Award Winning Kimberley Region Projects

We won the Best Practice in Corporate Social Values award for our Kimberley Regional Projects at the 2019 IPAA Achievement Awards. The awards recognise individual and organisational excellence by showcasing projects, initiatives, programs and organisations that demonstrate best practice and contribute significantly to the public service and broader community.

We are committed to enhancing the wellbeing of Aboriginal people through increased employment opportunities and have been proactively changing our policies, processes and working arrangements to ensure we make a difference within our industry. We showcased the work we were undertaking on four projects in the Kimberley, Great Northern Highway Upgrade Maggie Creek to Wyndham, Bow River Bridge, Broome Cape Leveque Road Upgrade project and the Bidyadanga Access Road Sealing project.

In addition, unique to the Kimberley Region, we are directly managing the maintenance activities. The Direct Management model enables us to directly engage mainly local contractors and provide opportunities to Aboriginal communities to participate in the works under Main Roads supervision. This same approach was applied to the Broome Cape Leveque and the Bidyadanga Access Road projects.

The Great Northern Highway Upgrade Maggie Creek to Wyndham and Bow River Bridge projects were delivered through Design and Construct and Construct Only contracts, respectively.

Construction contracts provide great opportunities for Aboriginal engagement, as there are a number of roles that reflect common levels of job-readiness among the Aboriginal working age population in the regions.

The involvement of Aboriginal people in the delivery of our projects is a major step forward as we commit to involve Aboriginal peoples in the work that we do and embrace their unique cultures and traditions.

On-the-job training programs created a local workforce equipped with the skills, knowledge and experience to undertake road construction and maintenance activities. Communities will benefit from having a skilled and accessible workforce on hand that understands the unique challenges the Kimberley region presents.

Aboriginal employment in our Kimberley region projects has seen unprecedented participation rates in the order of 30-55 per cent across projects. Many of the Aboriginal employees working on the projects are seen as role models in their community and this has in turn provided a great deal of pride for both the individuals and broader communities.

Additionally, we were also recognised for the contributions we make towards the growth of Aboriginal businesses and opportunities when we won the Non-Aboriginal Organisation of the Year at the East Kimberley Aboriginal Achievement Awards 2019. We will continue to push for better outcomes by exploring opportunities for partnerships in the regions as well as providing entry-level positions through traineeship opportunities for people wanting to enter the industry.