Big rigs and the open road: women in driver’s seat

14/02/2022 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Gender

A triple road train. Photo Credit: Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney/Melbourne, 13.02.2022 (The Sun Herald and The Age): As a seven-year-old, sitting high on the passenger seat with her younger sister, Kersti Jones would observe her mum, Heather, drive a 53-metre triple road train. She would imagine being behind the wheel as she looked below at other cars whizzing by on the highway.

The truck was their mobile home for seven years as they crisscrossed the resource-rich and rugged landscape of Western Australia.

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Women truckers making a mark in resource-rich Australia

15/11/2013 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Gender

Trucks parked at a mine near Karratha in Western Australia. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Karratha (Western Australia), 15.11.2013: Growing up on a farm, Rosalie Hann would watch the haul trucks come in to collect wool bales and livestock. She would dream of one day driving these mammoth lorries herself. Today, the 39-year-old is an owner operator of a truck, subcontracting to Toll Energy in Dampier in the resource rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Rosalie is delighted to own and operate her own equipment in what is otherwise a very male-dominated industry. While women comprise about 50 per cent of the Australian population, they only make up around 10 per cent of the mine workforce. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Labour Force Estimates for February 2010 quarter, there were 23,260 women employed in the mining industry and 4,483 of them were truck drivers.

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Aboriginal town misses out on the mining boom

11/03/2012 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Indigenous

Allery Sandy at the Yinjaa-Barni Art Aboriginal Corporation in Roebourne, Western Australia. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Roebourne (Western Australia), 11.03.2012 (IDN): Allery Sandy, 55, is humming and painting the story of the Pilbara landscape, one of the most resource rich regions in Australia. Her canvas is resplendent with colour depicting rivers, flowers, blue gum and open scrub land dotted with Spinifex grass and iron-ore.

“Art, like story telling, in our Aboriginal culture is an important means of expressing feelings close to our heart. It gives us peace and joy. For the young, art distracts them away from alcohol and drugs that are destroying our community”, says Sandy, who is painting with three generations of women, some men and boys, at the Yinjaa-Barni (staying together) Art Aboriginal Corporation in a heritage-listed cottage on the main street of Roebourne.

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