Keith Seddon, Senior Principal, joined ATC Williams in 1990. Keith was Technical Manager from 2000 to 2019 and Board Chair from 2019 to 2022.
Allan Watson, Senior Principal, merged his company with ATC in 2011. Allan was CEO from 2015 to 2022, and Board Chair from 2022 to 2025.
Respectively, they have 36 and 15 years of experience with ATC Williams as part of their diverse engineering careers. We asked Keith and Allan to reflect on their journey with ATCW.
Keith, what can you tell us about ATC on its tenth birthday in 1991?
I joined ATC in 1990 when it was still MPA Williams. The other senior engineers were Paul Williams, Steve Murphy and Dennis Green. I was inspired by Paul’s obvious commitment to developing the science and engineering of tailings disposal.
At the time, the office was in a converted residence on Nepean Highway, Bonbeach. There was one desktop computer for running spreadsheets, and we could program in Basic. There was no internet then, and all reports were handwritten and typed by our two secretaries, Angela and Sarah, who each had a word-processor computer. Judy Williams and a part-time bookkeeper handled all other administrative tasks.
The on-site lab, staffed by Peter Ennis and Peter Lam, was more advanced and housed a 200mm Rowe Cell (slurry consolidometer). Some universities and government labs used one, but at that time, we were probably the only private consultancy in Australia to be using one of our own. Paul and Peter were busy developing additional tests to characterise tailings and inform design decisions.
Allan, you merged your business with ATC in 2011 as it turned thirty. Tell us how that came to pass.
My company was Allan Watson Associates (AWA), based in Brisbane. We had about a dozen staff when we joined ATC. I was embargoed as a condition of sale, so I couldn’t tell the staff about the merger until the actual handover day in October 2011, even though we’d been in discussions for months. I held a morning staff meeting to share the news and to introduce Steve Murphy, Elaine Fisher and Gary Greenhill, who had flown up from Melbourne.
Nevertheless, the transition was very smooth, as our two businesses shared a similar culture. AWA brought skills in waste and water that complemented ATC’s strength in tailings. Along with AWA’s Eastern Australian projects, we were involved in several international mining projects in places like Sardinia, Indonesia, PNG, Turkey and the Dominican Republic. ATC already had an office in Western Australia and a very strong international presence, particularly in South America and the Middle East, so there were great opportunities to expand the footprint of the business.
Contemplating a sale of the AWA business, I could see that technical standards in tailings engineering were increasing, and rightly so. Therefore, the transition to high levels of technical competence for us was necessary to remain competitive in the market. ATC was a perfect fit from this perspective. Given that ATC was at a point of generational transition, with Paul and other Principals within the business nearing retirement, the timing for joining with ATC all aligned as an exciting opportunity to be part of the next wave of leadership.
Keith, you have worked on some technically challenging projects in your career. Do you have any standouts from the early years?
I have two in Australia and one in Indonesia.
Firstly, the Union Reefs Gold Mine in the Northern Territory was a tailings dam project that evolved into a site-wide water management scheme based on pumped withdrawals from the river that occurred during a few months in the wet season.
Second was a sequence of Hunter Valley tailings dams for coal mines, where we received regulatory recognition for a whole style of embankment construction using direct haul and dump mine spoil.
Then the most interesting early overseas project was the construction of two technically challenging water dams in Java. The foundation rock, which we had to use in the embankment, had extremely poor durability and would disintegrate when left exposed. (We had a warning about this in a French technical paper on a hydro dam built on the same material.) Therefore, the specification had very tight requirements for excavation and backfill over this material.
The second on-site issue was that all the clay available for construction was very wet, with little chance of drying in the tropical climate. We tested compacted samples at very high moisture contents and accepted a significantly low undrained strength in the design. Craig Noske spent eighteen months on site during construction to ensure everything went to plan.
Allan, what can you share about your journey as a former CEO and Chair of ATC Williams?
One of the reasons to merge AWA with ATC was the leadership opportunities, as I’ve always had a great interest in leadership qualities. When I was appointed CEO in 2015, I was very aware that I would be taking that journey with a cohort who formed the next generation of leaders of ATC Williams. All credit to this group, who are now in senior leadership positions in our company, as they showed trust in the process, but most importantly, contributed significantly to the many successes that were achieved over this period and since.
After seven years as CEO, I was very aware that the business was ready for further change to keep pace with the market, and that someone of greater experience and instincts than myself was needed to take these next steps. Darren Watt was appointed CEO in 2022 and has proved to be an outstanding leader. I’ve been grateful to Darren for the qualities he brings to the role, while always showing great respect for the groundwork that was set in the years before.
Keith, what’s your enduring technical advice to the future generation of ATCW engineers?
I encourage ATCW to never lose sight of the basic geotechnical characteristics of the foundations, construction materials, and the material to be contained, be it water, waste or tailings.
Always work towards learning from each individual site. This way, you can develop an understanding of what the client really needs, which may differ from what they think they want.
While a cutting-edge specialisation in your particular area is desirable, you should also maintain an overview of the whole multidisciplinary process.
Allan, there are many references to the DNA of ATCW. What do you think that DNA is?
If I’d been asked back in 2011 whether I’d still be with the company 15 years later, I would have said no. What has kept me at ATC is the quality of the people. These qualities are strongly influenced by ATC’s DNA, as the heart of the business. Our DNA was embedded 45 years ago, and I describe it as a balance between a love of what we do, just enough confidence in our abilities to know we can produce industry-best outcomes, and a kindred spirit that sees value in everyone who works here.
There isn’t a perfect recipe for great performance and success, but the heart of ATC is certainly a key ingredient in creating a working environment our people love being part of, where they can express themselves professionally and reach their potential.