Purposefully breaking the glass ceiling

I know, personally, of two Indigenous men - Paul Martin from Toowoomba and Dennis Jose from Innisfail - who have carved out impressive careers as engineers, but I was unfamiliar with any Indigenous woman who had taken up that male bastion of vocations.

That was until recently, when my work colleague Ron Davis introduced me to his daughter Karen who was visiting Toowoomba from Melbourne. When I asked Karen what field of work she was involved in she informed me that she worked as an engineer - but prefers to be called a civil engineering designer. As we chatted informally I knew this was a story that I just had to record especially as I was cognisant of the dearth of Indigenous female engineers around the nation that young girls like Jayde could emulate.

When I asked Karen to name me the most important project she has worked on - nothing like cutting to the chase - she listed the Eastlink Tollway in Melbourne. In a humble tone she said:

The most significant engineering project I've worked on has been Eastlink which is a 39km tollway which runs from Mitcham in Melbourne's north to Frankston in the southeast. I worked on that project during 2005-2006 and at the time it was the largest civil infrastructure project ever in Australian history - $3.8 billion. I loved working on the Eastlink project as my work was varied. I not only worked in my usual road design area, but also helped model a wetlands area and also creek realignments. Also, I got to work with some great people who came from all over the world to work on the project. Eastlink opened in June 2008.

And, by the way, Karen has also worked on the $2.3 billion Goodna Bypass concept design west of Brisbane and the Windsor Road duplication project in Sydney’s northwest as well as dozens of other engineering projects of national significance.

Talk about a modest Murri.