Hello, my name is Alyssa Latham; I am a year 11 student at St Hilda’s that has been sponsored by BHP and on a MADALAH scholarship for the past 5 years.
You may know me as one of the 2025 MADALAH Student Councillors. And today I will be talking about the wonderful trip to the Fortescue sight in Port Headland that I was able to attend along with 9 other senior school students on a MADALAH scholarship and two of our favourite staff members.
This trip allowed for MADALAH students to get a glimpse into what life could be like working for Fortescue.
During the trip, we got to do a countless number of things. The amiable staff members showed us how to operate the different equipment and answered our questions with ease. A highlight activity during the trip was blowing the horn in the trains used to transport materials. It was so fun blowing it when it was unexpected so you would jump scare everyone watching.
It stood out to both me and the other students attending that Fortescue was a tight knit group with people that understood each other and treated one another as both a coworker and as family
Personally, I enjoyed learning about the numerous number of branches that fall under the term ‘mining’, while I knew the term itself, I could have never truly comprehended just how diverse the mining community is, in both people and jobs, without seeing it firsthand. I now look forward to considering the mining industry as a possible career choice if children’s occupational therapy doesn’t work out.
This all, is why I am so grateful to have been able to attend the trip and be given the opportunity to see and understand a few of the many different jobs that Fortescue has to offer in Port Headland.
A massive thank you to MADALAH and Fortescue that made this trip happen, without them we would have never been able to create a better understanding of the mining industry.
