Private messages reveal ongoing problem

A young Aussie has revealed the “horrifying” truth about one of Australia’s most lucrative industries.

A young worker who has a large social media following online gets multiple messages daily from women working in the mining industry sharing their workplace horror stories.

The upside is she gets to represent women in her industry, but the difficult part is that it has meant she’s learned how broken Australia’s mining industry really is.

“I get direct messages multiple times a day from girls telling me stories of what has happened to them on site. It can be anything from minor bullying or harassment, to rape and sexual assault,” she told news.com.au

She said that hearing these women’s stories is “heartbreaking” and sometimes she needs to take a few days to reply to get over the initial anger she feels on their behalf.

When she responds she wants to be calm and helpful and make sure they know she believes them.

“I’ll see red,” she said.

Some women have shared some “heartbreaking” stories. Picture: Istock

For some of these women, she might be the only person with who they’ve felt comfortable sharing what happened to them.

“There’s so much shame involved with this kind of stuff. They might not even tell their friends or family because they don’t even want to say it out loud,” she said.

“They also want to say it to someone who they know will support and not accuse them or anything.”

The mining industry is also a hugely appealing industry to get into because of the pay.

According to job search platform SEEK, the annual salary for a tradie jobs in Australia in 2024 ranges from $75,000 to $95,000.

The only tradie job options with a median salary above $100,000 are for those working in mining, resources and energy.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, women make up only 21 per cent of the industry.

However, the number of women employed full-time in the industry is increasing.

In August 2002, there were only 8700 women working in the mining industry nationally; by August 2022, that number had surged to 45,000.

It is frustrating for the worker.

“We live in one of the most developed countries in the world and this is what women still experience here,” she said.

She is also stunned by how, when she speaks about these issues online, people are so quick to tell the women they should speak out about harassment and bullying, as if it is up to the women to solve the issue.

She has worked in the industry for years, says it is also isn’t always practical advice.

Women often experience harassment or worse when they are in isolated areas on site and speaking up might further risk their safety.

“There’s potentially a 23-year-old women working on a site in the middle of nowhere, 40 plus men surround her and she’s meant to speak up. Would you speak up?” she asked.

The amount of stories she’s heard from women who have experienced terrible treatment on worksites is, in her opinion, is nothing short of “horrifying”.

“I do have people comment and say they have had great experiences on worksites, and I’m like are you so institutionalised by the culture that you don’t recognise it anymore? Or are you fortunate enough to be on a good team?”

The indusrty needs to change. Picture: iStock

She’s also heard women say they have experienced a mentality within the industry that women shouldn’t be welcome in mining in the first place.

Just the virtue of a woman being on-site it can mean that men have to change behaviour that they’ve been doing for decades, and the response can just be, “let’s bully them out” so they don’t have to “lose what they have”.

She has also been in management for a while, so being in a position of power also helps and it has made her realise how much the fact she’s in power can help others.

She’s also able to set the tone of what is and isn’t acceptable and help create an exclusive culture – one she is desperate to see more of.

Originally published as Private messages reveal ongoing problem