After leaving school to study commerce, Andi Wilson’s life has taken some surprising turns! Andi graduated from Carramar in 2013 and in just 10 short years she has done more than most.
“After high school I took a six-month gap to travel to the UK and America and then started studying my university degree at Curtin University. I studied a Bachelor of Commerce with a double major in Accounting and Accounting Technologies,” said Andi.
“For many years whilst studying I worked in a variety of roles and just before COVID I managed to get into the mining industry working for Rio Tinto where I worked FIFO two weeks on, one week off, for three years as a blast hole driller. I am now working near Perth airport, still for Rio Tinto, as an autonomous mine controller”. Andi has now been in this high-pressure role for two years.
“I’m currently passed out to control up to eight autonomous drill rigs at one time or up to 30 autonomous trucks at one time. My job has a lot of pressure and responsibilities. High expectations to meet production targets as well as uphold not only company safety policies but also the mine department’s safety legislation. I have eight computer screens that I am expected to consistently monitor over my 12-hour shift. I can’t complain, though, because I only work half of the year with a roster of three dayshifts, three nightshifts and six days off”.
Working in mining was far from Andi’s plans when she left school, though. “I originally obtained my 18-speed road rangers truck license, and a family friend needed a truck driver in their business to cart water from a mine site to the camp for a new contract for their business. Three days after passing my truck license I was up north carting water for 12-13 hours a day. After six months I began networking with some operators on site whilst filling up the truck on the mine site, was referred to for a job and the rest is history, from then on in I was in the mining trap and working on a drill crew for Rio Tinto in the Pilbara”
“Originally, mining was a five-year plan to pay off my HECS debt and get ahead financially but I am five years in now and have no intention of leaving. People often ask me if I plan to pursue my degree and get into accounting but when I get paid a decent wage and only work half of the year, I am happy and grateful for what I have and the life that I lead now. I am not ready yet to leave and go back to working Monday to Friday 9-5 and go back studying”.
Andi is hardly the person that comes to mind when you think of someone qualified to drive the biggest vehicles in the state.
“I love the shock factor I give people. When they look at me they see this 5’1 blonde, young, female, but when I get into a conversation and say that I have my HR truck licence with one of the hardest gearboxes to drive,” said Andi.
When I worked FIFO as a driller I used to get incredibly dirty every day, and I now work in one of the most stressful and pressured jobs in Perth but I love every minute of it. I love the responsibility and I love working in an environment that is so advanced technologically and the new ways in which mining has integrated these new technologies to produce a newer and essentially safer way in which we mine.
Amazingly, since leaving St Stephen’s School, Andi has completed a Bachelor of Commerce, paid off her HECS debt and also built her first house, in Brabham, all by the age of 24!
Her advice to those leaving school in the near term?
“Read, listen and research as much as you can how you can set yourself up financially at a young age. So much pressure was put into study and university, whilst that is all incredibly important, I wish I had put more of my spare pennies into setting myself up more productively financially as I have found out the younger you start, no matter how small, the larger the reward”.