When tendering opened for the massive North East Link (NEL) in Melbourne under the Government’s Victoria’s Big Build, Boral along with AIBS (Australian Indigenous Business Services) saw the opportunity to offer a collaborative service to the tender so as not to impact our BAU clients and other major projects.
AIBS is a highly regarded Aboriginal Business that is dedicated to improving the well-being and prospect of Aboriginal people since 1988. Over the years, AIBS has expanded its focus to include Laboratory services and concrete testing. Boral and AIBS had worked closely over the previous 18 months on projects including the Snowy River Hydro 2.0 as well as projects in NSW, regional Victoria and Queensland. This has given Boral and AIBS an opportunity to train testers whop have now become competent to work on the NEL project.
Boral has provided the NATA accreditation from its Deer Park Concrete Lab to set up an annex Lab at Bulleen Concrete Plant, meaning that the Lab and staff would be close to the project. AIBS built the lab from the ground up and put together a team of testers. AIBS and the Lab Services team from Deer Park have all played a massive part in servicing and commissioning, building systems and processes, training and supervising the testers and the team at the lab, allocating the work, entering testing data into the systems, right up to billing the client.
From its beginnings on January 29th until October 2024 the lab has sampled 14,324 cylinders and conducted a massive 4378 spreads. AIBS now has 8 full time testers employed on the site and there is also a trainee program in the works as well.
The opening was a real coming together of cultures as the local Wurundjeri Aboriginal Community Elders conducted a smoking ceremony and didgeridoo performance for Boral staff, AIBS staff, Sparks staff, as well as Wiradjuri Aboriginal Elders some who drove six hours across from Wiradjuri country to be part of the celebrations.
Aboriginal Affairs Manager, Vince Scarcella, spoke outlining the history of Aboriginal Procurement within Boral and the link to our Reconciliation Action Plan. AIBS General Manager Alan Eldridge thanked Boral for their continued support and relayed the fantastic opportunities and benefits that have come from working with Boral and EGM Concrete and Quarries Matt McKenzie emphasized the importance of Boral working with the Aboriginal Communities to provide mutually beneficial outcomes as a proudly Australian Business.
As Laboratory Service Manager Kristy Chadwick summed up,
“The training ground that this project has provided is a great advantage to AIBS being able to continue to offer opportunities and grow their team. Alan and his team at AIBS are extremely passionate about their heritage and culture and I always learn something new about the Aboriginal culture when I catch up with Alan. Yesterday was a proud moment for AIBS and Boral to share together and also with other parts of the Boral business, the client Spark and members and Elders from Alans family. The spiritual nature of the smoking ceremony and the education that Uncle Perry from Wurundjeri shared was special, and will be something I will never forget.”
