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.

As a Construction Coordinator I work as part of a site-based project team to plan, coordinate and support the construction of infrastructure including bridges, roads, pavements and currently a ferry terminal. They will read and understand drawings, along with the long list of requirements (usually from the person paying for it) to make sure it is built to how they need. At the same time, they will need to build it safely, correctly and within budget. There will be many times when things won’t go to plan. That’s when a Construction Coordinator will need assess the problem, talk with experienced people, come up with a solution and then go to fix the problem to try and keep its impact to the rest of the project as small as possible.