Brisbane Tattersall’s Club appoints Mary Collier as its first female director

A former racing industry executive has broken the 140-year-old glass ceiling at the formerly male-only Brisbane Tattersalls Club.

Mary Collier and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

It has been almost 140 years coming but the previously male only Brisbane Tattersall’s Club finally has a woman on the board.

Former Queensland racing executive and radio host Mary Collier will join the club’s powerful main committee three years after a historic vote that allowed women to join Tattersalls as full members.

Collier spent three years at Racing Queensland including roles as general manager of marketing and communications and corporate affairs. Prior to that she had a career in radio including breakfast host at 4BC.

Collier (illustrated), a qualified lawyer, is used to breaking the glass ceiling. A love of horses and racing gave her the impetus to join the Brisbane Turf Club board in 2003.

Mary Collier as 4BC breakfast show host.

Four years later, aged just 34, she was elected chairman. In doing so, she became the first woman in Australia to head up a metropolitan racing club. Raised in Clayfield, Collier attended St Rita’s and grew up with parents who owned, bred and loved horses.

The fight to allow women into the club stretched over many years and involved boycotts by high profile female politicians all the way up to the premier and protests by feminist groups. The club also descended into virtual civil war with a legal challenge to allowing women members ultimately unsuccessful.

More than 500 women have joined since females were allowed to become full members in 2019, more than 10 per cent of total membership.

RAIL CUTS

Rail giant Aurizon plans to cut key finance, accounting and human resources roles across the company amid a bleaker outlook for its coal haulage business.

Aurizon will outsource more than 60 positions to an external partner warning it needs cut costs to stay competitive and maintain profits.

Employees in back office, IT and administrative operations will be the most impacted, according to an internal document obtained by City Beat and given to employees as part of a consultation process.

“Aurizon is at a critical juncture,” says the document titled Aurizon Business Services (ABS) project. “A combination of the outlook for coal, increased competition, financial and other pressures is driving the need to change how we operate.”

The document says the company’s current costs are higher than its competitors and if that does not change Aurizon will no longer remain cost competitive to win new business and profit will erode.

A Aurizon coal train is seen travelling through Toowoomba. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Aurizon‘s processes needed to be more streamlined to leverage automation and digitisation, the document says.

“The proposed solution is to consolidate our repeatable, high volume and or transactional tasks and outsource to an external partner,” it says.

An Aurizon spokesperson said the company continued to review its corporate and support costs to ensure its remained competitive.

“This includes engaging external providers for high-volume transactional and processing activities performed in corporate, finance and support areas,” the spokesperson said.

“Aurizon is proposing a reduction of approximately 60 roles as we implement these changes. We are currently consulting with employees and no decisions have been made. “

JOINING FORCES

There’s movement in the powerful body corporate and strata property sector in Queensland with two major legal players joining forces.

Brisbane-based body corporate and strata management firm, Grace Lawyers, has combined with strata legal firm, Cannon + Co Law, on the Gold Coast.

Grace Lawyers Queensland head Jason Carlson says the two firms will operate under the Grace Lawyers banner from March 1 and they are on the hunt for new premises to accommodate the existing lawyers and staff from their respective Gold Coast offices, while retaining their office in the Brisbane CBD.

Jessica Cannon, whose firm is a finalist in the SCA (Qld) Strata Services Business of 2022 Award, says the move has been well received by her staff and clients. Jessica Cannon will operate as a partner at Grace Lawyers and Jason Carlson will continue to head the Queensland operation for Grace Lawyers as a long-standing partner.