Nicola Ubaldo Francesco Moffa (Nic) was born in Adelaide, South Australia from Italian parents who migrated back to Italy when he was an infant. Nic went to school in Italy, to San Giorgio la Molara (BN), Arezzo (Tuscany), Benevento (Campania Region) and Napoli (Naples). His studies continued in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. Nic is a civil engineer, electrical engineer with a Master in Project Management and a cable engineering specialist.
Nic started his professional career in 1983 when still frequenting the University of Naples, Faculty of Geological Science. First projects planned, designed and managed by Nic were related to the reconstruction of residential housing after the earthquake occurred in Italy on 23 November 1980.
After finishing his studies, in February 1986, Nic decided to visit Australia as he wanted to see the place where he was born. A year after, following various trips back and forth, Nic married Elena, with whom moved to Italy in 1988.
During the visits in Australia Nic worked with Transfield at the Olympic Dam project and, soon after, Nic was appointed as Draft-person for the design and execution of the masonry drawings to extend the bell tower of the Catholic Cathedral in Wakefield Street in Adelaide.
Once in Italy and after completing the drawings for the cathedral, Nic started working as a technical consultant for Riva Calzoni and IVPC, two companies working on wind farm developments with the first wind farm developed in 1989 by Riva Calzoni.
In 1991, Nic established PROTOP Italia, a business providing services to wind farm developments including the manufacturing and installation of meteorological masts (anemometers), monitoring and recording wind data on behalf of wind power generation project developers.
In the meantime, Elena gave birth to two boys Legri Ismaele Pellegrino, born in 1988 and Gianraffaele Imperio Major born in 1994. The family was growing up and, after considering the future of their kids, Elena and Nic decided to move back to Adelaide starting their migration in 1997 to be totally established in South Australia in 1998 when they purchased their first home in Flinders Park.
In 1998, PROTOP Australia was established (also with the name MOFFA Engineering). Nic worked as a Wind Farm Consultant for PowerCorp Pty Ltd, a Northern Territory company operating from Berrimah; he was engaged as Project Engineer and then as Project Manager in several wind farm projects spanning the entire Australian continent from the Albany Wind Farm in Western Australia to the Atherton Tablelands Wind Farm in upper Queensland.
The Australian professional career started on the hard path, negotiating between studies and work as he was used to do when in Italy. During the period from 1998 to 2006, Nic operated mainly from an office located in 64 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide, providing also engineering services to other South Australian companies, continually looking for work and frequenting the University to achieve his qualifications. During this period, Nic obtained the Associate Diploma of Land Information Management Services, frequented the school for Bachelor of Geo-informatics, obtained the Graduate Certificate in Building and Planning, a Graduate Diploma in Project Management and a Master of Project Management. Nic continued studying Electrical Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology; he undertook over 15 courses related to High Voltage with particular focus on Extreme High Voltage (EHV) underground cables.
Nic is still studying, frequenting more courses and seminars.
In April 2006, Nic was employed by ElectraNet starting a career within the Projects Department with various roles including Lines consultant, construction manager, project manager, senior project manager and program director.
In 2012, Nic’s project, the Adelaide Central Reinforcement, a 275kV 18.5km underground cable connection, was awarded best project over $100m in Australia by the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM). The project also received the Engineering Excellence award and Ministerial commendation. Nic was the Senior Project Manager and after that achievement was promoted as Program Director of the Eire Peninsula Reinforcement.
In November 2015, Nic Established PROTOP as an Australian Company and in August 2016 left ElectraNet to work full time as Director of PROTOP – project management services Pty Ltd, trading as PROTOP Engineering Services.
Curiosity – St Francis Xavier Cathedral
During one of his visits to Adelaide, after his marriage, Nic started working with Joe Emanuele (Emmanuel Construction) and executed all the masonry drawings for the construction of the Bell Tower extension of the Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral in Wakefield Street, Adelaide.
Nic executed his drawings between April 1987 and December 1988. In May 1988, Nic and his wife moved back to Italy. From the period May to December 1988, the young engineer executed the drawings free of charge; he purchased a computer and CAD software (in Italy) for learning purposes. The CAD was only used by Nic to establish the breaking points for the formation of the joints. In particular, the main windows needed to be formed by various stones to reduce excessive weight and ensure their manageability during installation.
Nic’s first computer did not have a mouse, computer aided drawings where made via coordinates! All drawings were rigorously hand made on tracing paper; an original copy of these are still proudly archived within PROTOP’s offices. Nic also donated a scanned version of all drawings to the Archdiocese of Adelaide.
To date, there is no mention of the work performed by Nic on official publications related to the Cathedral despite various newspaper articles, written references and over 200 drawings proving his efforts; all documents jealously preserved. Hopefully, this website will provide a little glory to the then young entrepreneur!