Key industry members came together to celebrate the biggest Victorian IQA event of the year at the Women in Quarrying luncheon.
The Institute of Quarrying Australia Victorian Branch’s Women in Quarrying Lunch has once again proven to be one of the best events on the calendar.
More than 150 industry personnel from across the sector gathered at the Novotel at Melbourne Airport for the annual luncheon as well as an informative site tour to HiQ’s Sunbury Eco Hub.
Quarry attended the record-breaking event, which featured a keynote speech from Grounded Resource Advisory co-director and principal advisor Laura Chibnall.
Advanced advisory
Chibnall established Grounded Resource Advisory (GRA) with fellow director and principal advisor Loretta Fallaw as a consulting service for the quarrying, mining, and renewable sectors.
Their partnership brings together over 50 years of industry experience to support clients from pre-approval through to project completion.
“Relationships are really a strong value for us and at the heart of everything we do,” Chibnall said. “Both of us having operational backgrounds enables us to provide pragmatic solutions to complex problems. I think it makes us different from a lot of other mainstream consultancies.”
Over their respective careers, both have seen extensive changes, stemming from Chibnall’s background in science and Fallaw’s in engineering. Both reflected on the recent changes they had seen in the industry to support women.
“One thing I’ve noticed is probably that celebration of women in the industry,” Fallaw said. “You can see these dedicated awards, which are well celebrated, and there is a focus on that, which probably wasn’t there 20 years ago.”
Chibnall added, “I think policies have really adapted in a bid to improve workplace behaviour and workplace culture.
“I think we are now seeing that shift in culture and acceptance, particularly regarding respect for female leadership.”
The Women in Quarrying lunch began as a networking event for IQA members and has continued to grow year after year. This year’s attendance beat last year’s event for the most attended IQA event outside of the national conferences.
“I think it was really refreshing to walk away from the event and see that there’s really now quite a lot of women in management roles in the quarrying sector,” Chibnall said.
“I think that’s fantastic for young people coming into the industry.”
HIQ site tour
Prior to a three-course lunch, attendees also had the opportunity to attend HiQ’s Sunbury Eco-Hub site.
HiQ began in 1964 with a single quarry and a focus on providing transportation capabilities and has since evolved into a contractor that has supported some of Australia’s largest projects. The company currently employs more than 250 people across 12 sites, including an executive management team and board of directors.
The expansive Sunbury facility boasts extensive capabilities, including landfill management, resource recovery, soil processing, and supplying quarry materials from both virgin and recycled sources. It has provided aggregates, roadbase, type A fill and Non-Descript Crushed Rock to construction and infrastructure projects.
After the site tour, HiQ regional general manager Jared Roberts addressed attendees on the importance of workplace culture in the quarrying sector.
“I’ve got a ten-year-old daughter, and I think about her career, and I think about ‘would I want her to work for us?’ and the answer is yes,” he said.
“That’s a mindset that I make sure I have and that our workplace has, and that is a standard that you need to be setting.
“From my point of view, that standard is still important. Don’t accept less, you have got to be pushing the standards (in the workplace). So would I have my kids working for us? Totally.”
Future focused
As part of the event, attendees received updates on key upcoming campaigns for the IQA. These included the launch of the IQA mentoring program, a schools-to-workforce program, and a national public-facing awareness campaign.
The workforce program will provide a framework for the sector to attract and retain new entrants, as well as provide schools with more information about the important work of the quarrying and aggregates sector. This includes information on the careers available in the sector and the types of qualifications required to work in specific fields.
Institute of Quarrying Australia chief executive officer Jane Schmitt said these programs would also help support the diversity of the sector’s workforce.
“Women who are engaged in the sector are highly engaged, and that was evident in the numbers who attended the Women in Quarrying lunch,” she said.
“We believe that through projects like our school-to-workforce program and our national public-facing awareness campaign, we’ll highlight the opportunities that exist and ensure new entrants, including women, feel welcome and safe.
“At the IQA, we want to support women coming into the sector and feel like it is one where they can flourish in their careers.
“Through our IQA ambassador program, IQA mentor program and our Women in Quarrying Committee are ways that we do nurture and encourage female workers.” •
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