Civil engineering deals with the research, design, construction and maintenance of the human-made environment. Civil engineering has many different areas of focus or speciality areas. The main areas of focus that relate to buildings are: structural, geotechnical, and hydraulic engineering.

Civil engineers working in the building industry can work with foundations and footing systems, construction materials, structural systems, and hydraulic supply and waste systems.

Building engineers providing professional or technical engineering services in any of the above areas must be registered in the area of civil engineering.

However, design of water supply, sanitary and drainage plumbing is excluded from the definition of building engineering work. People contracting for or doing plumbing design work are not required to be registered as building engineers.

Structural engineering primarily deals with the research, design, construction, monitoring, maintenance, rehabilitation and demolition of buildings and incidental structures, both permanent and temporary.

Structural engineers working in the building industry can work with foundations and footings systems, construction materials and structural systems.

Building engineers providing professional or technical engineering services in any of the above types of work must be registered. As structural engineering is an area of focus of civil engineering, a practitioner may be registered as either a civil engineer or a structural engineer, or may apply for dual registration.

Mechanical engineering involves the research, design, construction, analysis, manufacture and maintenance of devices, machines, and mechanical structures and systems.

Mechanical engineers working in the building industry work with mechanical systems for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC-R); smoke control; vertical transport; thermal and environmental systems; and systems to aid people with disabilities.

Building engineers providing professional or technical engineering services in any of the above types of work must be registered in the area of mechanical engineering.

Fire safety engineering involves the application of scientific and engineering principles, rules, and expert judgement based on an appreciation of the fire phenomenon, the effects of fire and the reaction and behaviour of people and materials to:

• save life, protect property and preserve the environment and heritage from destructive fire;
• assess the hazards and risk of fire and its effects;
• mitigate fire damage by proper design, construction, arrangement and use of buildings, materials, structures, industrial processes, and transportation systems; and
• evaluate analytically the optimum protective and preventive measures, including high-level fire safety design and strategies, necessary to limit, within prescribed levels, the consequences of fire.

Fire safety engineers develop holistic fire safety strategies and an integrated fire safety design which identifies all the fire safety measures required to meet the relevant performance requirements of the NCC to save life, protect property and preserve the built environment from destructive fire, through proper design, construction arrangements, and use of building materials.

Fire safety engineering is multidisciplinary in nature, having substantial relationships with building services, mechanical, electrical, electronics, chemical, structural and civil engineering, and embracing an understanding of human behaviour. However, a fire safety engineer who provides professional engineering services for buildings that span multidisciplinary areas is only required to be registered in the area of fire safety engineering.

Unlike the other areas of building engineering, fire safety engineers may only be registered at the professional level. The related technologist and associate levels, in the area of fire engineering, are fire systems engineers.

Fire systems technologists and associates may do technical engineering work for prescribed fire systems, including hydrant, hose reel and sprinkler systems; fire detection and alarm systems; and smoke control systems.

Fire systems technologists may design fire systems in buildings of any class and size. Fire systems associates may design fire systems in medium rise buildings. These scopes of work vary from those prescribed for engineering technologists and associates in other areas, being medium and low rise buildings respectively. This is because low rise buildings do not tend to have fire safety systems.

Professional building engineering contractors may do both professional and technical engineering work, for any size or class of building. This means applying engineering principles and data to a design, or construction or production activity, both in accordance with a prescriptive standard and otherwise.

Registered professional building engineers are professional engineers in accordance with the NCC definition, and may provide a certificate or report as evidence of suitability in accordance with the NCC Part A5.2, and undertake any other work that the NCC states may or must be done by a professional engineer.

Building engineering technologist contractors may do technical engineering work for medium rise buildings without supervision. This means applying engineering principles and data to a design, or construction or production activity, in accordance with a prescriptive standard, for medium rise buildings.

The exception to this rule is fire systems technologists, who may do technical engineering work without supervision for buildings of any size or class. Low-rise buildings don’t tend to contain fire safety systems, so the permitted scope of work for fire systems technologists is unrestricted.

The general restriction to medium rise buildings does not mean that building engineering technologists may undertake all engineering work for medium rise buildings. The restriction to technical engineering work also applies. Professional engineering work for medium rise buildings must still be undertaken by a registered professional building engineer.

Registered building engineering technologists may, subject to the determination of the certifying building surveyor and/or permit authority, be ‘appropriately qualified persons’ in accordance with the NCC definition. As an appropriately qualified person, building engineering technologists may provide a certificate or report as evidence of suitability in accordance with the NCC Part A5.2, or undertake any other work that the NCC states may be done by an appropriately qualified person.

Building engineering associate contractors may do technical engineering work for low rise buildings without supervision. This means applying engineering principles and data in accordance with a prescriptive standard, for low rise buildings. The exception to this rule is fire systems associates, who may do technical engineering work without supervision for medium rise buildings.

The general restriction to low rise buildings does not mean that engineering associates may undertake all engineering work for low rise buildings. The restriction to technical engineering work also applies. Professional engineering work for low rise buildings must still be undertaken by a professional engineer.

Registered building engineering associates may, subject to the determination of the certifying building surveyor and/or permit authority, be ‘appropriately qualified persons’ in accordance with the NCC definition. As an appropriately qualified person, building engineering associates may provide a certificate or report as evidence of suitability in accordance with the NCC Part A5.2, or undertake any other work that the NCC states may be done by an appropriately qualified person.

Professional engineering work is defined as being engineering work that requires, or is based on, the application of engineering principles and data to a design, or construction or production activity, relating to engineering; but does not include engineering work that is done only in accordance with a prescriptive standard.

Technical engineering work means engineering work that requires, or is based on, the application of engineering principles and data to a design, or construction or production activity, relating to engineering, and is done in accordance with a prescriptive standard.

The definition of ‘prescriptive standard’ is therefore key to deciphering both of these definitions.

A prescriptive standard is defined as being a document that states procedures or criteria —

1. for carrying out a design, or a construction or production activity, relating to engineering; and
2. the application of which, to the carrying out of the design, or the construction or production activity, does not require advanced scientifically based calculations.

A prescriptive standard must be a document, and:

1. state procedures or criteria for carrying out the design, or the construction or production activity to which it relates;
2. require little or no engineering judgement to apply the stated procedures or criteria; and
3. not require advanced, scientifically-based calculations to apply the stated procedures or criteria.

An example of a prescriptive standard is AS1684 Residential Timber Framed Construction.

A prescriptive standard may be published by a body such as Standards Australia, or produced by an individual engineer for application in particular circumstances. However, many Australian Standards will not meet the definition of ‘prescriptive standard’ because, for example, they require the exercise of judgement, or require advanced, scientifically-based calculations.

Procedures documented in a prescriptive standard must not require a choice or judgement, based on engineering knowledge or experience, to be made in applying them. A prescriptive standard may require the use of mathematical formulae to apply the documented procedures. Calculations required by a prescriptive standard must be those that could be performed by a person without the level of knowledge and experience of a professional engineer.

A decision to use a prescriptive standard may be a professional engineering service if it requires professional judgement about which prescriptive standard to apply in a particular situation. Alternatively, if a prescriptive standard defines precisely the circumstances in which it may be used, and it is used only in accordance with these requirements, then the decision to apply it may be technical engineering work.

However, the areas and levels of registration are defined by qualification, rather than type of work undertaken. And people are required to be registered to undertake both professional and technical engineering work. So defining the boundary between professional and technical engineering work is arguably both simpler and less imperative in WA than it is in jurisdictions which only regulate professional engineering work.