Indigenous businesses on growth trajectory

Two years ago, Ngarluma man Arthur Ramirez teamed up with three locals in the Pilbara to buy out the Karratha contracts held by Perth firm Iron Mine Contracting.

Since the management buy-out, their business has expanded rapidly to be one of the largest Indigenous contractors in the Pilbara.

Winyama Contracting has grown from 50 staff to more than 200 and was recently named Rio Tinto’s Western Australian supplier of the year.

It’s a classic example of the opportunities for Indigenous businesses in WA, especially in the Pilbara where the big miners continue to rapidly increase their spending with the sector.

Rio Tinto, for example, spent $769 million buying goods and services from Indigenous businesses in 2024, up 29 per cent from the previous year.

Rio worked with about 120 Indigenous businesses across the state.

Fortescue spends even more – its latest data, for the half-year to December 2024, show it spent $456 million with Indigenous businesses.

It has led the way on Indigenous procurement, awarding contracts and sub-contracts to Indigenous businesses worth $6.5 billion since 2011.

Another big driver for the sector has been procurement programs run by the WA and Australian governments.

WA Finance Minister David Michael said that in the 11 months to the end of May, the state government awarded 288 contracts worth $286 million to Aboriginal suppliers.

The businesses that have benefited come in all shapes and sizes.

From major contractors like Warrikal, which has more than 1,500 staff, making it WA’s – and possibly Australia’s – largest Indigenous business.

To long-running success stories like Carey Mining, which was a pioneer in the sector and recently celebrated 30 years in business.

And fast-growing businesses like Yurra, which has tripled its annual revenue over the past two years to $146 million.

The growth of the sector has resulted in more Indigenous businesses lodging financial reports with corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, providing further insights.

Diversified contractor Eastern Guruma, which has some 300 staff, reported a dip in revenue to $73 million in the year to June 2024.

Owned by directors Tania Stevens and Samantha Connors, the business incurred a small loss after its performance was impacted by a fixed-price contract.

Pindari WA, which is headquartered in Dunsborough but operates mainly in the Pilbara, fared better.

The business has achieved strong growth over the past two years, with annual revenue hitting $71.7 million in FY24 – more than double the level in FY22.

Profit has dipped slightly over that period but was still a healthy $3.9 million in FY24.

Below these bigger firms sit hundreds of small and medium-sized Indigenous businesses, some owned by traditional owners and many others privately owned.

Joint ventures

Yurra, which is majority owned by Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, provides a case study in how Indigenous businesses can expand by progressively widening the services they offer.

Joint ventures have played a big role in enabling Yurra to expand.

For instance, it had a long-running joint venture with Geraldton Building Services and Cabinets.

A major milestone for the group was buying GBSC out of the joint venture in 2023.

That helped explain its big jump in revenue and the increase in staff numbers to more than 400.

It expanded into the recycling sector last year by forming the Ngardimu joint venture with ASX company Sims.

The jointly owned scrap metal recycling business counts Rio Tinto as its foundation client.

The two companies had already worked together for some years, with Sims delivering its rail recycling services in the Pilbara in cooperation with Yurra, which provided water truck services for fire suppression while Yurra employees were embedded in Sims’ rail recovery teams.

When Yurra expanded its commercial cleaning services from the Pilbara to Perth, Sims became one of its first clients

Another new joint venture has enabled Yurra to move into road construction in a big way.

Its Yirdiya joint venture has secured a $49 million contract from Main Roads WA to build a 10-kilometre section of the Manuwarra Red Dog Highway in the Pilbara.

The 50-50 joint venture was established with another fast-growing Indigenous business, Garli, led by experienced executive Darren Lundberg.

Transport projects

Main Roads has been one of the biggest supporters of the sector.

In the year to June 2024, it awarded 98 contracts to Aboriginal businesses, which was 15 per cent of all contracts it awarded that year.

That percentage is almost four times the mandated target in the government’s Aboriginal Procurement Policy.

As well as road construction and other civil projects, it included eight contracts for maintenance of IT hardware and software products.

Across the transport portfolio, the WA government has claimed two big wins in recent months.

In December, Minister Rita Saffioti said Aboriginal businesses had completed $700 million of work across the portfolio.

And in May, she said Aboriginal people had undertaken more than 3.5 million hours of work, either directly engaged by portfolio agencies or indirectly through contractors.

ESG contribution

The big miners have a strong bias toward traditional owner businesses, ideally allowing Aboriginal people to work on projects on their own land.

However, that is just one criterion.

They also need business partners that can deliver quality services and commend businesses that contribute to their communities.

Winyama ticks all the boxes.

The business is majority owned by Mr Ramirez, who previously worked for Rio Tinto before joining the management buy-out.

His fellow shareholders and directors – chief executive Ray Kaestner, chief operating officer Jason Gore and director Justin Angove – brought extensive experience in the Pilbara with Iron Mine Contracting and other businesses.

Winyama provides construction, civil, earthworks and other services at Rio Tinto’s Seven Mile, Greater Nammuldi, Paraburdoo, Dampier and Hope Downs 1 sites.

Its other major client is Woodside, which awarded a $30 million contract last November for civil works on its Pluto LNG project.

Mr Ramirez said the Woodside contract would support further growth in the company’s staff numbers.

He emphasised Winyama’s focus on employing Aboriginal people, particularly those from the Ngarluma language group, and others who live in the Pilbara.

“We’re trying to change that boom and bust cycle,” Mr Ramirez said.

“Other people come here but don’t leave anything for the locals.”

One standout trait at Winyama is the high degree of transparency on its environmental, social and governance performance.

“To keep ourselves accountable, we set clear targets for our material ESG issues and report on our progress every quarter,” the company states.

Its Indigenous employment rate, for instance, was 19 per cent at the end of March – just below its target of 20 per cent.

It ESG report breaks this down across six projects, from a low of 5 per cent to a high of 48 per cent on its work for Rio Tinto at Dampier port.

Winyama Contracting’s Arthur (Arty) Ramirez (left) with one of his crew at the Dampier port project. 

It also reports its female employment (13 per cent), residential employment (54 per cent) and the number of Aboriginal trainees and apprentices (three).

Winyama makes a concerted effort to support other Indigenous businesses.

In the two years to March 2025, it spent $1.8 million with Aboriginal and traditional owner businesses.

That spend is trending upwards as Winyama grows and totalled $504,000 in the March quarter.

Its ESG report specified exactly how much support went to 12 different Indigenous businesses.

The support it offers includes incubation, mentoring and small loans to Indigenous-owned start-up businesses.

Another priority is supporting businesses in the Pilbara.

In the March quarter, it spent $3.2 million buying from local suppliers. Indigenous suppliers are not included in this figure, to avoid double counting.

Its ESG report also details support it has provided to 14 community groups.

The pioneer

Carey Group highlights the benefit of long-term partnerships.

Established by Goldfields man Daniel Tucker in 1995, the business won its first contract a year later at the Sunrise Dam gold mine near Laverton – close to the lands where his family lives.

Thirty years on, Carey is still working at Sunrise Dam.

Carey and mine owner AngloGold Ashanti Australia signed two contracts at Sunrise Dam in March – a four-year open-pit mining contract and a three-year surface haulage contract.

The signing followed the completion of Carey Group’s first stand-alone, full-service mining contract in 2023.

Mr Tucker said Carey Group’s working relationship with AngloGold was the longest for an Aboriginal business in Australia.

“Long-term partnerships are the foundation of any successful business, and the Carey Mining team is thrilled to continue our journey together with AngloGold Ashanti Australia,” he said.

Mr Tucker said the company’s vision had always been to create lasting, meaningful opportunities for Aboriginal people in the mining sector.

“It was never just about building a business,” he said at a recent event to mark the company’s 30-year anniversary.

“It was about breaking ground, literally and figuratively, and proving that we, as Aboriginal people, could lead, employ our own people, build real partnerships and thrive in industries that had long left us out.”

Mr Tucker said he always felt a sense of responsibility.

“We knew that if we could break through, others would follow, and they have,” he said.

Carey Group’s latest financials show strong growth in revenue to $163 million in FY24.

As well as AngloGold Ashanti, it works for Macmahon at the Tropicana gold mine and has contracts with BHP and Fortescue in the Pilbara along with Lynas Rare Earths and Kimberley Mineral Sands.

It also has a civil construction arm targeting road construction work.

Like many other Indigenous business owners, Mr Tucker has a big focus on his community.

Carey Group runs a registered training organisation, provides scholarships for university students, trains people coming out of the justice system and backs not-for-profit group WA Child Safety Services.

Growth plans

Warrikal co-founder Amanda Healy has also blended her business activities with a focus on giving back.

Eight years after founding the business with Roy Messer and David Flett, Ms Healy will transition from chief executive to chair of Warrikal’s board at the end of June.

She will continue as the major shareholder.

David Williamson, who joined Warrikal a year ago as executive general manager, will become chief executive.

He said the company’s staff numbers fluctuated between 1,500 and 1,800, with many casuals, working across about 20 sites.

Warrikal’s largest client is Fortescue, which awarded the group a $350 million, five-year contract in 2021.

“That was the game changer for the business,” Mr Williamson said.

“Fortescue continues to be the largest client and a huge supporter.”

Other clients include BHP, Pilbara Minerals, Covalent Lithium, Rio Tinto and Roy Hill.

Warrikal’s core business is shutdowns and maintenance work, plus it has been expanding its work on sustaining capital projects, including minor civil projects along with construction and remediation work.

Mr Williamson said this mix provided a stable foundation for the business.

“We have this really safe and reliable shutdowns and maintenance business that is mature and high performing, allowing us to be a bit fussier with what we target in the projects space,” he said.

Warrikal is keen to expand.

“We are probably the biggest Indigenous contractor in WA, if not Australia,” he said.

“The business has been hugely successful to date, but we don’t want to stop there.

“We are going to do more of what we do today with more clients across more commodities and then we will expand into new geographies and ultimately new services and industries.”

Mr Williamson said 95 per cent of the company’s work was in the Pilbara but signalled that would change soon.

“We have very big growth ambitions, well beyond WA,” he said.

Mr Williamson said the group was also focused on its impact.

“We want to be the most impactful Indigenous contractor, a trusted partner to our clients and inspire other indigenous businesses to do the same,” he said.

He explained that Warrikal saw itself as different from its competitors, which included the likes of Linkforce, Monadelphous, Civmec, SRG Global and Altrad.

“We are Indigenous, we are private, and we have a huge social agenda,” he said.

One of Warrikal’s goals is to boost Indigenous employment – it currently has a 5 per cent Indigenous employment rate.

“That proportion has been steady for a few years, but the business has grown, so the actual number of Indigenous employees has increased significantly,” Mr Williamson said.

The business has a mentoring program for Indigenous employees.

“It’s about growing a strong community of Indigenous employees and having a support structure, so they stay with the business and grow into more senior roles,” he said.

It has also launched a female leadership program that will be named after Ms Healy.

“It’s part of a very deliberate plan to have more females in the senior leadership team,” Mr Williamson said.

In the social sphere, there is a range of programs Warrikal supports.

“There is a long list of charitable causes we support in the social space, through donations and employee time,” Mr Williamson said.

This includes providing student scholarships through not-for-profit group Madalah.

The business also looks to help its suppliers.

“In our eight years, we have spent over $20 million in what we consider to be a very intentional give-back to others, who are typically smaller Indigenous businesses,” he said.

Corporations

The growth of the sector has flowed through to WA’s native title corporations.

The prime example is Yurra – its commercial success has contributed to the growth of its ultimate owner, Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation.

YAC’s revenue hit $168 million in the year to June 2024.

On that basis, it is ranked as WA’s largest Indigenous corporation, according to Business News’ Data & Insights (see table).

Other large corporations encompass substantial commercial ventures.

Karlka Nyiyaparli Aboriginal Corporation, for instance, owns fencing contractor Karlka Fencewright.

Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, which is a breakaway from YAC, is another group with substantial commercial operations.

Its commercial arm is closely associated with Fortescue, providing bus and maintenance services at its Solomon mine.

The connection between Aboriginal groups and the mining industry is reflected in the financial reports of the state’s Indigenous charitable trusts.

The largest of these is The General Gumala Foundation, which had a big jump in revenue last year to $180 million (see table).

That was much higher than normal and stemmed from a one-off $125 million contribution from Rio Tinto to compensate for past underpayment of mining royalties.

Number two on the Data & Insights list is the South West-focused Noongar Boodja Trust.

Most other big charitable trusts are based in the Pilbara and the bulk of their revenue stems from land-use agreements negotiated with iron ore and lithium miners.