Quality, Safety and High Standards: Working with an RPEQ accredited engineer

In 2025, the role of an RPEQ Engineer in Queensland is critical, by why? What sets an RPEQ accredited engineer apart from other engineers? How can your business benefit from working with an RPEQ and what is their role in the industry?

A Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ) has been successfully assessed by an Assessment Entity (like Engineers Australia, or The Institution of Structural Engineers), on behalf of the Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (BPEQ) to verify that their qualifications, competency and commitment to ongoing development will:

1. Protect the public by ensuring professional engineering services are carried out with professionalism and competence.

2. Maintain public confidence in the standard of service of RPEQs.

3. Uphold the standards of practice of RPEQs.

What does this mean? This will be a very long blog post if we go into all the details, so we will have to consider this post an introduction…

Professional Engineering Services

This is any engineering service that requires the application of engineering principles to a design or activity. Take for example, calculation of the wind loadings on a building to the requirements of the Australian wind loading standard AS1170.2 – this would be an engineering service.

The consequences of getting this service wrong would be on one extreme that the building is blown over in a mild breeze. Less catastrophic outcomes would be that the building sways in the same mild breeze to the point where the occupants feel uncomfortable.

Regarding the wind induced swaying of a building, see the formula below copied from AS/NZS 1170.2 (the Australian wind loading standard). To be honest, it is a huge formula, with lots of variables, too many brackets and heaps of opportunities to make mistakes. The point is that engineers (should have) spent a lot of time studying mathematics to evaluate formulas like this and part of the RPEQ process is verifying that an engineers’ degree contained this education, and we can competently apply it after graduation.

Formula from AS/NZS 1170.2 - the Australian wind loading standard

Another standard full of long and tricky formulae is IEEE Std 1584-2018, check out this giant:

Formula IEEE Std 1584-2018

Engineering isn’t just blindly putting numbers into formulae. Judgement, developed through experience, about the outcome of the calculation and whether it accurately models reality is more important:

• If the stress in your long, slender column is well below the yield strength is everything fine? No, long, slender columns don’t generally fail by yielding, they fail by buckling.

• If your finite element simulation says stresses are very low, surprisingly low, is your model good? Probably not, I’ll bet you haven’t checked your loads are actually applied to the model.

Commitment To Ongoing Development 

This means that an RPEQ keeps developing their skills. An RPEQ is required to undertake 150 hours of professional development over any rolling 3-year period. This would include things like formal short courses and workplace learning activities.

Eligibility to be an RPEQ

In short, to be eligible to become an RPEQ, engineers must meet the following:

1. Have a 4-year degree from a university that meets the standards of the Washington Accord (an international agreement on engineering degree content).

2. Have a defined area of practice – Mechanical, Electrical, Structural, etc.

3. Gain experience (including professional development) – approximately 5 years of experience post-graduation relevant to area of practice.

4. Be assessed – this varies between assessment bodies but likely includes several essays on career experiences followed by an interview with experienced engineers.

   
   

Checking An Engineer’s RPEQ Status

All Registered Professional Engineers Queensland are listed on the Queensland Government website and can be found here with an RPEQ search or on the RPEQ register on the Board of Professional Engineers Queensland website.