Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Christian Paredes and I’m Port Waratah’s Superintendent Maintenance Support and Superintendent Planning and Scheduling.

When did you start in the mining industry and what was your first job?

I graduated as a mechanical engineer in 2005 and started working in the mining industry in 2007 in Peru. My first job was Assistant Mechanical Designer, developing mechanical mechanisms using computer systems such as Autocad and Inventor.

How different is your job now to what you wanted to be when you were a kid?

Not that different! I always liked to disassemble, find how things work and try to put it back together. Although as a kid I destroyed a lot of my brother’s toys following my hobby. Nowadays, I fix the machines at the port and plan maintenance work.

What’s a usual day at work entail?

As anyone in maintenance knows, the day starts with a review of the last 24hr maintenance performance, then agreement on follow-up work priorities and responsibilities aligned to service delivery or production expectations. Some days have more morning meetings than others, and there’s plenty of coffee to drink too. I lead a team of 10 planning and 8 engineering and support staff.

Often, I do inspections onsite, getting my steps up as I travel up the mammoth stackers, reclaimers and shiploaders.

Trust me is more exciting than how it sounds!

What’s the best thing about your job?

Every day is different and always an opportunity to learn something new or a way to do things better and more efficiently.

The worst thing?

Building a strong weekly maintenance outage and then the weather changes everything.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?

Setting up a longwall in a new underground mine in Ulan. It’s not common to set-up a brand-new underground mine. It was a large-scale construction project set up from scratch. I also liked the challenge of establishing the engineering and maintenance strategies and packages and developing the maintenance schedule.

What has been your proudest achievement?

Working across the Hunter Valley Coal Chain in underground mines, open cut mines and now at the port at Port Waratah.

What’s something about your job that would surprise people to know?

How much planning is involved before we do a task and also, by knowing some computer programming your job can be much easier.

What do you do in your downtime?

I like cycling with my family and playing soccer for the Stockton Sharks. Let’s go Sharks!

The mining industry gets more than its fair share of criticism. What is your view of our industry and the impact it has?

I have an absolute respect for the coal industry and its workers. I worked in the mines in QLD and NSW, and it takes some passion and commitment to wake up every day and do what we do. I have lived in remote mining towns and seen how towns have developed, and generations built, around mining.

I respect everyone’s opinions but before attacking us consider the people factor, we are all workers, and any negative feedback affects us. During recent protest demonstrations, I’ve seen how it affects our own people’s mental health and the safety of others.

We come to work doing the best we can and maybe in another 30 years we will remember this industry as the one who built the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, and how we left something for future generations that may be embraced in future industries. 

I’d ask anyone against the coal industry to criticise it in a fair way, but before doing it understand its benefits and disadvantages. I hope we move forward together and build the future of Newcastle.