Multidisciplinary construction contractor BESIX Watpac is committed to supporting career pathways for women through the projects it delivers across all sectors including Defence.
In the last 12 months, the company has seen a two per cent increase in female employees now 19 per cent of the total workforce, and 10 per cent in non-traditional roles.
As a construction contractor to Defence with multiple projects underway throughout Australia and targeting more in the pipeline, BESIX Watpac’s focus on diversity extends to the Defence projects it delivers.
A case study for this is the recently completed Singleton Mid-Term Refresh project BESIX Watpac delivered for Defence. Scope included remediation of critical base infrastructure as well as building or refurbishing supporting logistics buildings within the Singleton Military Training Area and Lone Pine Barracks.
Newcastle local and BESIX Watpac employee Tracey Medley joined the Singleton team as Project Engineer in mid-2020. Tracey has been responsible for planning, coordination and execution of the design, quality assurance, workplace health and safety, and environmental components as well as the critical handover/takeover process.
With a combined education in civil engineering, background in trades and experience on Defence projects, Tracey led many initiatives that improved safety throughout construction as well as eliminated operational impacts within the live base.
Maintaining operations of the base was the single most critical factor. Tracey achieved this by forging strong, honest and highly engaged relationships with the Client and wider base community.
“I have worked on many large and complex projects throughout regional New South Wales over the last 25 years and have brought to every project a fundamental belief that relationships are the foundation of successful project outcomes,” Tracey said.
“Working around the operational environment of a base is challenging and requires a very high level of collaboration as well as a thorough approach to planning and coordination of works around base operations. I’m especially proud to have managed this aspect of the Singleton project, which had many complicated services outages, with no disruptions to the base.”
Her regional and project experience also led to the early identification of non-documented inground services, addressing these immediately and avoiding significant project delays.
Tracey’s natural leadership skills and ability to bring out the best in people both individually and as part of a team directly influenced project outputs and was a significant contributor to the team delivering a high-quality product on time and within budget.
Tracey is driving change for women in the construction industry and throughout her time delivering Defence projects has taken the opportunity to inspire women to consider a career in non-traditional sectors.
“I’ve visited schools in regional New South Wales as well as mentored the up-and-coming generation on the Singleton project to help young women explore their career options,” she said.
“It is extremely rewarding to support women carving out a path in a traditionally male-dominated industry.”
Tracey is a finalist at the NSW Regional Woman of the Year Award with the National Association of Women in Construction for her continued demonstration of leadership qualities and commitment to promoting regional skills.