Weipa’s Daphne Tiplady has been nominated as an Indigenous Rising Star.
A STORE person with Hastings Deering in Weipa has been nominated for an Indigenous Rising Star Award.
Daphne Tiplady will represent the Cape at the Queensland Resources Council Indigenous Awards in Brisbane next month, while former Weipa student Winston Fell has also been named as a finalist.
As the largest private employer of Indigenous Australians, Queensland’s resources sector will celebrate the contribution of outstanding First Nations employees at the awards function.
From high school students about to embark on a resources career to those with decades of experience in the sector, finalists in this year’s QRC Indigenous Awards reflect the increasingly wide participation of Indigenous people in Queensland’s number one export industry.
The QRC Indigenous Awards will be held on June 20 and feature six categories recognising individual and company achievements.
This year’s finalists hail from all corners of the state including Weipa, Mount Isa, Rockhampton, Mackay and Brisbane.
QRC Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane said the calibre of this year’s finalists reflected the level of Indigenous expertise embedded in the state’s $94.6 billion mining and energy sector.
Mr Macfarlane said resources companies are making great progress towards creating more employment opportunities and diverse and inclusive workplaces for people from all cultural backgrounds, although there is always more work to be done.
“The Queensland resources sector is proud to be such a significant employer of Indigenous women and men, particularly in regional and remote areas where most of our operations are based,” Mr Macfarlane said.
“It’s great to see Indigenous people working in such varied roles, from trade apprenticeships to management positions, and that is reflected in the finalists for this year’s awards.
“The resources sector offers some of the most highly paid and rewarding careers of any industry in Australia, and it’s encouraging that companies are actively recruiting Indigenous people to work in the communities where they live.
“Rising Star finalist Daphne Tiplady, who works as a store person with Hastings Deering in Weipa, is typical of all finalists when she speaks about how proud she is to work in the sector and that she wants to encourage other First Nations people to follow her lead.
“Another finalist, in the Indigenous Advocacy category, is Evolution Mining Mount Rawdon Operations Sustainability Manager Paul Wright who is making a difference by building stronger relationships with the Indigenous community and supporting region-wide reconciliation more broadly.”
