Elisha Harris has far more letters after her name than she has in it. 

Her post-nominals are: PhD BE(Civil) (Hons I) LLB(Hons I) FIEAust CPEng EngExec NER APEC Engineer IntPE(Aus) RBP(NT) RPEQ RPEV. 

Which is not bad for a woman in what is still very much a blokes’ profession. 

Elisha, who was named Australian Professional Engineer of the Year by Engineers Australia – the first time ever for a Territorian – is a highly educated, fearless trailblazer. And she’s a straight talker. 

In a speech to engineers and politicians at Parliament House in Darwin in late 2024, she said: “Despite good intentions, despite goals and action plans, women’s participation in engineering seems to be refusing to budge. 

“It is important to acknowledge that women are treated differently from their male counterparts. For me, this has ranged from being ignored to mansplaining and, hey, who doesn’t enjoy a few rape jokes on a construction site.” 

After presenting an award at an Engineers Australia dinner, she was asked by a young engineer: “Why would anyone listen to you in a meeting if there were men in the room?” 

And, even more offensively: “Is your husband a real man for letting you go back to work after you had kids?” 

Elisha says this kind of treatment is not an everyday occurrence. 

“And it’s certainly not most people who hold such views. But it’s frequent enough that when it does happen, it’s not unexpected. And that’s not okay.” 

Of course, most engineers are open-minded professionals. For instance, one of her old bosses in Darwin allowed her to continue as a team leader while working only three days a week while she cared for her first child. 

Elisha is a founder and director of highly-regarded Darwin-based project management and engineering company Harris Kmon Solutions. 

She is a structural engineer and is responsible for the company’s structures, civil and Defence teams, plus financial management and legal matters. 

Elisha has built a reputation for handling complex projects, including navigating the requirements of Defence projects – recognised throughout all industries as the most demanding of all – and nurturing up-and-coming engineers. 

And she has a keen sense of community involvement – staff are given 24 working hours of leave each year for volunteer activities of their choice. 

Elisha, who is a Doctor of Philosophy and has university degrees in civil engineering and law, is the chair or member of several committees and boards. 

Harris Kmon Solutions has worked on a wide range of projects, including Defence, Indigenous housing development, women’s emergency housing, water treatment plants, sporting and social infrastructure, and health facilities. 

The firm has grown from two founding members 10 years ago to having 55 staff across five offices – Darwin, Cairns, Townsville, Geelong, and Ballarat. 

Elisha was born in Townsville into a working-class family, the oldest of three children. 

Both her parents left school after year 10. Her father Trevor was a shift worker on the railways and her mother Marilyn started as a library assistant. 

“We were an average family, just like everyone living around us. My childhood had its ups and downs, like all childhoods, but it was happy. 

“Having said that, like most kids who went to school then uni in Townsville, as soon as I graduated, I left.” 

She was the first member of her extended family to go to university, although her parents also started studying as part-time mature-age students the same year, and her siblings followed not long after. 

Elisha went to state schools and achieved her engineering degree from James Cook University in Townsville. 

“I didn’t choose engineering to be ‘brave’ or to make some sort of feminist statement. I didn’t choose engineering to show that women can and do make valuable contributions to the industry. 

“I chose engineering because I knew university was a real option, because I love the numbers and because I was wilfully oblivious to the often-unintentional messages that turn so many women away from the field. 

“I’ve always been a bit of a maths nerd. Working with numbers brings me inexplicable joy. And I’m good at it. 

“Despite being 27 years into an engineering career, I still relish working the numbers to get the solution. I always loved maths, and when I started physics – that real application of maths – I was sold.” 

She didn’t particularly enjoy her first year working as a consulting engineer in Brisbane. 

“After a bit over a year, 22-year-old me decided that I didn’t really like where I was living, wasn’t overly fussed on my relationship and wasn’t particularly excited about the 9 to 5. It sounds silly in hindsight, but it suddenly occurred to me that the only one with the power to change that was me, to create a new opportunity for myself.” 

She quit her job, dumped her boyfriend and moved to Sydney where she completed her PhD and met Chris, the soldier who would become her husband. 

The couple have had an on-off relationship with Darwin because of Defence postings – Chris lived in the Territory capital before the couple met and was posted back for eight years in 2005, only to be moved to Melbourne for three years and then back to Darwin in 2015. 

Chris has since left the military and is now a firefighter. 

The house moving has given Elisha an insight into the differences in life – and business culture – between big interstate cities and Darwin. 

For instance: “The reaction of management to my parental leave and subsequent return did not seem to receive the same level of warmth as it did in Darwin with my first two kids. But by then I’d done this all before and couldn’t have cared less what people thought.” 

Elisha and Bill Kmon founded what was to become a thriving business in 2015. They were joined by Richard Oppusunggu a few months later. 

The directors work hard to nurture a happy team at work. 

“We offer flexibility to all of our team members,” Elisha says. ”Wanting to work part-time or adjusted hours isn’t the sole domain of women with children. It is open to everyone whether it be for caring responsibilities, study commitments or simply because that’s how they want to organise their life. 

“Wanting and getting flexibility is not a barrier to advancement. And, happily, I can see that while conversations relating to topics such as flexibility have historically been framed as being driven by the needs of women with children, I think most people have realised that there are benefits for everyone and universal flexibility is much more the norm. 

“I would also say that having a woman at the top has clearly influenced the team that we have. I can hand-on-heart say that I believe that every person who is in the organisation has no question in their minds regarding the value of women’s contributions to the industry.” 

Elisha wants more women to take up engineering. 

“We need young girls to understand what we do, why it is important, the opportunities available to them and how valuable their inputs can be.” 

Elisha and Chris have three children: Angus, 16, Makenna, 14, and 12-year-old Oscar. 

Will any of them be engineers? 

“I don’t know. Angus has always said he will not be an engineer, but his artwork as a kid included site plans of his school. So maybe…” TQ