Water legend nominated for prestigious award
Hydrogeologist Steve Tickell was nominated in the Australian Water Association (AWA)'s Water Professional of the Year Award category at the 2023 NT Water Awards earlier this year and is a finalist.
State and territory winners go through to the national awards to be announced at Ozwater’24 to be held in Melbourne from 28 April to 2 May next year.
To say Steve has accomplished a lot in his 50+ years in his chosen field of water science would be an understatement.
In his 30 + years in Water Resources, he has become an icon of groundwater in the Northern Territory (NT) and it would be rare to not find ‘Tickell’ cited on a technical report or paper that discusses groundwater in the NT.
A ‘Steve Tickell’ branded product comes with the assurance that it is based on sound knowledge and good judgement, resulting from many years of experience and being involved across a broad range of earth science disciplines.
He is often sought for collaborative projects, both within and outside the department as he has a reputation for being consultative, cooperative and a person who freely shares his knowledge.
Highlights of his work include hydrogeological mapping in the Victoria River Basin, Daly Basin and Darwin rural area, as well as groundwater studies for the Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment (SREBA) mainly involving the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer of the Georgina, Daly and Wiso Basins.
Steve is a good communicator at all levels and within the workplace is a mentor for most of the groundwater staff.
Even to this day, he welcomes graduate hydrogeologists to his home to train on how to log drill cuttings.
Anyone who has worked with Steve will know he is prolific in mapping and documentation of outcomes.
He plays a large part in instigating new groundwater analysis techniques and data processing and is the key link in communicating groundwater data and information to the public via the department’s web page interfaces.
Steve has completed a large number of hydrogeological maps in the NT and beyond, and this is largely due to his self-developed expertise in Arc GIS software and years of accumulated local knowledge.
When Steve joined Water Resources 30 years ago, mapping was not done on a computer – maps were all hand-drawn and traced by draughtsmen and women.
However, he self-taught and developed computer skills, and learned computer programming.
Eventually, after only a short period of time, he pioneered the shift from hardcopy reports and maps to CDs and DVDs for stakeholder distribution and then further to web page development.
Steve is also community minded. Outside working hours, Steve works at the local opportunity shop, and is involved in several charity-based activities.
