The founder of one of WA’s largest mining contractors says seeing smiles on employees’ faces is the best aspect of her job as she sets her sights on becoming the nation’s first indigenous billionaire.
KingKira Group founder Tammy O’Connor delivered the keynote speech at Supply Nation’s Connect 2026 forum hosted in Perth on Tuesday.
Ms O’Connor said Aboriginal businesses people should dream big, talking up her own desire to join the ranks of the uber-rich.
“I see a lot of people up in the Pilbara… people like Andrew Forrest, that have become multiple billionaires, and other people that grew up there,” she said.
“So why can't we do that.
“Like BHP said: ‘think big’, So I'm going to do that.”
Born in Marble Bar with ties to Palyku and Nyiyaparli country, Ms O’Connor spent her early career as a tradie before shifting into business ownership.
Ms O’Connor told the forum Fortescue’s Billion Opportunities indigenous procurement program was crucial in giving her fledgling business a leg up when it started in 2014.
It was a welcome departure from prior experiences for Ms O’Connor, who recounted “heartbreaking” rejections prior to her breakthrough success with KingKira Group.
Ms O’Connor recalled being knocked back by a bank for a $40,000 car loan despite holding a stable, well-paid job, and being told by a former business partner indigenous firms would never be able to buy assets at a large scale.
“I said: ‘it will be me, I am going to become your competitor, and I am going to become a lot bigger than the business that you work for,” she told the forum.
KingKira today employs about 350 staff – about 20 per cent of whom are indigenous – and has more than 250 assets on the books.
Among those assets are seven innovative high pressure cleaning machines which Ms O’Connor said had reduced washdown time of buck wheel reclaimers from three days to 17 minutes.
Those assets are now in use at Fortescue, BHP, Rio Tinto and Roy Hill sites, she said.
“It is a hard journey, a good journey, I love what I do, I love giving people jobs,” Ms O’Connor said.
“[Aboriginal businesses] need that opportunity to show their capability, to show we want to be treated you know as a business, not just an Aboriginal business.
“A tier one contractor taking on the big contracts.”
The company was awarded a five-year industrial services contract by BHP in late July for its WA iron ore operations. It has also been a mainstay at Fortescue's operations since 2014.
Ms O’Connor was named indigenous businesswoman of the year at the 2025 Supply Nation supplier diversity awards.
