Dirt men step ahead of rising green shoots

You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but Adam Kilsby represents a crucial financial vertebra in WA's economic backbone.

The managing director of global environment consultancy firm Golder Associates can quite rightly claim to play one of the most important roles in the development of some of the State's biggest infrastructure projects.

The new Perth stadium, redevelopment of Crown Perth, the City Link project and a handful of billion-dollar Pilbara iron ore developments all have Golder's fingerprints on them.

But you won't hear about Golder when the fireworks are going off, nor can you actually touch what Golder does.

And that's because most of its work is done below the surface.

"For things such as the (Perth) stadium, we do the ground and environmental engineering," Adelaide-based Mr Kilsby said during a stopover in Perth this week. "Essentially, what needs to be done to prepare the ground from both an environmental and a geotechnical or foundation perspective to build big infrastructure projects.

"Obviously it's not as sexy as structural engineering. You go and build a Perth stadium and everyone will notice the architecture and the functionality, fair enough, it should be admired.

"But no one's going to be talking about the foundations, except the guys involved in the project.

"But it's probably the most important element - there's a lot of unknowns, every bit of dirt is different. That's why I love it so much."

Mr Kilsby would not go into too much detail about the controversial stadium site at Burswood itself, saying any ground next to a river had "lots of challenges".

And that comment goes a long way to explain how Golder operates.

As Mr Kilsby suggested, the private company prefers to keep below the surface, with its engineers and consultants going about their jobs without too much fuss.

The company employs more than 200 people in Perth and has been operating locally for more than 30 years.

Golder does not disclose its Australian revenue, but a spokesman said it sits within the range $50 million to $200 million.

The company is arguably the industry leader in the highly lucrative environmental consultancy sector, helping WA companies navigate the minefield that is environmental approval. And those in WA's mining industry will be more than familiar with Golder's work.

Its reliance on the sector hit home in May when the company axed 40 jobs in Perth - 150 Australia-wide - because of the mining slowdown.

It was one of a number of consultancy firms across WA which keenly felt the drop in mining activity, with redundancies becoming a common theme.

Yet, according to Mr Kilsby, some "green shoots" are beginning to reappear.

"It's no secret the market's tough at the moment, particularly in WA, being heavily dependent on the mining sector," he said.

"And the redundancies we had affected that (the Perth group) significantly.

"But - and I'm not just saying this - we're genuinely starting to see some green shoots appearing.

"A lot of mining companies have cleaned up their businesses, they've taken the writedowns and they're moving forward into the OK-what's-next area.

"Right now it's still very depressed but we're still seeing some work coming through the door (and) overall we're more confident than we were six months ago."

And like much of the commentary surrounding the future of WA's resources industry, Mr Kilsby sees Golder's future in oil and gas.

"Oil and gas is much smoother, there's more longer-term planning," he said.

"It's been the biggest area of growth for the past five years, since the GFC. It's buffered us a bit from the mining slowdown and I see that continuing.

"In a broader sense, I see our business moving more from the development phase into the operational phase of projects.

"Helping the mining companies become more efficient and more competitive. There's a new economy out there . . . and we're not waiting for the economy to bounce back as it was two years ago."