Gavan McDonell

Gavan John McDonell, FTSE, is an Australian civil engineer, economist and political sociologist with distinguished achievements as an international adviser and investment banker, public commissioner and academic in the economics and policy of public infrastructure and in the sociology and philosophy of sustainability theory and policy. He is Adjunct Professor in the School of History and Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney (1). He has directed four public commissions of enquiry on unrelated technological issues-Northern Territory transport and development, road and rail freight transport, the electricity sector, and toxic waste-for various State and Federal Governments, with extensive policy consequences. He has also held senior public/private sector and international appointments and been a consultant and advisor in over forty countries.

Educational Qualifications

Born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1932, he took
* a civil engineering degree from the University of Queensland, in 1955, majoring in engineering structures under Professor John Lavery, a leading designer and theorist ;
* a Master of Arts in political economy and international studies from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, in 1961, where he was a student of Simon Kuznets, Fritz Machlup and Owen Lattimore (also studying at the London School of Economics with Edith Penrose) with a thesis on transport and location policy in post-revolutionary China. Kuznets was distinguished for his work on revolutionising econometrics, measuring the US Gross National Product and for his theory of international economic growth, and received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Economics; Machlup was an influential Austrian economist and friend and colleague of Ludwig von Mises and Alfred Schutz, widely-known for his prolific work on finance and on the production of knowledge; Lattimore was a leading historian of China's relations with the West, had been a close adviser on China to the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his turbulent investigation by Senator Joseph McCarthy formed a major episode in that period of American history. Edith Penrose authored the seminal book "The Theory of the Growth of the Firm" and later wrote extensively on the economics of Middle East oil.
* a PhD in political and economic sociology from the University of New South Wales, student of Sol Encel and Michael Pusey, in 1987, with a thesis on the sociology and economics of infrastructure industries. Encel, regarded as the 'father of Australian sociology', has written widely on Australian politics and society and Pusey has published influential work on the sociology of the Australian public service.
* In 1997 he received the rarely awarded higher Doctorate of Engineering from the University of Queensland, one of only thirteen granted since that institution's founding, for a two volume treatise on his career works in infrastructure policy, planning and management. The doctoral award citation observed that his work ‘… marked the emergence of a new field which has burst the bounds of the old field of engineering economics.’

Early career

* After working as a construction engineer in Tasmania with Hydro Tasmania and Caltex Australasia, during 1956-59 he was a design engineer with Ove Arup and Partners in London, and managed their Ghana office. Ove Arup and Partners became the engineers for the Sydney Opera House in 1957. In London he contributed to the structural design of the Golden Lane Estateand the Bank of England's Returned Note Building; in Ghana he supervised and designed structures for bridge and building projects, including architecture by Maxwell Fryand Jane Drew.
* Between 1961-63 he was executive engineer and economic adviser with the Northern Nigerian government, responsible for the economic and demographic aspects of the Greater Kano Masterplan (2) for the city of Kano, capital of its Province and centre of the large groundnut trade; this was one of the first regional development plans in Africa South of the Sahara.
* Between 1963-66 he was financial assistant to the Managing Director and Board of McDonald Industries Ltd, Sydney, and then that company's project manager for the construction of the mine at Frances Creek and port facilities at Darwin, Northern Territory, the first Australian-owned and managed iron ore project.
* In 1966 he became foundation Director of the Department of Transport in the Government of Papua New Guinea, embracing land, sea and air transport, the first with that scope in the Australian Commonwealth, subsequently used as a model elsewhere (3).
* In 1971, developed the economic and transport aspects of the first City of Sydney Strategic Plan (4) which with triennial reviews guided CBD development for 20 years; and established an international consultancy specialising in economics, infrastructure, regional and planning studies. Through this firm he has directed or taken part in many studies in countries of Africa, Asia, Indian and Pacific Ocean and South America.

elected Projects

These include:
* Energy market integration studies, East Asia, 2007-(East Asia Summit Research Initiative)
* Regional agricultural, transport and hydroelectric development, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, early 1980s (Australian Development Assistance Bureau AusAID)
* The role of interconnection in the Australian National Electricity Market-with Intelligent Energy Systems [http://www.iesys.com.au Intelligent Energy Systems] , early 2000s (Ministers of the National Electricity Market)
* Sydney metropolitan regional hospital and health plans, involving the first resource allocation based formal planning models in this sector, 1970s (NSW Health Commission)(5)
* Energy, transport, environment investment strategies and projects, Central Asia and the Caucasus (see below), early-mid 1990s European Bank for Reconstruction and Development . These included pipeline, highway, port, airport and electricity projects in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia and on the Caspian Sea
* Yangtze Economic Zone (Shanghai, Chejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui) Energy and Transport Study (see below), late 1980s(World Bank)
* Regional ferry and port development, islands of eastern Indonesia, 1970s-80s (Australian Development Assistance Bureau)
* Regional economic, transport and aviation development, East Africa and Central Africa, mid 1980s (Australian Development Assistance Bureau)
* Regional economic, environmental and transport appraisals and investment analysis, Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, 1990, (Australian Development Assistance Bureau). This has become one of the most famous Australian development assistance projects in Asia.
* Design and development of the economic principles for the Ancillary Services Markets in the Australian National Electricity Market, late 1990s, (NEMMCO National Electricity Market Management Company}. Ancillary services are the electrical resources required to keep a power grid in instantaneous balance and this market was claimed by the regulators at the time as the first such market in the world(5A)
* Beira-Machipanda transport corridor, Mozambique, 1985 (Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference)
* Tea industry development, Kenya, 1980s (World Bank)
* Australian national rail cost recovery and competition, (Inter-State Commission)
* Strategy for the Port of Melbourne and other commercial Victorian ports, 1982 (Victorian Government)
* Chittagong port development, Bangladesh, 1980 (Asian Development Bank)
* Regional highways, south and central Thailand, early 1970s (World Bank)
* Ports and shipping upgrading, Guyana, mid 1970s (World Bank) (6)
* Regional highways, Kalimantan, Indonesia, early 1970s, (Australian Development Assistance Bureau) (6)
* Cotabato City port development, Mindanao, Philippines, 1972 (Asian Development Bank)

National and International Appointments

* 1998-2003 Member, National Electricity Tribunal, Australia-in the Murraylink v National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) case he gave the minority decision which led to the reframing of the key investment criterion for major transmission investment in the Australian National Electricity Market (7). The majority opinion was overturned on appeal to the Victorian Supreme Court.
* 1992-95 Senior Investment Banker, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, responsible for drafting energy, environmental and transport projects and strategy for the Bank’s programs in the eight former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan)(8).
* 1988-90 Independent Academic Member, Steering Commission, Yangtze Economic Zone Transport and Energy Study, World Bank/People's Republic of China (9). This study, which embraced over 25% of China’s population and GDP and was the largest World Bank study in China to that date, resulted in major investments.
* 1988 Convenor, Joint Taskforce on Intractable Waste. Commonwealth, Victorian and New South Wales Governments (10). This initiative influenced the abandonment in Australia of high temperature incineration as a hazardous waste disposal option and resulted in the establishment of extensive public consultation processes which led to major changes in policy on toxic wastes.
* 1985-86 Sole Commissioner, Commission of Enquiry into Electricity Generation Planning in New South Wales, appointed by NSW Government. This Commission was associated with operational and planning failures and issues in the electricity industry in New South Wales and Victoria in the early 1980s. Resulted in the abandonment of proposed coal power stations valued at $12billion, restructuring of the State’s power monopoly utility and instigated the development of the national grid and regional markets. This report established basis of default policy on coal fired power stations until early 2000s.
* Between 1982-84 he was seconded to the Ministry of Transport, Victoria, as Deputy Director General of Transport, responsible for that State’s strategic planning and investment in transport and for institutional and market oriented reforms (11). He had principal advisory responsibility to the Minister for the annual investment budget, at that time about $2billion.
* 1978-80 Sole Commissioner, Commission of Enquiry into Road and Rail Freight Transport, appointed by Governor of NSW. This Commission was associated with the national “truckies’ blockades” of the late 1970s which had heavy impacts on NSW, the hub of the national freight transport system, and all mainland capitals. The report led to and influenced extensive state and later national legislative and regulatory changes regarding economic, safety and environmental matters. It also recommended the reorganisation of the State’s major freight marshalling facility and use of the site for public purposes, subsequently realised as the development of Sydney’s Darling Harbour Precinct.
* 1971-72 Sole Commissioner, Commission of Enquiry into Darwin Port and Northern Territory Transport, appointed by Administrator of the Northern Territory. Provided integrated land transport analysis resulting in the abandonment of plans for major investment in Port Darwin and the promotion of coastal shipping and State/Territory road transport. The report established basis of default policy for transcontinental north/south transport until commencement of the Adelaide/Darwin rail service in 2004.

Academic career

In 1988 he was appointed to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales to develop a new approach to teaching and research in the sociology and politics of the environment, resulting in his establishing the Faculty's Interdisciplinary Program in Environmental Studies. The program, and his related research (12), focusses on the epistemological, sociological and political dimensions of sustainability and discursive democracy. He published on the sociology of knowledge and everyday life in relation to risk and the environment, and on the associated politics of knowledge. He was an early contributor to transdisciplinarity studies (13).

Later Work

In the late 90s and early 2000s he was a consultant/adviser on policy and design of the National Electricity Market (14). During this period, he also supervised six successful PhD programs and mentored a similar number. More recently he has been engaged as an economic adviser on Asian energy research.

Professional Awards

*Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 1990
*Fellow, Australian Institute of Management, 1983
*Fellow, Institution of Engineers, Australia 1972
*Fellow, Royal Geographic Society, 1964

elected Bibliography

* "NSW Government Ownership in a Mandatory Pool: 'Neither fish nor fowl nor ...'" in G. Munro, V.Sands, eds, "Power Progress", Australian Scholarly Publishers, Melbourne 2003.
* "The Euro-Asian Corridor: Freight and Energy Transport for Central Asia and the Caspian Region". Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1995
* "Report of the Commission of Enquiry into NSW Electricity Generation Planning". 4 Volumes. NSW Government, 1986.
* "Report of the Commission of Enquiry into NSW Road and Rail Freight Transport". 6 Volumes. NSW Government, 1980.
* "Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Port Darwin and the Development of the Northern Territory". Administration of the Northern Territory, Darwin/ Department of Territories, Canberra.
* "Minority Decision by Professor Gavan McDonell", Murraylink v NEMMCO, National Electricity Tribunal, 2003
* About a hundred published studies and papers in fields indicated above, travel and historical essays, and verse.

References

*(1) "Who's Who in Australia", since 1968
*(2) Http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=)54%3A3%3C353%3ATDOGCT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1
*(3) GJ McDonell, Studies and programmes for transport facilities in Papua New Guinea, "Journal of the Institution of Engineers Australia", September, 1970
*(4) Council of the City of Sydney, "City of Sydney Strategic Plan", 1971
*(5) Gavan McDonell and Lawrence Nield (1976), "Methodology of the Western Sydney Metropolitan Hospitals Development Plan", ANZSEARCH, Sydney; Gavan McDonell and Ian Booth (1977) "Systems analysis and hospital planning: the case of the Sydney Western Metropolitan Health Region". ANZAAS Congress, Sydney.
*(5A) National Electricity Code Administrator (NECA); National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO)
*(6) For example, [http://taylorandfrancis.com/index/V21717U.pdf] , Kalimantan economic survey; and [http://www.sndp.org.gy/undp-docs/rsts/B5.html] Guyana water transport
*(7) Determinations of the Tribunal, at [http://Www.netribunal.net.au]
*(8) [Http://ourworld.compuserve.com/HOMEPAGES/USAZERB.224.htm]
*(9) For example, The Yangtze Economic Zone Study at [http://Www.worldbank.org.cn/Chinese/content/649p.shtml]
*(10) For example, [http://www.american.edu/TED/auswaste.htm]
*(11) Ministry of Transport, Victoria, "Transport development: policies and process", July 1983
*12) For example, on trust-"Scientific and everyday knowledge: trust and the politics of environmental initiatives", "Social Studies of Science", December 1997 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=)27%3A6%3C819%3ASAEKTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H] ; on risk, Conference of the European Society for Risk Analysis, 1996 [http://www.riskworld.com/abstract/1996/sraeurop/ab6ad151.htm] ;
*(13) [http://Unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011//11469eo.pdf]
*(14) For example, a review of proposals for restructuring regulation of the Australian National Electricity Markets, [http://www.tec.org/energy]

External links

* University of New South Wales School of History and Philosophy Staff List and Publications: [http://www.hist-phil.arts.unsw.edu.au/staff/]
* Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering [http://www.atse.org.au/focus]