies that deliver high value community outcomes while protecting and enhancing the natural environment. Aaron has developed his strong analytical and problem-solving skills from broad exposure to the development industry standards and practices. Leveraging these qualities, he has developed tools, authored guidelines and manuals and delivered training sessions to support industry in designing and delivering new drainage and WSUD assets. He has led and been instrumental to the delivery of various major IWM Plans and WSUD masterplans across Australia, incorporating adaptive IWM planning approaches.
Since 2018, Aaron has represented Stormwater Victoria members in the state associations’ Policy and Advocacy sub-committee, where he served as chair for 4 years. During this time, he has led the development of Stormwater Victoria’s SQIDEP position paper and more recently assisted Stormwater Australia in the SQIDEP working group program review. With passion and persistence, Aaron has been an effective advocate for industry reform on issues meaningful and impactful to practitioners across the stormwater industry. He see’s advances in the implementation of Integrated Water Management solutions as integral to responding to the major challenges facing industry, including population growth and climate change.
Martyn’s career in public works engineering spans over 40 years and has been predominantly in the areas of civil engineering, asset management and waste services. Martyn commenced his career as a trainee surveyor in 1976 and since then has worked predominantly as an engineer in local government with short stints in the asphalt and mining industries.
In this time, Martyn has been recognised for his work with sustainable asset and environment issues, specifically with road construction, traffic management, water conservation and street lighting as well as more recently with resource recovery in the waste industry.
Martyn is an Emeritus Member of the WA Division of the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia, and a Member of Engineers Australia, Stormwater Western Australia and Local Government Professionals WA.
Martyn lists the highlights of his career to date as being the Premier’s Water Conservation Award for the Mosman Park Water Cycle Project, the ongoing development of the standard Guidelines for Subdivisional Development adopted by the Department of Planning Land and Heritage as the WA minimum standard, his recent acknowledgement by the Water Corporation and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation as a Waterwise Champion and his work with Smart technologies to improve the community experience.
Leigh graduated from Victoria University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with a water focus.
Currently he is the Integrated Water Business Unit Manager and Executive Director within Spiire. On the board I aim to promote and lead the growth of our organisation through a focus on climate change, digital innovation and diversity whilst maintaining our fantastic culture as a people business.
His core expertise is in water management which includes strategic planning, flood resilience, stormwater harvesting, water and sewer planning, water sensitive urban design, urban drainage, waterway design and erosion management.
Leigh served on the Stormwater Victoria committee for seven years where he was vice-president until he resigned to focus on business and family commitments.
Leigh is keen to help implement the strategy, particularly in the areas of policy and advocacy.
Over the past 30 years, Andrew has gained experience in industries as diverse as heavy industry, environmental management, and asset management across the government, consulting, research, and not-for-profit sectors. This diversity of experience is matched by his qualifications in materials engineering, environmental sciences, and social science. This combination of experience affords Andrew considerable range, being as comfortable designing research programs in environmental sciences as he is tackling complex socio-technical challenges across organisations and industries. During his career, Andrew has also gained experience in strategic planning, integrated environmental management, public infrastructure asset management, and performance monitoring. Andrew is currently the Executive Officer for the Cooks River Alliance and President of Stormwater NSW (peak body representing the urban water management industry in NSW, Australia). His formal qualifications include a PhD in sociotechnical systems theory (social science), a Bachelor and master’s in environmental sciences, and an associate diploma in materials engineering.
Sumari is the Water Resources Team Lead at Stantec in Perth, Western Australia. With a background in Civil Engineering and Architectural Design, she specialises in holistic catchment management. Sumari is deeply committed to addressing resilience challenges, including water and wastewater management, environmental conservation, and equitable development. Having lived across South Africa, Australia, the UK, and Ireland, has provided her with a unique perspective on global design challenges. She is the Vice President of Stormwater Western Australia and member of the Department of Biodiversity, Conversation and Attractions (DBCA) led Sediment Task Force. She is currently project managing and technically leading a range of complex multidisciplinary projects that encompass geotechnical, hydrogeological, contaminated land, hydrological, mechanical, electrical, civil design, landscaping, and environmental considerations.
Stormwater Industry Association Ltd (Stormwater Australia) is an incorporated body under the Australian Corporations Act. Stormwater Australia operates as part of a collective of stormwater industry associations, in partnership with five State Associations (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia).
At the 2014 Annual General Meeting (AGM), a revised
SIA National Constitution was adopted which recognises the importance of a skills-based Board and allows representation of Sustaining Members. At the 2018 AGM minor modifications were made in relation to the number of Directors, tenure and quorum requirements. In 2025, a change of direction was agreed by the State Organisations which lead to a revised Constitution.
