Insights

Hi, I'm Brocey. I'm Bama (I'm a person) from Djabagay tribe in Kuranda, North Queensland. I'm proud to share my story and celebrate my family's history with Aurizon and the rail industry as part of NAIDOC Week.

I have three tribes – the main one is the Djabugay people of Kuranda in North Queensland. Birri Gubba is my great grandfather's side. It is a combination of a group of nations from north of Rockhampton to the south of Townsville. My grandfather's side is from Newcastle Waters and is part of the Jingili and Mudburra tribe which extends from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek.

I was born in Cairns on Gimuy-Walubarra land and spent my younger years on the south side of Brisbane on Turrbal and Jagera land. I then completed my high schooling in Caloundra on Gubbi land.

When I graduated Year 12, I worked for a number of years in hospitality – starting off as a cellarman and working my way up to Duty Manager. I gained experience in both front-of-house and back-of-house activities including getting my forklift licence to load and unload stock from trucks. I also worked in hospitality retail. My work took me from the Sunshine Coast through to Sydney and enabled me to see a lot of that part of Australia.

During that time, one of my cousins was driving coal trains in Bluff, in Central Queensland and said that I'd love it and should give it a go. I applied for a Trainee Driver and was thrilled to get the position. Since completing my training, I've driven freight trains along Queensland's North West line – from Townsville to Mt Isa, as well doing suburban load and unload jobs in Townsville and 'hook and pull' jobs for Queensland Rail.

For the last eight years, I've been based at Aurizon's Stuart Depot in Townsville as a Train Driver hauling a diverse range of products such as lead, copper, zinc, silver and fertiliser through to hauling containerised freight for the mines and ballast and sleepers for the railways.

It's rewarding and I love it! Where else can you drive a train hauling steel and product at 80km an hour!

Our family has a long and proud history with the railways in Queensland. I feel like I've fallen into the railway and love driving the trains partly because it's part of my history.

I'm very proud to work for a company that has a strong history of working with Indigenous people. Queensland's rail industry has been a very proud employer of Indigenous people, and one of the first mainstream organisations to support the employment of Indigenous Australians.

Going back, my grandfather was a 'Ganger' working on the Mt Isa line. He was really proud to be in the Track Gangs, working to maintain the rail (tracks). He also worked out west as a Fettler, welding the rail and grinding it to make sure it was safe to drive. 

My mum is Australian-Scottish, and her grandfather also used to work the stock trains between Yeppoon and Rockhampton in the 1950s. Her great-great uncle was a Brisbane city driver during the great depression - one of the few jobs they kept on, to keep the State running.

Our history with the railways is long and it's really cool to keep that history going.

While I'm driving trains for Aurizon as my job, I'm also helping to deliver on our commitments under the Company's Reconciliation Action Plan to build relationships, respect and opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I have the opportunity to do things for work around my culture and my heritage, as well as supporting the development of young Indigenous men through Aurizon's partnership with the Clontarf Foundation. I'm extremely proud as an Indigenous Australian and an Aurizon employee to get involved with this partnership and show these guys what they can achieve, and that if I can do it, they can do it too.

It's great to share that there is a whole range of work you can do at Aurizon, not just driving trains – you can work on machines, maintain wagons, administration, and support roles, and now Aurizon's got the new port services business, you can drive forklifts and do a whole range of other roles.

If I can just get these guys to chat for five minutes, I've done something for my people, and to do it with the Aurizon uniform on is great. As with the NAIDOC theme this year, if they can get up, stand up and show up, they can have a great life – it doesn't matter if it's for school, sport, your family or your job.

We can all get up, stand up and show up to be part of NAIDOC Week, and learn, share and celebrate our culture. Each year, we get involved with my children's activities at school and we go to the Townsville NAIDOC March and celebrations. Last year I was also proud to share with the people at my Depot, the history of the Wulgurukaba people and a cool story about how Castle Hill was made back in the Dreamtime.

It's great to see more of my colleagues wanting to know more about my history and culture each year. I'd encourage everyone to learn more – whether you're Indigenous or non-Indigenous. There's a lot of people willing to share their stories and our state libraries and our cultural tourism organisations are also great places to start.

I've always made sure my kids are proud of who they are and where they come from, and that they remember the people who came before them – they were pioneers to get to us to where we are today, and we are continuing to work hard to give them a good future and carry on their Indigenous names.

It makes me proud to share my family's stories and culture, and in particular, to celebrate what my family has achieved in the rail industry.