AN ACTION-PACKED FUTURE FOR WOMEN IN QUARRYING

AN ACTION-PACKED

FUTURE FOR WOMEN IN QUARRYING

Following International Women’s Day in March and the success of another IQA Conference in Newcastle, the IQA continues to recognise the importance of diversity and inclusion in the success of any business or organisation.

As anyone who attended the conference will tell you, getting among our industry colleagues is one of the best decisions we can make to improve personally and professionally. But this experience can be significantly diminished without a diverse crowd with which to mingle.

That’s why Groundwork Plus principal Tegan Smith initiated the Women in Quarrying (WIQ) network in 2014 to encourage a more diverse crowd at IQA events, so everyone can reap the benefits of networking and development.

As WIQ national coordinator, Smith has worked with state coordinators from around Australia, as well as IQA chief executive officer Kylie Fahey, to develop a nationally coordinated strategic plan resulting in a busy 18-month calendar for the enrichment of their beloved extractive industry.

“Each state tries to hold the specific WIQ events at different times so we can support each other,” Smith told Quarry.

“We can share our knowledge and we can share speakers and programs to make sure that each state is not alone, and it is not all on one person to drive that initiative.”

The strategic plan has a strong focus on education, with the IQA developing partnerships with providers in the diversity and inclusion space, including at in-person conferences and online workshops.

Branches will continue to promote and support new people attend events and the WIQ network will be encouraging more women to join existing branch activities.

By coordinating a national schedule, the IQA can ensure a consistent vision for the organisation and its members.

Smith’s vision is that one day the WIQ initiative will no longer be necessary.

“The purpose of the WIQ initiative is to provide a platform for women to connect, share experiences, focus on personal and professional development and enjoy the benefits of the IQA network,” she said.

“Hopefully soon when you walk into an IQA event, the women already in our industry will be better represented because they will be in the room.

“We all have a responsibility to make sure that happens, not just one person.”

This shared responsibility is another reason for having various state coordinators, but the responsibility stretches far wider than that, according to Smith.

“Everyone in the industry has a role to ensure that we are a competitive, attractive and progressive sector,” she said.

“If we are serious about managing skills shortages in our industry and ensuring employee retention, we have to start to acknowledge and promote the importance of not only women in our industry, but all who remain underrepresented, including our younger generation.”

The IQA is supporting a diversity and inclusion initiative that is not just about women.

“It’s about all people,” Smith continued. “Inequity can be far reaching, affecting anyone”.

Increasing awareness of diversity and inclusion can start by having a conversation and being more open to different views.

According to Smith, the influence of men in quarrying is critical and men are helping shape change through the WIQ cause, with incredible support being shown by many male leaders in the quarrying sector.

“Our industry is great at networking and I have to say, the men in our industry, they do it extremely well,” she said.

“The quarrying industry is filled with loyal people who have been part of this sector for many years. While some may move from company to company, their relationships run deep with each other.

“Things like the IQA Conference are opportunities for people to come together that haven’t met for a while but have had long and enduring relationships.

“This is why events like the IQA Conference are so effective and so well represented – because relationships mean a lot to people in our industry. It’s just one of the reasons that I’m still a part of it.

Groundwork Plus principal and WIQ national coordinator, Tegan Smith.

“I was so encouraged by the kindness and nature of the people in our industry. Particularly, as a woman, my experience in the industry has been extremely good.”

Including all demographics in the fight for inclusion and equality is a vital part of the issue. When WIQ was started in 2014, it was made very clear the initiative was not an “us versus them” situation, but a group effort to promote the industry more broadly and simply make it more inclusive.

“It’s about love for the industry and a want to make sure it remains sustainable, progressive, inclusive and competitive,” Smith said.

“If our industry is going to survive in today’s world it must be attractive and relevant. By attending WIQ events you are not just supporting women. You are supporting our industry and as a whole.

“We have to make sure the people we are encouraging to join our industry, including young people, have access to it in order to appreciate how great it is.”

None of this is to say women don’t already form a strong part of the IQA, but the difference between their ability to come to work and attend events remains a work in progress.

This has inspired the WIQ network to improve its longer term planning to ensure the next 18 months of events are accessible for anyone who wants to network and develop themselves professionally in the extractive industry.

“A lot of the time, people like weighbridge operators, for example, are so critical to the running of a quarry that the chances of them going to a day conference is very limited. But when you think about it, if they’re sick that day, we would manage,” Smith said.

To show just how engrained women are in the industry, the IQA has been profiling various stalwarts and how they’re changing the game.

By highlighting the valuable contribution that women are making across the industry and encouraging people to get immersed in it all, everyone can benefit.

“Through my involvement with WIQ, I have learned the incredible diversity of roles women occupy in our industry,” Smith said.

“That’s something that’s been really lovely to see, the diversity of women across the industry and the different roles that they occupy.” •

YOU CAN’T BE WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE

Bev Bracken General Manager, Business Improvement for Boral Australia

What’s does your job involve? Working with business leaders to identify ways to standardise and improve their business – for example, removing duplication, increasing plant efficiency, throughput, increased uptime, automating processes, etc – and then working with them to validate and capture benefits and share best practice to standardise across many sites.

How long have you been in the industry? I’ve been in the construction materials industry for 20-plus years, with the past seven years being focused on quarries and recycling.

What do you enjoy about your role? Every day is different. I get to work with some fantastic people across all reaches of the organisation.

The variation in my day-to-day keeps things exciting.

One day I may be focused on how we identify the root cause of a specific crusher failure, another on national standardisation of purchasing, and the next working with a team on how best to improve maintenance planning across a product line or region.

How do you balance the demands of your home life/hobbies/social time and your role? It sounds very boring, but planning using my calendar, for both home and work commitments, is fundamental to making sure I don’t miss the important stuff.

I sometimes travel and work odd hours, but by planning in one calendar I can feel confident I’m covering the critical things. I’ve got a couple of non-negotiable personal commitments for my family that I never miss.

I’m also fortunate I work with an organisation that believes in flexible working, so I can plan to work closer to home when important family events are occurring. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give yourself in your first week in the industry?

Link up with the Women in Quarrying team. We’re a friendly lot and willing to help you find your path, especially if you’re new to the industry

Don’t be afraid to ask questions; it may seem intimidating in a typically maledominated environment, but I’ve always found the teams to be open and happy to share their quarrying knowledge.

Also, it’s okay to be new to quarrying – and not have grown up driving loaders. Remember that what makes you different is what adds to the team.

Your different way of thinking will help the team see and think about problems from a fresh perspective.

Bev Bracken enjoys the daily variety of a career in quarrying.

Any regrets? None I can think of.

What advice would you give women who may never have thought about the extractive industry? There are so many roles and career paths you can choose. It’s an industry where you’re easily able to switch from production to maintenance to labs and elsewhere as you develop.

It’s an exciting industry to be in, where the rock you process today can be part of a road, highway, building or bridge you use tomorrow. •

GEOLOGY TALK

ULURU JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Uluru, in the Northern Territory, is merely the very tip of a rock sequence that extends kilometres beneath the surface. Layers of sandstone can reveal a lot about Earth’s history.

Researchers from Monash University have explored the 550-million-year-old formation of an Indigenous sacred site Uluru in the NT. Their findings uncovered a history of mountain ranges, tectonic movement, an inland ocean and a supercontinent.

Originally published in The Conversation, lecturers Melanie Finch and Andrew Giles discussed what scientists have learned about the world’s largest monolith over the past 30 years.

“Around 550 million years ago, continents collided as part of the assembly of the supercontinent Gondwana, one of several times in Earth’s history where most of the continents were stuck together in one continuous piece of land,” Giles and Finch began.

This supercontinent saw significant stresses reverberate across Australia, as India rubbed shoulders with Western Australia, pushing tectonic plates together and forcing rock upon rock to rise above the landscape.

These earthquakes and movements caused what became known as the Petermann mountains which – at the height of their powers – would have stood hundreds of kilometres long and five kilometres high.

These mountains were mostly granite, according to the researchers, and had no vegetation to protect them from the elements as land plants hadn’t yet evolved.

“Bare mountains weather quickly because they are more exposed to rain and wind,” the researchers continued.

“Big cracks formed in the granite, splitting away rocks and boulders, which fell into rivers gushing down deep valleys carved into the mountain.

The sand from eroded mountains formed layers and layers of sandstone, which weighed upon the ground beneath to form a basin and the perfect storm for an inland ocean.

“Sediment continued to deposit into the ocean until about 300 million years ago when the ancient faults began to reawaken during a new mountain-building event called the Alice Springs orogeny,” Finch and Giles wrote.

This next cycle of mountains birthed what would become known as Uluru, as the summit of one tectonic movement peaked above the landscape.

“If we could dig underneath Uluru, we would see it is only the very tip of a rock sequence that extends kilometres down under the surface, like a rock iceberg,” the researchers concluded.

“But even if we could, why would we want to? Uluru’s magic is most evident when you stand at its base, look up, and picture in your mind the enormous forces that conspired to form it.” •