Top award for SL-born Boroondara building surveyor

Thursday, 13 January 2011 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Boroondara’s Municipal Building Surveyor, Asanka Kodikara was recently awarded the Victorian Municipal Building Surveyor of the Year 2010 by the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (AIBS) Victorian Chapter.

The chief guest of the conference was the former shadow Minister for Planning Mathew Guy and the event was also attended by the national president of the AIBS Terry Bush from Western Australia, CEO of AIBS Kevin Skauge, many dignitaries, representatives from the Building Commission of Victoria, RMIT University and other academic institutions, building industry professionals, private and municipal building surveyors.

The award recognises the contribution to the industry and the continuing enhancement of the profession as a municipal building surveyor within the local government of Victoria.

Asanka in his speech said: “I am deeply honoured and humbled by this award. It is a great achievement for a person who became a Building Surveyor by accident. I always wanted to be a lawyer because my father was a lawyer. I also thought of becoming an architect as I worked as an architectural assistant. However, I have now found the best of both worlds being a building surveyor, I deal with both legal and architectural aspects with my job and I have developed a deep passion for this challenging and unique profession. Not even for a moment that I would consider this award as a personal achievement alone, it was possible due to great team work thanks to my very capable team leaders and staff.”

Asanka was educated at Ananda College in Colombo and was employed with the leading architectural firm Surath Wickramasinghe Associates prior to migrating to Australia. Subsequently, he graduated from Swinburne University of Technology with a Bachelor’s degree in Building Surveying.

Asanka is currently employed as the Manager Building Services and the Council Delegate for the City of Boroondara for all building matters and the only Sri Lankan Building Surveyor to hold the statutory position of Municipal Building Surveyor (MBS) in the Local Government of Victoria.

Prior to joining Boroondara, Asanka was the Municipal Building Surveyor at the City of Kingston, where he opened a business unit for the Council providing an in-house building permits and a consultancy service. Asanka commenced his career in the Victorian local government at the City of Frankston starting as a student Building Surveyor and subsequently gained registration as a Registered Building Practitioner (RBP) in the category of Building Surveyor.

He was also the recipient of the Victorian Building Commission and Building Practitioner’s Board prestigious CPD Excellence Award in 2006 for continuing professional development in the professional category. Asanka holds numerous memberships with professional associations and institutes such as the Victorian Municipal Building Surveyor’s Group (MVBSG), Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (MAIBS) and Australian Institute of Building (MAIB).

Asanka was also the President of the Old Anandians Association of Victoria in the years 2008-2010. Asanka is the third son of the late Vivian Kodikara who was a prominent civil lawyer at the time in Sri Lanka and nephew of the late Prof. Shelton Kodikara, onetime Vice Chancellor of the Peradeniya University.