Thevenard Island rehabilitation works to support people with a disability

06 Aug, 2021

Workpower’s nursery team (Nursery Hand Mark Williams, Production Coordinator Upul Ranjith, Nursery Hand Mark Mark Chatzidakis) with the Acacia coriacea and Acacia sclerosperma seedlings which will be grown for Chevron’s rehabilitation of Thevenard Island. Image courtesy of Workpower.

Disability support and employment provider, Workpower, has been awarded a contract with NTC Contracting to support Chevron Australia with the rehabilitation of Thevenard Island in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.

The contract will see Workpower’s Wholesale Nursery, based in Noranda, grow and supply 130,000 native plants for planting on the 550-hectare Thevenard Island, located 22 kilometres offshore from Onslow.

Workpower CEO, Lee Broomhall, said businesses coming on board to support disability employment is integral to changing the lives of thousands of people across Western Australia.

“When organisations like NTC Contracting and Chevron Australia open the door to our services, it helps us to continue employing people with a disability and make a difference in their lives. We hope to see more energy companies like Chevron Australia support disability employment,” Ms Broomhall said.

“Through our support and employment services, including social enterprises like our nursery, we are able to directly support 1,000 people with a disability each year.”

“Our workers are highly capable, hard-working team members who are passionate about what they do. This is a unique project for us and the first time we will have propagated Pilbara plants at our nursery, so it is an exciting opportunity for the entire team,” Broomhall said.

NTC Contracting Managing Director, Jason Varcoe, said the partnership with Workpower to complete rehabilitation works at Thevenard Island was an important one.

“NTC is a core Pilbara-based contractor, providing opportunities to a diverse range of people and cultures,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons we were pleased to have Workpower come on board to assist us with this contract.”

“Workpower’s services are also highly rated – from its ability to collect and grow seeds native to the area, to its supply of already established plants from its nursery.”

In November, Workpower will visit the Island to take cuttings of plants which will be returned and propagated at the Noranda site, along with other native seeds for the project, before being freighted to a makeshift nursery in Onslow for climatising and quarantining.

Across the three years, the 30-hectare area will then be replanted by NTC Contracting to restore the Island landscape, in line with classified A reserve land and small section of eco-tourism on the eastern point.