Heron also has extended its community involvement to Aboriginal education, establishing a bursary to send a school leaver to university or to allow younger students to attend school in Kalgoorlie.
Last year the company supplied a bus, paints, pencils, drawing books and canvas to East Kalgoorlie primary students and invited them to view its operations for a day.
“It was all green lights, such a special day,” artist Nalda Searles said. “Heron has always gone out of their way for indigenous people.”
Accompanied by local artist Dr Mary McLean and assisted at school the next day by Ms Searles, the children produced such stunning images that the company sponsored a school fundraising calendar and prepared its annual report using these.
Mr Buchhorn said that, once the Goongarrie project was up and running, Heron also planned to expand a cultural awareness and mentoring program for all mine workers, encouraging employees to accommodate differences in family, community and workplace priorities.
“We’ve done a lot of stuff without anyone putting any pressure on us. We just think it’s the right way to go,” Mr Buchhorn said.
