...in pursuit of control room best practice
ACRNA.org is the official website of the Australian Control Room Network Association.
The Australian Control Room Network Association is a non-commercial industry association formed to support Operators of Australian control rooms. The Association members are encouraged to share ideas and experiences with the overall aim of achieving continuous improvement with the services delivered.
The Association, through its members, will facilitate discussion and interaction by means of conferences, webinars and meetings. All members of the Association are encouraged to participate and support the activities of the Association.
In 2020, we faced the challenges of CoViD-19 and the social distancing and travel restrictions so important to our emergence from the pandemic.
ACRNA has responded with a sophisticated and professional platform which is now able to host webinars and acquire resources to support the members and their businesses.
History
In 2013, a number of control room stakeholders attended a Control Room Design and Operation conference in Sydney. It was unique and important and filled a room with 80 people. It was a forum which involved operators, managers, designers, human factors and ergonomics. It held the interest of representatives from oil, gas, electrical generation and distribution, market operators, transport, tunnels, mining and infrastructure; educators and researchers; consultants and trade vendors. It was a forum which had not been convened before in Australia.
It was held again in Sydney in 2014 and Melbourne in 2015.
It was evident that delegates wanted participation and representation – a members' organisation which would continue to provide and manage a members’ forum to support the control room industry.
Following the 2015 conference a few individuals created the Australian Control Rooms Network – a LinkedIn group – which provided an ongoing forum. They designed and produced OZCORONET 2016 – the group’s self-organised three day conference in Brisbane. Not only was the content professional and unusual, but the vitality and networking proved the appetite for this forum. The presentations included live theatre safety training with actors; eight case studies, international presenters and delegates; and eight facility site visits with an insights and lessons learnt panel session back at the conference with the site visit hosts. The Brisbane conference closed with the 73 registered participants voting to sustain this forum and to formalise it.
The Australian Control Room Network Association was registered with ASIC on the 9th November 2017. An Association committee was established with the main aims to seek corporate membership and to hold a conference in mid to late 2018.

Two foundation corporate memberships were established with Jemena and Transurban. The three day conference was held in Parramatta in November 2018, with the Association’s inaugural AGM held on day 3 with 55 people voting in a management committee of 11 and confirming the common goal to share and improve their knowledge of control room operation and design.
In November 2019, we held the ACRNA Annual Conference in Melbourne at which time we had grown to 110 members and 7 corporate members.
ACRNA endured through the COVID years of 2020 and 2021 with its very successful Webinar series. The video presentations retained the connections for Members and colleagues throughout this time, and fulfilled an initiative from the 2019 conference, to respond to the mission of the ACRNA – to provide resources and share platforms for the membership – in pursuit of control room best practice.
...and right now...
...while the ACRNA has grown to nearly 200 members, we continue our endeavours to re-energise the Annual Conference programme. Happily, as the country emerges from CoViD, we are finally able to convene the 2022 Conference in Sydney on 6-7 September.
As well, ACRNA continues its Webinar series, and developing relationships with other industry Associations and Peak Bodies.
The Benefits of Membership
The ACRNA is set up to support members with a resource gathering, sharing and development forum, and to provide a network of individuals and corporates who want to actively participate in pursuing control room best practice.
Membership of the Association provides those connections through the website, enables you to actively participate in gathering, sharing and developing resources, and participating in the ACRNA Webinar series.
Individual and Corporate Memberships are available.
ASIC and Fair Trading Status
The Australian Control Room Network Association (ACRNA) is a not-for-profit Incorporated Association with the Queensland Department of Justice Office of Fair Trading and an Australian Registered Body with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
It exists to provide and manage a members’ forum to support the control room industry.
ACRNA 2022
Management Committee
The ACRNA Management Committee meets monthly.
Geoff McKernan
President
Transurban
Mark Holmes
Vice President
Circadian Australia
Gary Botley
Secretary
Zetron
Russell Ockendon
Treasurer & Corporate Representative
Control Centres Australia
David Williams
Operations Manager
University of Melbourne
Joo Ean Prasad
Committee
Ausgrid
Anne Maddock
Committee
Ergonomie
Tim Pullens
Corporate Representative
Jemena
Trevor Franz
Corporate Representative
Transurban
Wayne Cardinal
Corporate Representative
Powerlink Queensland
Paul Lewis
Corporate Representative
Viva Energy
Adam Budzynski
Corporate Representative
AGL
Aleta Nicoll
Corporate Representative
Origin Energy