Posts tagged Women Truck Drivers

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

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.

Continue Reading in The Sun Herald

Continue Reading in The Sunday Age

Continue reading

Women truckers making a mark in resource-rich Australia

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.

Continue reading