A PROUD Wonnarua man raised in Singleton, Victor Perry has worked for three decades in land management and Aboriginal site protection, consulting to mining companies and developers.
About 10 years ago he and a business partner founded the wholly-owned Indigenous civil earthmoving company Yunaga Civil & Earth (YCE). Initially, it struggled.
"We went in to try and tender for work and quickly realised that we didn't have any equipment," Mr Perry says. "We wanted to get into land rehabilitation in mining and to promote indigenous employment and get into a position where we could offer local Aboriginal people more jobs."
With SME business connector ServeGate, YCE developed a business plan and secured a $2m small Indigenous-owned business grant from the National Indigenous Australians Agency.
YCE used that funding and a loan from Daracon Group to buy heavy machinery from WesTrac. It has a strong partnership with both, and contracts to Daracon. It recently completed the loan with Daracon and Mr Perry said the partnerships had been instrumental in growing YCE and connecting with other clients. YCE now works in housing, rail, construction, mining and quarries.
YCE hires staff via Indigenous labour hire firm Asquith Workforce and will soon employ one or two full-time indigenous staff.
"Our main goal is to rehabilitate country because it's our homeland. To engage our own people in that type of work is a natural fit," Mr Perry said. "We've managed to get over hurdles we didn't think we could and been supported by everyone - and that support is getting stronger."
Mr Perry said it was more difficult to procure Indigenous employees because many lacked funding for the training required to operate machines, for example. He says it is vital that governments and companies better the opportunities for Indigenous staff.
A Westrac spokesperson said the company aimed to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation and during the past year has seen a 45% increase in Indigenous employment.
