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Female contractor a winner in excavator operator competition
Satherley, 25, from Motueka, joined Stoke-based Adcock & Donaldson Contractors as a labourer four years ago. Now she is training to be a foreperson, has gained all her truck licences and works full time driving excavators, mainly in drainage work. Richard Michael, chief executive of the New Zealand Contractors” Federation, hailed Satherley’s success and said he hoped her example would encourage other women to consider the excellent career options available in the industry. “Right across the construction sector companies are introducing technological improvements to compensate for the lack of labour,” he says. “This industry is becoming ever more high tech rather than just heavy. Using machinery is now more skilled, but not overly demanding physically. “Women already play a vital part in the industry but most frequently in administrative roles. More are coming through as engineers and project managers but participation of women in the industry is still only five to seven percent. We need to really work at female recruitment and also to carry it through to operator levels to those increasingly skilled jobs at the coal face.” Satherley had only been driving excavators full time for four months when she entered the Nelson/Marlborough competition as the only woman in what was hailed as a very high standard field of 11 entrants. She won top marks in the contractor questions category and, as runner up to Peter Ruffell of Ruffell Contracting & Construction, was only the second woman to be placed in the competition. A previous Adcock & Donaldson female employee also took second place several years ago. Satherley initially worked as a fruitpicker and then drove a milk delivery truck after leaving school. “I was driving quite a little truck for the milk delivery and wanted to drive a bigger one,” she said. “My uncle worked for Adcock & Donaldson so I gave the company a call and they took me on. “You do need to be fairly strong to be a labourer but I had no trouble with it. The company helped me to gain my Class Four Licence and I began driving four- and six-wheeled trucks. “I really enjoy working outdoors, working under pressure and the great atmosphere on site. My supervisor Euge McAlpine, who won the excavator competition a few years ago, gave me plenty of encouragement and opportunities to build up my confidence operating excavators. “Operating the excavator isn’t heavy work, the hardest bit is that sites tend to be pretty bumpy.” Satherley has now gained all her truck licences and Wheels, Tracks, Rollers and Forklift endorsements and is working towards her General Introductory Skills (GIS) and National Certificate in Water Reticulation – Service Person qualifications with Infra Train. “I’m looking forward to progressing in my career and maybe, in the future, becoming a supervisor,” she says. “I would encourage other women to give the industry a try. “I think a lot of women are deterred by the fact it is a male dominated but the guys are not scary, believe me. I wasn’t going to enter the excavator competition but the guys here encouraged me to.” Adcock & Donaldson co-director Gary Donaldson says: “Rocky has just got better and better. She is now running projects and doing paperwork too. “Both the women we have employed have had very high standards and have left every job immaculate. “We would like to recruit more women. Ten years ago the work was heavier. To change a bucket you needed to knock out pins and use a sledgehammer. Today you change a bucket with a flick of a switch in the cab. “Rocky’s success shows that there are excellent opportunities for women in all areas of the industry.” Contractor Vol.32 No.3 April 2008 |
Roxanne “Rocky” Satherley is setting the pace for women recruits to the construction industry after winning second place in the Nelson/Marlborough NZCF Excavator Operator Competition.