Nic grew up in Pleasant Point, completed honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Canterbury University in Christchurch NZ, began railway career on the New Zealand Railways as a summer intern student before being transferred to South Australia with more recent times being based in Western Australia for the past 9 years working on the WA freight network.  Has been involved with rail track upgrade projects and rail track maintenance management. Nic will present an Overview of the WA’s freight rail network (products hauled, size, business environment eg. government owned but leased to private company to operate), Upgrade projects – Midwest Upgrade – overview/scope, challenges and Maintenance engineering requirements & challenges (rail grinding, track resurfacing, rail welding)