Attendees visited the New Bridgewater Bridge in Tasmania. Image: IQA
Check out the latest news from the Institute of Quarrying (IQA) members from around Australia. From site tours across Australia to the Women In Quarrying showcase in Victoria event, there’s no shortage of exciting updates.
June was a month of firsts for the IQA, with more attendees than ever at the Tasmania site tour and networking dinner, and at the ever-growing Women in Quarrying event in Victoria. In addition to these two events, the annual Safety and Health Conference in Queensland and site tour in Port Macquarie were huge successes.
The new IQA chief executive officer Jane Schmitt commenced a road tour to Victoria and Tasmania, which included an interesting and well-attended site tour of the New Bridgewater Bridge site at Granton outside of Hobart. This project, the largest transport infrastructure project in Tasmania’s history, will strengthen the state’s National Highway, connect local communities, and improve links between three major highways.
New IQA CEO Jane Schmitt recently went on a tour to Victoria and Tasmania. Image: IQA
New Bridgewater Bridge construction manager Ed McPhillips and his team provided an insightful tour from the pouring of moulds in the pre-cast facility, through to how the construction of the bridge comes together.
The day ended with a casual dinner and a presentation to Komatsu’s Doug Fulton, who has been a member of the IQA for 28 years.
Following this event, Jane travelled to Victoria for the largest event held on the state’s IQA calendar: the Women in Quarrying networking event.
Boral hosted two site tours to nearby quarries in Lysterfield and Montrose. More than 140 members and guests attended the tour, followed by a lunch where they heard guest speaker Tegan Smith, technical discipline manager at Ground Work, discuss changing community perception around quarrying. She explained through first-hand experience and surveys that, unless you are in the industry, no one really seems to understand what the purpose of a quarry is.
Tegan is passionate about highlighting the idea that the sector builds essential construction materials and letting the community know what we do and why we do it. Lunch also saw two inspiring young women, Peninsula Quarries operations manager Alex Murray and Boral project manager Kathryn Czapnik join Tegan to talk about their background and how they landed in a career in quarrying, the gender biases they have faced, the changing role of women in the sector and advice to young women thinking about a career in the industry.
Women in Quarrying is going from strength to strength and has outgrown its venues two years running. Watch this space for 2025.
Other significant events that occurred during June included the Queensland Annual Safety and Health Conference, which delivered six hours of continuing professional development points. The day revolved around regulator updates, as well as workplace health and safety legislation, presented by Allana Fitzpatrick.
The conference also included sessions by Boral quarry manager Chris Wilson, who presented on critical control management, and the IQA’s Emily Logan, who gave some key education updates.
Much of the day related to psychosocial health in the workplace. Two particularly interesting sessions related to these topics were ‘Enhancing women’s safety on work sites: Exploring challenges and successes’ by CS Energy principal health and safety specialist Leanne Hartley, and ‘New and young workers: How to communicate the safety message to young industry workers’ by Connor Wood from Young Workers Hub.
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Co-hosted by the IQA and Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ), the event was attended by more than 200 people from all across the state, all of whom were keen to join in the safety and health conversations, which are critical in the quarrying sector.
The Northern NSW sub-branch committee hosted a great afternoon and evening event in Port Macquarie in June. Members and guests enjoyed a site tour of the Adbri Dunbogan and Grants Head quarries.
Thanks to Logan and Cav for hosting the delegates and showcasing their sites.
Northern NSW sub-branch visited the Adbri Dunbogan and Grants Head quarries. Image: IQA
After the tours, the networking continued into the evening event with delegates enjoying canapes and refreshments at Rydges in Port Macquarie. Northern NSW sub-branch chairperson Chris Brown presented a technical presentation on quarry dredging.
The IQA Victorian sub-branch networking dinner and presentation took place at the All Seasons Hotel in Bendigo.
The evening began with a presentation by Shaun Lyons from Terex Australia, a sponsor of the IQA Victorian branch.
The guest presenters at the event were Matt Allen and Jennifer Blyth from the Country Fire Authority, who covered crucial topics such as fire risk management, bushfire and grassfire safety, and emergency management strategies for quarries. They also discussed the importance of incorporating the CFA into quarry site emergency planning.
The event was a great success, offering attendees valuable insights.
For more information, visit quarry.com.au
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