Miammi Leadbitter, an improvement manager at mining behemoth BHP, is a Wagyl Kaip woman from Collie, a small coal mining town two hours south of Perth. Her father, an Anglo-Australian, and grandfather were miners but as a girl, she was expected to either become a stay-at-home mum or get a job in retail. “Uni was definitely off the table. No one in my family went to uni and my Dad, back in the day, didn’t even think that mining was a career option for me,” Leadbitter tells BOSS. Leadbitter is dyslexic, which didn’t make high school much fun and she dropped out in year 11. The school principal suggested that she take up something easy such as waitressing. But Leadbitter decided she wanted more and at the age of 16 joined TAFE, first to study accounting, but when that didn’t work out, she did a diploma in civil and structural engineering. The mining industry soon beckoned. Leadbitter went off to the Pilbara and later did an engineering degree by correspondence at University of New South Wales. Her mining career has involved stints at Downer EDI Mining and Macmahon, as well as BHP, where she has worked since early 2019. As improvement manager on BHP’s South Flank iron ore mine south of Port Hedland in WA, Leadbitter, who is 34 with two young children, is a fly-in, fly-out worker. She spends Monday to Thursday onsite and works from home on Fridays. Her husband is a stay-at-home dad. Leadbitter has some advice for young Indigenous people considering their careers “Be proud of who you are and be proud of where you come from and don’t let anybody else make you feel like you’re not valued or you’re not wanted. I wish I could have told myself that back in the day. “And if you can’t see it, be it.”
Trevor Collens