WA Christmas Lunch

PESA WA branch held its annual Christmas event and AGM on Thursday 12th December at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel. There were 150 members registered for the event.

The WA Branch President, Adam Craig welcomed everyone to the event and opened the AGM with a thankyou to all the sponsors who support PESA and without whom PESA would not be able to run its events for its members.

Adam presented a summary of the years events run by the branch; including the luncheon and evening technical series presentations, the webinars, YP and SSIG events, the golf day and the ‘Spring Fling’ social event.

Adam presented the financials for the WA branch and there was much laughter from the floor as the financials show a near miss ‘balanced budget’ for 2024.

The 2025 branch committee was presented by Adam including returning committee members and newly nominated members. Adam indicated that he was stepping down as WA President after a four year tenure. Fiona Burns was nominated as the incoming WA President. The committee was unanimously accepted by those present.

A number of presentations were made including the annual Horstman postgraduate scholarship prize and membership recognition certificates. The Hortsman prize was awarded to Chris Watts and Adam stated he was looking forward to seeing his presentation at the usual November evening technical presentation event.

Sadly, in 2024 two distinguished members of PESA passed away; Grant Ellis and John Gorter. Both members were active supporters and contributors to the society and were memorialised at events during the year with obituaries published in the year. There were multiple nominations for a posthumous award of a distinguished service award (DSA) for John Gorter and PESA was happy to accept the endorsement. The DSA was proudly presented to Ms Eva Skira by PESA President Helen Debenham.

Also certificates were awarded to the members present who had reached membership milestones this year, showing the appreciation PESA has for the members, especially those who have stood by us for many years.

The speaker for the event Ernie Delfos gave his presentation “the colour of rocks” which was a retrospective view of his career in the petroleum exploration industry.

The event was followed by the usual “after party” at the Metro Bar and kicked on into the evening.