Indigenous scaffolding company builds success
Local Indigenous Company, Byellee Scaffolding and Rigging is successfully filling a gap in the regional construction market. The contract to construct additional buildings for Gladstone State High School was awarded to Commercial Construction company Paynter Dixon Qld (PDQ). PDQ were keen to partner with a local organisation to provide scaffolding services for the build.
Byellee Scaffolding and Rigging Director, Mr Michael Eggmolesse said, “we tendered for the scaffolding job at the high school and won the tender. It was a great result for Byellee Scaffolding and Rigging. We are a small company owned by Traditional Owners of this region and winning this tender has proved to be not only a win for our own company but for the community and for Paynter Dixon Qld.” It is a real win for the whole community both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Mr Eggmolesse said.
“In the spirit of Reconciliation, our organisation made a conscious effort to ensure that when engaging our three new trainees to work on this project, we hired two Indigenous trainees and one non-Indigenous trainee.”
The three trainees currently are undertaking a training program that involves High Risk Basic Scaffolding. This allows our trainees to seek full employment with other organisations.
“Construction work in Gladstone has slowed over the past year, and it is encouraging for young people to understand that there are still opportunities available to break into the construction industry”, said Mr Eggmolesse.
“For our three trainees working for Byellee Scaffolding on the high school build, it is an opportunity to not only gain qualifications that they will be able to use across their working life, but two of our trainees have also been given the opportunity to undertake ‘shut down’ work, which in turn provides additional experience and opportunity.”
PDQ General Manager, Brett Johnston recently stated that the Gladstone SHS project “has been a fantastic success and that Byellee are a large contributor to this outcome. One of our main focuses at PDQ is to engage local businesses within the community & provide young Indigenous people with opportunities through employment and training.”
“Given Byellee’s recent performance on this project, PDQ hopes to engage the sub-contractor on future jobs, not
only here in Gladstone but across regional Queensland, maintaining the strong relationship that has been established.” said Mr Johnston.
The scaffolding component of the build will take around 12-16 weeks and the scaffold is now almost 95% completed.
In the current difficult employment environment in the region, it is uplifting and encouraging to know that opportunities for small organisations exist and that these organisations can and do work hard to benefit the community. That is one reason why the locals love their town and will always tough out the hard times to make it a better place.
Well done Byellee Scaffolding.
