Traditionally men have ruled the maritime industry for generations, from wharf workers to ship hands, they have been considered as the pillars of Newcastle’s maritime industry.
Time for change:
Alida van Driel is one of two women who work on the city’s passenger ferry service between Newcastle’s CBD and the harbour-side suburb Stockton. She has been awarded a maritime scholarship which is set to propel her towards achieving her career goals in roles on the water.
A love for the Sea:
Newcastle’s port is an intrinsic thread in the city’s cultural fabric, and integral in Australia’s coal industry as an export hub.
The harbour is one of the busiest working ports in the world with a daily procession of cargo ships, yachts, and fishing boats cruising the waterway around the clock.
Ms van Driel said, “I just love being on the water. I used to work on the whale watching and dolphin watching boats out in Port Stephens, and that’s where my love for the water started, I just wanted to continue that. I used to take the [Stockton] ferry to work, and I always had a chat with the guys that worked here, and told them I wanted to get a job back on the water. A few weeks after that someone told me there was a job going, I applied and I got it”.
Day starts early:
Working on the ferry usually comes with an early alarm clock and a 10-hour shift. Ms van Driel starts work at 4.15am, before the ferry departs on its first run just after 5am.
She further adds, “I wasn’t [an early bird] before I started here. I used to work in restaurants, and so my schedule was a bit later, but I’m slowly getting used to it. The really early mornings are always a bit hard, especially the first one because you can’t really make yourself go to sleep at 7.30 at night. But then as soon as you get to the second one you’re that tired, so you’re pretty much asleep by that time anyway”.
The voyage across the harbour only takes about two minutes. Ms van Driel said she can make the trip up to 40 times in a shift.
Harmonious relationship:
As one of only two women working on the harbour’s passenger ferry service, Ms van Driel said the crew worked harmoniously to get the job done.
She added, “The guys here are really nice, I like working with each and every one of them,” she said. “I’ve never really noticed that I was the only girl working here, or we were both the only girls working here. It’s always just been part of the team, and we’re just one of the guys really. I kind of like being one of the guys. I don’t really need to stand out or anything, I want to just be part of this team. That’s one thing about working on a boat — you’ve got to work together as a crew.”
Maritime scholarship provides a boost:
Ms van Driel said being awarded the 2017 Barker Maritime Scholarship from Hunter TAFE Foundation will help her pursue her dream of working in more senior roles around the harbour.
She said, “I’ll use the scholarship to obtain my Certificate III in maritime operations at TAFE; this will then allow me to eventually drive this ferry. It means a lot to me; If I hadn’t got that scholarship, it would have been years before I was able to do it myself. From here, I would like to end up in the wheelhouse driving the ferry. [I’d] gain a lot of confidence driving it. Even though it’s only a short distance that you do, there’s a lot of different weather, circumstances, there’s always something going on in the harbour”.
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Source: ABC
