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As of December 2025, "GW-SW" offers the services of its founder, Dr Lloyd Townley, based on his many years
of experience in academia, in R&D, in consulting, in industry and often working with government agencies and the community. As often as possible Dr Townley prefers to
provide expert opinion, reviews and guidance on project design, but he is still "hands-on", with skills in groundwater modelling (FEFLOW and MODFLOW), surface hydraulic modelling (SWMM, HEC-RAS, TUFLOW and EPANET), risk-based systems modelling
(GoldSim), analytical and numerical solutions (Mathematica and MATLAB) and simulation of Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs, formerly known as Wastewater Treatment Plants or WWTPs),
using commercial simulators such as Sumo or BioWin, or his own recently developed WRRM1 and WRRM2 which have been proven to be identical to
IWA benchmark models BSM1 and BSM2.
Dr Townley is a member of the Management Committee of the Modelling and Integrated Assessment (MIA)
Specialist Group of the International Water Association (IWA), which is focused on developing and applying methods for improving water quality in the environment, as well as
improving the performance of WRRFs, to reduce cost, energy usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
From a legal point of view in Australia, "GW-SW" is GW-SW Pty Ltd,
ACN 069 270 846, ABN 54 069 270 846.
T&A: The company was incorporated as Townley & Associates Pty Ltd ("T&A") in 1995 by
Dr Lloyd Townley,
at that time for the specific purpose of owning the intellectual property
in groundwater modelling software known as AQUIFEM-N.
After the founder left CSIRO Land and Water in August 1997, the company
commenced trading as an environmental consultancy, preparing environmental impact statements
for proposed mining projects and undertaking hydrological and groundwater
modelling studies of various kinds.
Rio Tinto: In 2005, Townley & Associates Pty Ltd changed its name to NTEC Services Pty Ltd ("NTEC")
and adopted a business name "NTEC Environmental Technology" to reflect its
activities reselling software and instrumentation (including weather stations,
water level sensors and rugged handheld computers). For nearly four years,
until mid 2009, the company's activities were restricted
to resale of software and instrumentation, while the founder worked as a full-time employee of Rio Tinto.
NTEC: From mid 2009 to late 2012, NTEC offered consulting
services in simulation and environmental impact assessment,
especially related to water and mining. Our expertise grew to include include
simulation of the potential environmental impacts of coal seam gas production.
We grew quickly from 1 to 11 staff in a period of 30 months.
CDM Smith: In February 2013, NTEC Services Pty Ltd changed its name
to GW-SW Pty Ltd. On 19 February 2013, the consulting business operated by
NTEC became part of CDM Smith. CDM Smith acquired the right to use the business name "NTEC Environmental Technology"
and employed eight of NTEC's staff. NTEC's links with CDM Smith date to the late 1970s.
At that time, NTEC's founder was a student in Cambridge MA, and was
introduced to a small team of water engineers at CDM. CDM Smith continues to use
modelling software known as DYNSYSTEM
which evolved in parallel with AQUIFEM-1
and AQUIFEM-N. "GW-SW" contined to resell commercial modelling software
on behalf of software developers based in Australia, North America and Europe. In July 2017, Dr Townley left CDM Smith.
All other former NTEC employees have also left CDM Smith; some have key roles in the mining industry (Rio Tinto Iron Ore and FMG) and consulting (GHD).
GW-SW: Since July 2017, "GW-SW" has continued to offer consulting services, focused mainly on
high-level expert review of groundwater modelling for impact assessment of proposed mining projects
and projects related to development of coal seam gas. With more than 40 years of experience in this field,
and as an author of the Australian Groundwater Modelling Guidelines (2012), Dr Townley is recognised
internationally as an expert in groundwater modelling,
in groundwater - surface interaction and in model calibration and uncertainty analysis.
He has experience working on more than 200 projects,
of which more than half are in the mining sector. "GW-SW" no longer resells or supports commercial software developed by others.
If you have any questions about our capabilities and services, please contact us.
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