Celebrating five years of doing good work in the Hunter Valley region
For over forty years, ATC Williams has provided engineering services in the Hunter Valley, supported by offices across Australia. As our first location in NSW, the Singleton office was established in 2020 as a response to our continued growth in the region and to support the minerals sector and long-term client relationships.
John Milsom, Hunter Valley Office Manager and Senior Principal, reflects on the past five years since opening in Singleton, NSW.
What have been the key milestones since opening?
We continue to uphold the philosophy of our founder, Paul Williams: ‘We do good work, and we do it well’, which has seen the NSW office go from strength to strength. Soon after opening, we hired geologist Mitchell Connor and engineer Adin Uhrig, followed by engineers Riddhesh Joshi, Glen Burton, and Fred Torpey in 2022.
In 2024, we expanded to a second location in Newcastle with an on-site laboratory due to an increased focus on tailings management and GISTM requirements. The NSW lab assists in managing the workload of our NATA-accredited laboratory in Melbourne. We currently have fourteen employees based in these two locations.
Have there been any challenging moments?
Getting through the COVID period was tough. As such, we want to give a special mention to Asanka Don Peerislage and Jedd Linke-Nagel from the Melbourne office, who temporarily based themselves in NSW to assist with project work while borders were closed. It was a tough slog for them, but they didn’t complain, and it helped the NSW team tremendously—a huge thank-you to both.
How does the One ATC Williams approach benefit regional offices?
We are fortunate at ATCW because our smaller regional offices get to work on high-quality projects alongside the larger offices, so our clients know they have national support. We go where the work is, assisting our clients to achieve great outcomes on projects locally, interstate, and globally.
Projects are shared between staff in all our offices, no matter the size of the project. We work together and share our skills collaboratively across the company. Therefore, the NSW staff also work on projects in other states and overseas in countries such as Mongolia and India.
What are you most proud of achieving?
Our people are our best asset, and I have seen so much growth in our staff since opening. Adin Uhrig has built his technical and leadership skills and is now our Newcastle Team Leader, as well as managing his own projects. Laxmi Suwal, our lab manager, is from a purely academic background and is now producing high-end work in the commercial consulting space. I know our future lies in mentoring and building the skills, confidence, and knowledge of our team.
The new lab and office in Newcastle were brilliant achievements and a testament to the team we have there, ably led by Glen Burton, Principal Engineer. We are lucky to have two Australian laboratory locations offering top-notch material characterisation services.
I’m also proud of the growth we have achieved while keeping our clients happy. Our long-term relationships are stronger than ever, and we have reconnected with old clients. These strong client relationships, along with a strong team, will help us deliver projects and solutions for our clients for many years to come.
