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Rod McDonald

Principal Engineer

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BEng (Mechanical) | MEngMgt | RPEQ | CPEng | EngExec | NER | APEC Engineer | IntPE(Aus)

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Rod McDonald is a co-founder and Managing Director of Black Square Engineering and a third-generation engineer with more than 30 years of experience in engineering, drafting, design, inspection and technical consulting.

Rod began his career as a mechanical drafter in 1995 before progressing through diploma, advanced diploma and degree-level mechanical engineering qualifications.

 

He became a registered professional engineer in 2007 and later completed a Master of Engineering Management.

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His engineering career has covered pressure vessels, tanks and materials handling through to heavy machinery, cranes, elevated work platforms, drill rigs, earthmoving equipment, trucks, winches, dam infrastructure and amusement rides.

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Today, Rod's role is increasingly focused on technical direction, engineering risk, complex equipment, forensic investigation and providing experienced engineering judgement where there is not necessarily a straightforward answer in a standard or code.

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A significant part of Rod's expertise comes from working with machinery and engineering problems that do not fit neatly within conventional solutions.

 

While he regularly works with Australian Standards, codes of practice and regulatory requirements, many of the projects referred to him involve unusual equipment, novel applications or existing machinery where engineering principles and professional judgement are as important as applying a prescribed standard.

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This is particularly relevant at the front end of complex projects. Rod works with clients and engineering teams to establish technical direction early, identify potential safety, reliability and project risks, and avoid committing to solutions that create larger engineering problems later.

Machinery, Plant & Infrastructure Engineering

Rod has extensive experience in machinery structural design, machine elements, machinery systems, inspection and condition assessment, compliance and engineering risk.

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His earlier career included approximately a decade working extensively with tanks, pressure vessels and materials handling systems. This was followed by around 15 years focused heavily on machinery including drill rigs, earthmoving equipment, cranes, elevated work platforms, trucks, winches, dam gates and amusement rides.

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More recently, Rod has acted as project lead or senior technical adviser on complex and high-value infrastructure equipment. Representative work has included flood barrier systems for Cross River Rail, technical assistance associated with Wivenhoe Dam, inclined-shaft access platforms and cars, and testing of the segment lifting crane for the new Derwent River bridge.

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Rod remains particularly involved in physical testing, inspection and field engineering. He considers inspection of plant and machinery to be an exercise in applied subject-matter expertise: understanding not only whether equipment satisfies a particular requirement, but its condition, suitability, operating environment and the risks associated with its continued use.

Forensic Engineering & Accident Investigation

Forensic engineering and accident investigation have become a significant part of Rod's work.

He provides subject-matter expertise in matters involving machinery, equipment and workplace practices, including investigations into how equipment was designed, maintained and operated and how work was undertaken around it.

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This work requires more than identifying a failed component or immediate cause. Rod's approach is to reconstruct the sequence of events and examine the engineering, operational and human factors that allowed an incident to occur.

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His forensic work frequently involves providing technical expertise to legal professionals and other parties requiring an independent engineering assessment of machinery incidents, workplace practices and engineering failures.

Engineering in Unusual & Remote Environments

Rod describes himself as an "engineering tourist" — someone who has deliberately built a career around interesting clients, unusual equipment and engineering problems that require investigation rather than repetition.

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That experience has taken him from major infrastructure assets to remote Australian communities where specialist engineering support can be difficult to access.

 

Through Black Square Engineering, Rod has undertaken work in locations including the Bass Strait islands, Norfolk Island, western Queensland and remote communities across northern and central Australia.

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His project experience has also included work for the Australian Antarctic Division.

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The common thread is equipment or infrastructure where clients need an experienced engineer capable of understanding the complete problem, challenging assumptions and providing practical technical direction.

Qualifications & Professional Registrations

  • Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering — Queensland University of Technology

  • Master of Engineering Management

  • Advanced Diploma of Engineering (Mechanical)

  • Diploma of Engineering (Mechanical)

  • Certificate in Applied Science (Computer Aided Design)

  • Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ) — Mechanical, Structural, Amusement Rides and Devices In-Service Inspection

  • Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) — Mechanical, Structural, Amusement Rides, Leadership and Management

  • Engineering Executive (EngExec)

  • National Engineering Register (NER) — Mechanical, Structural and Amusement Rides

  • APEC Engineer

  • International Professional Engineer (IntPE(Aus))

  • Professionally Registered Engineer — ACT, Mechanical and Structural

  • BLA-endorsed Professional Engineer — Victoria, Mechanical and Structural

  • Qualified Engineer and Structural Inspector — Sea Freight Container Inspection Stands

Areas of Engineering Expertise

Industry Experience

Rod regularly works with engineering and workplace safety requirements including:

  • Work Health and Safety legislation and regulation

  • Codes of practice for managing risks associated with plant

  • AS 1418 and AS 2550 crane standards

  • AS 4024 Safety of Machinery series

  • API standards relating to drilling equipment

  • Workplace falls and access requirements

  • Engineering-principles-based assessment of equipment not adequately addressed by prescriptive standards

High-Risk Plant & Field Qualifications

Rod's practical field qualifications include:

  • General Construction White Card

  • Working at Heights

  • Confined Space

  • C6 Slewing Mobile Crane licence

  • Dogging

  • Basic and Intermediate Rigging

  • Relevant industry and site inductions

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