Trinidad Diaz isn’t worried at all about being one of only two women working with about 98 men at the Keppel Prince (KP) engineering in Portland.
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Ms Diaz, 47, has been helping make towers for wind turbines at the plant for about 10 years and said she loved her job.
I love the job. I want to get my crane ticket.
- Rachael McKinna
She does a lot of quality control on the massive turbine towers that are built in segments at Keppel Prince.
She started at KP checking that the painting of the turbine towers was satisfactory and getting the tower segments ready for transportation.
Her job now also involves checking the blast cleaning of the turbine towers, done prior to painting, has met set standards and also completes documentation for the work.
Ms Diaz said one of the good aspects of the job was that half of it was on factory floor working “with the guys” and half of it was in the office, giving her opportunities to use a variety of skills.
Those skills have included her knowledge of Spanish which has come in handy when KP has been making turbine towers for the Spanish conglomerate group Acciona that is building a 44-turbine wind farm at Mount Gellibrand, east of Colac.
Ms Diaz was joined in recent months on the factory floor by Rachael McKinna, 19, who helps fit out the interiors of the turbine towers with ladders and platforms.
Ms McKinna said the job was her first in a manufacturing “hands on” role and she loved it.
She uses power tools in her role and aims to get more qualifications such as a “ticket” to operate cranes.
KP hopes to lift its workforce from 100 to 200 later this year if it’s able to get more contracts to build more towers for wind turbines.
KP laid off about 100 staff in 2014 because of uncertainty at the time about wind energy’s future but KP general manager Steve Garner is confident the company can boost its workforce again.
Mr Garner said the company would be seeking semi-skilled and unskilled workers to train on the job.
Acciona Energy Australia managing director Brett Wickham, who was at KP last month, said he hoped the minimum local content requirement set by government for wind farms would give companies such as KP a more steady workload.
Mr Wickham said his company wanted sustained job creation in the industry “instead of boom and bust.”.
