Women in Workboots in Drayton, Queensland | Education

Women in Workboots

Locality: Drayton, Queensland

Phone: +61 411 476 550

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25.01.2022 She wandered off into the scrub at 5 years old and her father thought she wouldn't do it again if she had no shoes on her feet. She never put shoes on again until she was 12. A true character.

24.01.2022 Monika Murd is from Estonia in northern Europe and it has always been a dream of hers to come to Australia and steer a Kenworth road train. Well, now she’s doin...g just that! She shared this fantastic pic with us and will soon have videos up on her YouTube channel showing us more. Monika wrote that 90% of guys told her it is not a job for women but said look at me now! Monika also wants women to understand that if you dream of doing something, you really can achieve it. See more

24.01.2022 I hope the fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say ‘yes, women can.’ - Dilma Rousseff

23.01.2022 An unsung hero of Australia's outback.

22.01.2022 Females to the front For the first time in 12 years, an all-female crew from #AusAirForce's No. 36 Squadron has taken to the skies in a C-17A Globemaster III ...from RAAF Base Amberley. The mission was captained by Flight Lieutenant Caitlin Rytenskild and supported by co-pilot Flying Officer Gemma Dorn, and loadmaster Corporal Charlotte Roe. Flight Lieutenant Rytenskild said the image of the inaugural 2008 all-female mission was her inspiration growing up. Throughout high school I was interested in aviation and started flying lessons with a friend, Flight Lieutenant Rytenskild said. As it was such a male-dominated industry at the time, my mum was on the lookout for news that included a female pilot. She came across an article about RAAF women who flew the C-17A and cut it out of the paper to give to me." Over the years at No. 36 Squadron, Flight Lieutenant Rytenskild received support from her supervisors and colleagues which inspired the voyage. Read the story: https://bit.ly/FemaleCrew Royal Australian Air Force #YourADF

22.01.2022 This morning I was fortunate to catch up with Kat - a remarkable young trailblazing indigenous woman, a mum of two, a transport company owner, a full-time truck... driver AND a staunch advocate for female heavy vehicle drivers! A city girl, Kat says from a young age, she loved the sound of truck jake-brakes as the big rigs rolled by. Chasing her dream to become a truckie, Kat moved to the NSW Riverina, got her HR license, met her partner Daniel and worked casually doing harvest runs at Lake Cargelligo before the couple relocated back to Sydney. Unable to find work trucking, she spent a number of years working as a mortuary assistant until her two little ones came along. While she loves being a Mum, Kat says she felt something was missing in her life after her children were born. That something was truck driving, and today she and her partner Daniel own AKA Koori Cartage a 100% Sydney-based certified Indigenous civil construction earth-moving company. Kat works ten-hour days driving one of the five company trucks and Daniel as a stay at home dad runs the business and minds the kids! Her HR work takes her to construction sites across the Sydney metro area with the photos Kat’s supplied from jobs including the Bringelly Northern Road connector upgrade and the Narellan Oran Park upgrade. On site, Kat meets and chats to a lot of female traffic controllers many of whom not only comment on her determination and professionalism but also quiz her about how they too can get a start in the industry. Where possible Kat and Daniel employ indigenous drivers and regularly visit TAFE colleges to talk to students interested in trucking. Fortunately, Kat and Daniel have plenty of work and enjoy running their business as a team. In terms of advice she has for women considering a trucking career, Kat believes females are well suited to the role because we focus on the small stuff where we’re going, what we’re carting, weights and dimensions, signage, paperwork and the list goes on. Working on civil construction projects, Kat say she has her ear glued to the UHF at all times, so she knows exactly where to tip her loads or get loaded to remove rubbish from site to take to dump points. An awesome example of a young woman overcoming barriers to achieve her goals Kat it’s a pleasure to meet you!!

22.01.2022 Today we celebrate World Youth Skills Day and this year’s theme focuses on Skills for a Resilient Youth. One of our guest speakers in today’s webinar, Austal El...ectrical Apprentice, Maddie Rickets believes resilience is reflected through those who are innovative, especially during challenging times such as those we are currently facing. Look to the innovators. Those who are constantly striving to improve themselves, their industry and the world around them. Maddie is a true example of the crucial role skilled youth play in addressing current and future global challenges. #navalshipbuilding #createyourfuture #shipbuilding #careers #jobs #webinar #defenceindustry #upskilling #training #education #employment #free #maritime #future #transferableskills #skillskeepmoving #wysd

22.01.2022 Way to go. What a lady.

21.01.2022 "It was a tough gig, I won't downgrade it in that aspect. And being a highly unionised site and being a young, female site manager, they put me through my paces," Ms Mills said. https://www.mandurahmail.com.au//miner-named-2020-except/

21.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Women in trucks and machinery, although still greatly outnumbered by men, is becoming more and more common as Australia ...grapples with both skills and labour shortages in the road transport industry. It has not however always been an easy ride for women wanting to drive. June Lusk was the first woman to do driver training with the Government Transport Department in Australia. In 1970 she was one of several women selected for training from the longest serving conductresses in the department in New South Wales. The course June Lusk was given involved 80 hours of lessons over a four week period and included learning to handle the ‘most difficult’ bus in the fleet. The men in the depot were given the task of choosing one and determined that it was a double decker Albion bus. Lusk had been with the department for 16 years previously working as a conductress from the Brookvale depot in Sydney. She had requested a promotion and or training several times to no avail but was excited to find she was finally going to be given a chance. She was warned.... It won't be easy ? The most gruelling part of the training, according to Lusk, was managing the 8’ 2 bus across Sydney Harbour Bridge at peak hour. This was especially so given she knew she was being watched by many, willed to fail by some and even had the odd bet placed against her. For Lusk, becoming a driver meant a $20 per week pay rise. It was a lot of money on those days. Lusk’s daughter, Christine Steel, also worked as a conductress from the same depot. June Lusk passed her test with flying colours and on 27 November 1970 officially became the first woman in New South Wales to be rostered to bus driving duties.

20.01.2022 Hi Salties! Heads up that Sydney Film Festival opened yesterday (online) and includes an awesome looking film called ‘Women of Steel’. It’s about Wollongong’s Jobs for Women Campaign in the 80s, including the coordinated lodgement of complaints with the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board by 34 women who had been prevented from working at the steelworks.

20.01.2022 The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. - Peggy O’Mara

15.01.2022 How becoming a plumber turned this lady's life around after bereavement

14.01.2022 I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes. - B. Smith

14.01.2022 Our additional member feature for the week is, Danni Kempton. Danni is a finalist for the Women in Industry 'Excellence in Transport' Award. Danni first entere...d the transport industry in 1996 in a bookkeeper only capacity for her dad and uncles’ transport businesses. Then after some persuasion from her partner at the time, in 1999 Dananni Haulage was started and she bought her first truck, a used 8t Hino and they started doing HOTSHOTS to the north west of WA. This quickly progressed to urgent freight deliveries into the mines in the NT and north Qld and the offshore industry. The urgency for the freight created the need for two drivers. When employing drivers to fill the role of a two-up driver, Danni learned that a lot of those applying for the job had no experience or interest in the transport industry and could not find a job anywhere else. So she decided that if these people were going to come into this industry that we would teach and train them and the rest of the industry would know if a driver was wearing a Dananni shirt he/she was competent to be in this industry and that all their drivers would be fully CoR compliant. Not an easy task at all when most wouldn’t listen to a sheila or only wanted to talk to her ‘husband’. Danni realised if she was going to make it in this industry that she’d better get her act together and learn what she was talking about. So, learn it she did. She spent weeks, then months researching rules, responsibilities and the different laws across the jurisdictions so that she would know what she had to do to keep her people alive as well as everyone else on the road. Nearly 21 years later, this process has Dananni sitting with zero incidents. Thanks for your ongoing support to TWAL and the transport industry Danni! If you are a TWAL Individual Member or Corporate Member and would like to be featured on our social media pages, please email a profile of yourself in 300 words or less and a photo to [email protected] #twal #transportwomenaustralia #drivingthedifference #transportindustry #memberprofile #memberspotlight #memberengagement #membershipmatters #connections #transportation #equality #equalityanddiversity

14.01.2022 The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves. - Barbara Corcoran

13.01.2022 Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins. - Edith Wharton

13.01.2022 When at 58 I set my heart on qualifying as a carpenter, people laughed at me. They thought I was a joke. Just before turning 61 I qualified.

12.01.2022 Ever met a cooper? George is a sixth-generation cooper, keen to pass on the tradition to his granddaughter at a Lost Trades Fair. Takes you back to days gone by!

12.01.2022 https://youtu.be/iVnF_zlZtxk Well worth a watch.

11.01.2022 Don’t be scared ladies, you never know where your career can take you!

10.01.2022 Heather keeps it real!

10.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Myra Dyer was born just at the close of World War One in 1919 in Loxton, South Australia. She spent her early years o...f childhood in Kingston-on-Murray. When she was six, her family moved to a farm in the Barmera district. An irrigation system was established in the town in 1921 following an influx of World War I veterans who needed work to support their families. They were promised irrigated land from the government. A railway line to Adelaide just 220 klms away was opened in 1928 and the town proclaimed later in the same year. Her father, Doug Pickering, grew wheat and barley. With nine children in the family sometimes life seemed unfairand unjust. As the eldest with eight younger sisters and brothers, Myra was expected to help with her siblings and in the home. She had to leave school early to help out in the farm. Her father was a hard working man and was, by all accounts a hard but fair taskmaster. Myra undertook many back-breaking jobs along side him such as chopping and carting wood, breaking in horses, and even driving horse teams when she was just 14 years of age. In World War II an internment camp was established south of Barmera in Loveday. It was one of the largest World War II camps in Australia and held Australia's German, Italians and Japanese residents as well as its Prisoners of War. Approximately 7000 people were held at the camp including 5400 interned and over 1500 Australian military personnel. The camp grew opium poppies and made morphine for the Allied Forces. A camp for 7000 had to be built, the personnel fed and provided for and transport found to get supplies in and product out. It not only provided a ready market for local farmers but created a need for consistent and reliable transport network. Military and private carriers busily tended to the freight needs. One of the drivers was a young man called Murray Dyer who took a fancy to the young woman on the Pickering farm. Myra Pickering went on to marry Murray Dyer in 1943. After the war ended the Government's phrase 'Populate or Perish' became a rallying call as Australia sought to build its population and overcome domestic resistance to immigration. Myra did her bit. She went on to have eight children of her own. After the end of World War Two Murray and Myra worked as general carriers. They carted everything from wood, furniture and livestock. Myra worked alongside and as hard as Murray, even when she was pregnant. Being the mother of eight children didn’t keep Myra out of her truck. There were tough times and they had to "make hay while the sun shone." When work was busy they both worked long hours. Murray would take half the kids with him and Myra the other half with her. She was often seen driving through town with three or four (mostly) happy little faces in the windscreen or waving out the side window of a wooden cabbed International or a Lend Lease Chevrolet. "By the time one lot got to school there was another lot in the truck. We'd pack a lunch box and plenty of water and away we'd go. It was a friendly community and we would often arrive at a local farm to pick up produce and the kids would be greeted with fresh cut sandwiches and a bag of fruit. If i didnt have the kids I'd have to take it home for them. " Trucking was so central to the Dyer family that it seemed natural that son, Terry, and his six sisters (Julie, Barbara, Heather, Wendy, Alison and Gloria) would all learn to drive trucks and assist with the family business. Terry and five of the girls all went on to get their truck licences and perhaps, the Dyer women, Myra's daughters, are the only five sisters in Australia to do so. "Ten mouths to feed and clothe was not an easy task but I wouldnt change a thing.They have all grown up with a real appreciation of the road transport industry" Myra had started driving tractors on the farm at around age 10. She had always been "a bit if a tomboy" and soon developed a real interest in anything mechanical. By the time she was 14 she had mastered her father's Fargo. She got her license at 16 and not surprisingly passed her test with flying colours. By the time she was 20, and Australia went to war for the second time in 1939 Myra was one of the best drivers in the district. Myra was also capable of looking after her truck. Her father was too busy to help her. If she had a flat tyre or had to replace a fanbelt or radiator hose it was part of her job. When she asked for help her father's standard answer was, "Do you see me asking you to help me." After being caught out a few times Myra learned that a bit of preventative maintenance went a long way. The longer time went on the more mechanically capable she became.There was many a time she'd be called upon to help a fellow truckie or farmer out on the side of the road. Myra recalled one instance she was "bogged to the axle" in the black soil following a torrential downpour. While she was under the truck trying to get some wood under the tyres to get some traction she was so deep under her whole body and head was periodically submerged as she inched her way under. Two children found their way to the seemingly abandoned truck in the paddock. When Myra put her head up she was covered in dripping black mud and weeds from head to toe and gasping for breath. All they could see were her eyes and teeth. The children ran away screaming dashing Myra's hopes to send a message for help. The children later reported to their father that a scary black boogyman was in Myra's truck. "To survive in this industry you have to be tough, you have to be a bit rough and have to take the bad with the good and you sure as hell have to have a sense of humour." Myra was known as a generous woman who gave freely of her time and knowledge. Hard working and unassuming Myra was admired by the nation even then. Over the years Myra has appeared on numerous TV shows and in countless magazine and newspaper articles and has been awarded numerous honours. Over the years Myra went on to drive many of the classic truck marques that are now left behind in history. Some of the trucks the Dyers have owned and operated include a 1930 International complete with wooden cab and cellophane windows, a WWII Maple Leaf Chevrolet, Austin, Ford, a 1954 Bedford, an assortment of Commers and a few Volvos. Up until 1990 Myra drove semi-trailers but in later years was happy driving a double-decker livestock truck. Myra mastered them all and gained a reputation in the area for being a fair dinkum truckie who took pride in her job. She was, as the local newspaper reported; "A legend in her own lifetime." Myra ceased driving trucks in February 2003 when "arthritis told her it was time to stop". Up until this time she was still regularly helping her son, Terry in his trucking business, and every second week went to the Loxton market for the local butchers; a run she had been doing for more than 60 years. Myra could not be slowed down even in her retirement. She was always doing something to help the local community. She became being a member of the Riverland Entertainers, a group which regularly performed shows at Nursing homes and Elderly Day Care Centres in the Riverland and throughout regional South Australia. Murray played the mouth organ and Myra read poetry and spoke "words of wisdom". At 85 years of age she said; "We are fond of old people and appreciate the sacrifices they made to give us a good life. We like to give something back to them, after all, we too will be old one day." Sadly, this grand old lady of transport passed away in 2006 at the age of 87. Myra was a woman who was (and still is)admired by the nation. She is remembered for her truck driving prowess, her generous and giving spirit, her love of family and community and her work as a female ambassador for the trucking industry long before it became fashionable to do so. Vale Myra Dyer.

10.01.2022 I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done. - Lucille Ball

10.01.2022 Great to talk this morning my gorgeous friend xx STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM... Jan Maher-Martyn grew up in the shadow of the road transport industry. Her grandfather, father and uncle owned and operated trucks. She loved going for trips and helping wash the trucks. As a small child she used to drive the trucks and other farm equipment around the family property. Even as a youngster Jan always knew she would have something to do with growing things and driving things. When she grew up her passion for gardens and gardening saw her own seven wholesale and retail plant nurseries and florist shops around the greater Melbourne area. Jan was also a much loved well-known regular at the wholesale markets in Footscray Rd where her bubbly personality made her a favourite. She often drove her own trucks and always wore brightly coloured gumboots and matching headscarf. For Jan, very much a 'people person' she was literally living her dream. Jan was a keen supporter of many charities and always helped out the underdog. The dream was shattered when Jan was very seriously injured by an out-of-control car which put her in hospital for 12 long months. Her injuries were so horrific Jan had to spend two more years in a wheelchair. Over the next eight year period Jan endured 31 operations and had to learn to walk all over again. Understandably, she became a road safety advocate. Even when she recovered Jan continued to help the needy. She raised millions of dollars for charities and non-profit organisations over a period of almost 40 years. Coming from a trucking family she knew first hand the hardships many faced. As such, she has also been a financial benefactor to a few trucking families following the death of the breadwinner. In 2003 Jan designed and personally funded $40,000 towards the development of the truckie’s ‘Safety Sami-Trook’ mascot, to help raise road safety awareness, an issue, obviously very dear to her heart following her own experience. Many truckies carried Sami in their trucks so he could be used to soothe a child in the event of road trauma. Truckies are often the first on the scene of a remote or regional road crash. Over the years Jan has also sponsored a number of trucking websites in Australia and did regular truckies’ spots on National Radio. She founded the Retired Truckies International Club and helped initiate the Convoy for Kids Inc Safe Driver of the Year Award in 2004 Jan gave freely of her time as a patron and international ambassador and secretary for Convoy For Kids Inc and was patron of Fraser Coast Convoy and past board member of the Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial. Jan's charismatic personality saw her become a much loved television personality on Channel 9 and Channel 10 where she often appeared with greats the likes of Graham Kennedy and Don Lane. Jan Maher Martyn was nominated for Australia’s Mother of the Year and Mother of the Year Honours List and an Advance Australia Award. Although now retired and taking life a little easier due to a life threatening illness which has plagued her the last few years, Jan is still a highly respected personality in the television, charity and trucking industries. She had five children and has lost two as adults. Jan has not had an easy life but stays positive by counting her blessings. She is a very loyal and genuine lady who has done much to improve the quality of life for all around her. Not one to stand up and be counted you wont often see her name in lights but Jan could always be found pushing a cause she believes in behind the scenes. The trucking industry and its disadvantaged families were benefactors of that. You are a legend Jan Maher-Martyn.

09.01.2022 If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. - Erica Jong

08.01.2022 Nice to see women represented here!

07.01.2022 Check out our local #defenceindustry at Civmec’s massive new shipbuilding facility in Henderson. Today marks the keel laying for the first Arafura Class Offshor...e Patrol Vessel to be built in #WA, NUSHIP Pilbara. This national program is creating up to 1000 Aussie jobs! I joined Luerssen Australia & its partner Civmec Construction & Engineering to celebrate this key milestone with Royal Australian Navy https://bit.ly/2DS1jz6

07.01.2022 I remember as a 9 year old girl attending a Qantas open day and first setting foot on a 747..... I was hooked.... There would be no other options for me.... I w...as fortunate to achieve that goal and here I am 40 years later after 30 years in the industry working on those same beauties that hooked me.... Happy sad day today as the last Lady, Queen of the Skies as they were known, leaves us. See more

06.01.2022 When I was 10, I annoyed my parents until they let me go on a trip to Melbourne in a road train. That was a big eye opener for me but I loved every minute of it. It gives me a great understanding and appreciation of what the drivers do for us on a daily basis.

03.01.2022 The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has awarded scholarships to three women in the minerals industry to help them secure company board positions. https://www.australianmining.com.au//rio-tinto-bhps-femal/

03.01.2022 When you have to think differently it is intensely rewarding when you succeed.

03.01.2022 You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. - Shonda Rhimes