2020
Balancing Rapid Growth
The secondment roles of 2019 turned into remote support as the world began to close down due to COVID-19. The team home-schooled children and became rapidly familiar with Zoom, but the demand for Rain’s services didn’t ease up at all.
Rain secured a significant role in assisting the City of Melbourne in preparing for a stormwater flooding Planning Scheme Amendment. Developer Services commenced with an 8,000-lot subdivision in Melbourne’s west. Several remote water quality monitoring programs were completed, along with many strategic documents.
A highlight of 2020 was Rain’s involvement in the preparation of the “Good Design Guide for Flood Affected Areas”, which assists new development to make buildings safe and accessible to all, while still achieving excellent urban design.
2021
National Expansion as Perth Office Opens
To escape more Melbourne lockdowns, Rianda and her family relocated to Western Australia and opened Rain’s Perth/Boorloo office. It was a busy year of expansion and projects that included flood-modelled major event spaces and several expert witness appointments.
As the lead consultants for the MUSIA (Municipal Urban Stormwater Institutional Arrangements) project, Rain’s engineers assessed every pipe, pit, wetland and retarding basin across all 38 Melbourne councils on behalf of DEECA, Melbourne Water and the Municipal Association of Victoria.
Most notable was Rain’s involvement in designing a complex set of wetlands in Melbourne’s north. We also assisted Melbourne Water in identifying quick-win opportunities for implementing larger-scale stormwater harvesting and infiltration assets in priority areas.
2022
A Land of Flooding Rains
In 2022, widespread flooding occurred throughout Australia due to the combined influences of a trio of rain-promoting climate drivers. La Nina, the negative phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole and the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode, contributed to Australia’s second-wettest spring in 123 years of records.
Rain’s network of hydrologists was engaged around the country in flooded communities, helping to understand and analyse what occurred from a hydrologic perspective. In addition, our engineers completed several new large wetland designs and stormwater management plans.
The team was engaged to model the floating wetlands on the Birrarung (Yarra River) and completed groundbreaking work in the Melbourne CBD to better define flooding within the catchment and to develop a method for catchment-based solutions.
2023
A Team of Deeper Thinkers
The team grew again with full-time staff permanently based in Victoria and Western Australia. An all-staff planning session launched our new credo, “Deep Thinking for Better Water Outcomes”, to reflect Rain’s core values and strategic approach to work.
Rain completed large stormwater harvesting strategies, assisted councils in preparing for planning scheme amendments and secured a flood modelling project for a mineral sands mine in northern Western Australia. The impacts of the 2022 flooding continued, and the team travelled around Australia assisting in recovery efforts.
2024
Raindrops to Rivers: Five Years Strong
2024 marked the fifth birthday of Rain Consulting and was celebrated by an expanded team of ten permanent staff plus several remote contractors. Rain’s Charitable Giving program launched, with a percentage of profits distributed to environmental and philanthropic organisations. Several milestone projects rounded out a memorable year.
A new Facilitation and Training Services initiative delivered Melbourne Water’s “Flood Capacity Building” sessions to all Melbourne metro councils. Along with our colleagues at Melbourne Water, Rain was the proud recipient of the Stormwater Victoria Award for Excellence in Policy and Education, followed by the Stormwater Australia Award for Excellence in the same category.
To complement our Flood Management Services, the team developed an exciting Flood Model Asset Management System to assist flood managers in controlling and accessing their data.
Working closely with Yarra Ranges Shire, our Strategic Services team delivered a bold new 10-Year Stormwater Management Plan while also working on the City of Melbourne’s iconic Greenline Project. Functional designs of wetlands, retarding basins and sediment ponds were delivered and built, and flood models were run to determine appropriate bridge heights.
2025
Staying Ready between Storms
Rain celebrated its sixth year with a reinvented logo, a new website and an updated guiding purpose.
At Rain, exceptional surface water opportunities are guided with courage, collaboration and technical skill. Bold ideas that accelerate change and nourish wiser futures are welcome here. By thinking deeply and acting with care, we create better water outcomes for clients, communities and the environment – long after we’ve left the room.
Rianda and Luke became Dare2Lead™ facilitators, and Luke was appointed a Fellow of Engineers Australia. This acknowledgement recognised Luke’s industry leadership and groundbreaking projects, such as drafting chapters of Stormwater Victoria’s new Victorian Urban Drainage Manual (VUDM) and developing a Hybrid Flood Mitigation Plan for the City of Melbourne, with support from Rain’s team.
Dr Mehrdad Ahmadi and Maria McCrann became Rain’s next Senior Engineers. Mehrdad initiated ‘Rain School’ to facilitate inter-team knowledge sharing and presented a session on pipe blockage analysis at Stormwater Victoria’s 2025 Conference. Danni Bailey joined the team as Operations Coordinator.
Significant Projects included:
- Innovative water monitoring services, such as Sensors & IoT, assisted clients with preventative strategies to ‘stay ready between storms’.
- The Strategies & Planning team facilitated stormwater, flood and integrated water management services for six Victorian councils. These legacy projects create a launchpad for colleagues to do their best work.
- Partnering again with Melbourne Water, Rain delivered more award-winning Flood Capacity Building Workshops for metro LGAs.
- As part of the Charitable Giving program, Rain’s was honoured to help create a Flood Emergency Response Plan for the Yaluk Langa Gathering Space at Heide Museum of Modern Art.