Building Communities at Port Hedland

Damien Ardagh from Fortescue works with TAFE WA to engage the local community in training and employment with the VTECH program. In this story, they are landscaping a new housing development which will home around 250 Fortescue staff.

We chat to Damien Ardagh, the VTEC services superintendent, who shows us around the work site, from metal frames to the completed landscaping.

He shares the community response to the option of landscaping as opposed to mining being the only option for workers.

SkillsOne recently visited tradies who work in the mining industry in the Pilbarra, in Western Australia, run by the Fortescue Metals Group.

Fortescue focusses on iron ore.

Fortescue's port, rail and mine project commenced construction in February 2006 with the turning of the first sod at the Company's port site at Anderson Point in Port Hedland. Just two years later, the open-access rail infrastructure is complete, the Fortescue Herb Elliott Port is operational and the mining operations at the Company's first mine site, known as Cloudbreak, are well underway.

VJ Lucy Nash