What does your role as a risk engineer entail?
I look at customers’ business processes and operations and help refine those processes to mitigate their business risks. For example, if I’m working with a cargo company, I might look at what their operations are like in their warehouse, how their cargo gets from A to B, and review their procedures to see if there’s any opportunity for improvement. I also work with customers experiencing a lot of claims to review their processes, make improvements and hopefully mitigate those claims.
How did your interest in maritime develop?
When I finished school here in Melbourne, I started a law degree. At the time, I really loved the movie “Legally Blonde” and wanted to be like Reese Witherspoon’s character, but a law degree just wasn’t for me. I ended up working in a café, and an opportunity came up to work in a café in Port Hedland for a better hourly rate. I packed my suitcase without really thinking about it and jumped on a plane. It was quite a shock when I first got there; the dirt was red, and it was very hot. I ended up with a cleaning job on a site, and from there I became really interested in shipping. I was given a job one week to scrub all the walls in a building, and on the last night shift the supervisor came up to me asked if I was free to come back the next day for a site tour. He took me up onto one of the ship loaders that were loading iron ore and said, “Do you think you can drive one of these?” I couldn’t even drive a manual car, but I said I could definitely drive one. I ended up on a trial as a wharfie and haven’t left the industry since.
What areas of shipping are you most passionate about?
The last couple of years, I was an operations superintendent managing the project and breakbulk cargo wharves. Every few days I would see different cargo come across the berth. The area that I was most interested in renewables. The way we can handle and move some of that equipment through Australian ports is pretty incredible. We did a wind turbine project two years ago; some of the wind blades were 60 metres long. The whole logistics process of loading and then unloading wind turbines and then getting them on the trucks and out to the sites is really fascinating.
If you weren’t in shipping, what industry or job would you be interested in?
I’d love to be an athlete. I like basketball and would love to be a professional player, but I’m not quite tall enough. Living in Newcastle in 2023, I set myself the goal to play again. All of the social teams’ rosters were full, so I decided to try out for NBL1. I trained every single day for eight weeks, between two and three hours a day, before the tryouts. I was selected in the squad for the preseason, and then I was selected and signed to play, but I ended up moving back to Melbourne, so I ended up missing the whole season anyway. But I was picked!
What’s a piece of advice that’s stuck with you?
Stick to your values and always be yourself. Working in male dominated industries, it’s easy to be influenced or change who you are because you feel like you don’t fit in, so for me, sticking to my values is a big one.
Tell us your favourite meal, movie and music.
Food is definitely a Bánh mì; it’s got to be pork with extra crackle and chilli as well. Favourite movie it’s close between “Step Brothers” and “Mean Girls”. I love those movies. And Katy Perry will always be my favourite artist. She has been for probably 10 years now, maybe even longer.
What’s a dream travel destination for you?
I’ve got two kids – both boys, aged six and eight – and I’d love to take them to Japan. Nowhere too far, because I’m not sure if I could handle the flight! But it would be good for the kids to experience a different culture. I love Japanese food and my brother’s been a couple of times and he speaks highly of it too.
This article appeared in the February | March 2025 edition of DCN Magazine
