A Ballarat technology leader has been recognised for her efforts during the COVID pandemic with top honours at the state government's manufacturing awards night.
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On Thursday, Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, co-founder of Ballarat mining technology firm Gekko Systems, and its bioenergy subsidiary Gaia Envirotech, was added to the honour roll for services to industry at the state's Manufacturing Hall of Fame awards.
Considered the highest honour of the awards' night, the honour roll award recognized Ms Lewis-Gray's contribution to pushing the envelope of manufacturing in Victoria - and specifically Gekko's role in producing Victorian-made ventilators during the pandemic.
For Ms Lewis-Gray, the award was a "shock" and an honour.
"It was pretty amazing. I had been advised that I had been nominated for an award, but it wasn't quite clear exactly what I was nominated for, and you don't want to pry too much," she said.
It comes after Gekko Systems, which typically manufactures large technology for the international mining sector, diversified into producing ventilators to meet a pandemic-era shortage of the machines in Ballarat.
Ms Lewis-Gray said the idea came from a conversation with Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton, who had been looking for a local-solution for ventilator shortages at the Ballarat Base Hospital.
From there, the idea went to Gekko co-founder and Ms Lewis-Gray's husband, Sandy Gray, who worked on the first ventilator prototype.
The company then quickly pivoted, securing funding for the new venture while putting in the hours to create a viable product and acquire TGA approval.
In total, Gekko produced 200 ventilators across the pandemic.
"The specialty in mining technology is hydraulics, pneumatics and control systems. Ventilators really also operate hydraulics, pneumatics and control systems, but at a much smaller scale," Ms Lewis-Gray said.
"We build things in tens of containers and ship them around the world, and this (ventilators) is something that you need to fix inside of a cardboard box.
"It is a world class team in Ballarat. We proved that with the ventilator. We always told our design team that they were world-class, and I suspected that they never believed us because they didn't get to tour the world as much as Sandy and I did on a corporate level. But the ventilator program proves that they were."
Sustainability leader
In addition to award honours, Ms Lewis-Gray was also recently announced as the new president of the Victorian Bioenergy Network, a group seeking to expand the use of the renewable technology in the state.
The appointment follows Ms Lewis-Gray's work with Gaia Envirotech, which produces technologies in the organic waste-to-energy sector, such as their "anaerobic digestor" or "rapid composter".
"The reason why I took the presidency, is because I see an opportunity. I don't believe government in Australia has yet recognised the opportunity that bioenergy brings to the renewable energy space," she said.
"Like regional cities in Europe and the USA, we could really begin to start having a significant impact. We could feasibly produce 10 to 30 per cent of energy for Ballarat."
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