Clare McKellar

In high school, I wanted to study philosophy and economics but I was always very interested in geography and nature, loved the environment from a young age going camping with my family and exploring. However I never thought I would study it, so I enrolled in an Arts Degree to study philosophy and politics. I loved learning about the history of people and civilisations, and why we all behave the way we do!

After high school, before I moved to Melbourne to study at university, I took a year off to save money and worked for a construction and earthmoving company (because my Dad was an Engineer and he helped me find work) starting as a receptionist, and working my way through lots of different administration roles to gain experience like payroll, document control and more. When I moved to Melbourne, studied for a year in Arts but then realised I wanted to learn more about geography and environments so I switched degrees. In my last year of university I got a job as a Project Support Officer for the Victorian Department of Environment. I worked in the department for 6 years and moved across lots of different teams, learning about fire ecology, climate change impacts, bushfire operations, biodiversity policy, environmental protection and land management in regional areas.

After 6 years, I needed a break and left that job, and moved to Scotland in the UK for two years to travel and work overseas. I ran a restaurant in a hotel in the highlands – it was the best experience. After two years, I moved back to Australia and started with BMD at the end of 2022 and have loved it since. The variety is great, you get to be outside and actually see things built. All the knowledge I have from working in the government helps me understand the compliance and rules we have to follow when building. I have also had the opportunity to travel for the job across regional Victoria, into Adelaide and currently am working in Devonport, Tasmania.

An Environmental Coordinator helps the construction delivery team do their work without polluting or harming the environment. They monitor water quality, noise, air and dust emissions, and site works to make sure no damage is caused to rivers, trees, animals or the surrounding areas. Every day is different, solving problems and helping the supervisors with environmental compliance. We start the day with pre-start meeting with the whole site team so everyone knows what's going on that day, and then tasks will depend on the day including:

- site inspections for environmental risks with supervisors

- checking environmental controls like drainage, spill kits, and silt fencing or bunding

- doing pre or post rainfall inspections

- organising subcontractors for environmental works like dust suppression, fauna (animal) spotting for tree removal, landscaping, testing contaminated land and lots more.