Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV) is celebrating 2024 International Women’s Day by acknowledging some of the incredible women in ARV resorts who are thriving in roles traditionally considered the domain of men.
ARV is proud to boast a gender balance of 47% women to 51% men* in an industry that has traditionally focused mainly on its male participants. Half of the members of the ARV executive team are women, including the CEO, Amber Gardner. In addition, six members of the nine-member ARV Board are female, including the ARV Board Chair Ali Wastie.
This is due in part to ARV ensuring there are opportunities for women to advance with the resorts, which are specialised operations that benefit from the accumulated experience of staff, and flexible working policies that support staff in managing their work and personal commitments.
“ARV is an equal opportunity employer that has been fortunate to secure high performing female staff for new roles within the organisation, as well as foster the skills-set of talented women in existing roles throughout the resorts,” said Amber Gardner. “I’m proud to lead such a great team of passionate and talented people that are truly committed to the future of the resorts and supporting a positive and diverse workplace.”
Emma Pane – Operations and Maintenance Manager, ARV Falls Creek
Engineer Emma Pane has only been with ARV for a couple of weeks, but she’s already relishing the challenges that lie in her new role of Operations and Maintenance Manager at Falls Creek.
“It already feels like it’s going to be two separate jobs – winter and summer. In summer we work on getting projects underway, like asphalting carparks, performing maintenance on the resort’s assets, and also working on the mountain bike trails. In winter it’s going to change over to night shifts and snow clearing and grooming.”
This is Emma’s preferred work situation – variety and the opportunity to solve problems, and her early career in the male-dominated construction industry was a good way to learn how to operate in tough environments.
Emma is a firm supporter of women giving other women a hand up.
“I think it creates that environment where you want to give back and help the next generation coming through. I worked with a female graduate engineer at Boral and we still talk every week.”
She also believes that men supporting women in the workplace and speaking up about poor behaviour creates better workplaces for everyone.
“It’s about everyone having their colleagues’ backs, especially for people new in a role or new to an industry.”
Mel Von Blanckensee – Capital Projects Supervisor, ARV Mt Buller & Mt Stirling
With 18 months and all the seasons under her belt at ARV Mt Buller, Melanie Von Blanckensee is still relishing the opportunity to combine her love of the outdoors with her engineering career.
“I develop the capital works program for Buller / Stirling every year, and oversee a team of project managers who deliver that program. I also project manage some of the larger projects.”
In essence, Melanie’s role is to ensure that all the capital works projects run on time and to budget, and if they don’t it’s her job to work with her team to decide how to fix the problems or reprioritise the work program.
“One of the people that made a big difference in my career was a site foreman when I was a graduate engineer. He respected women and taught me a lot about being out on site – dealing with contractors and managing relationships on site.”
When it comes to ensuring the workplace culture supports everyone, Melanie agrees that it’s important that the wrong behaviour is called out.
“I think it’s important to lead by example. I get the opportunity to bring some of the office-based women out onto site and show them around, introduce them to a different environment. Our broader team also tries to get the outdoor guys inside as well. It helps everyone to understand each other a bit better.”
“When we get to the point that we’re not talking about equality, then I think that’s when we’ll have actually hit equality.”
Georgina Boardman – Head of Resort Assets and Operations, ARV Mt Hotham
Georgina Boardman (‘George’) is responsible for all of Mt Hotham resort’s assets and resort operations, charged with keeping the resort ticking. It’s a challenging role, particularly in recent years with a lot of new infrastructure planning and construction.
One of the biggest pieces of work has been the completion of the Alpine Gateway, a new all-season visitor facility at Mt Loch that is due to be open by winter 2024, but George and her team are also working on planning for the Hotham Hub at the Wire Plain snowplay precinct.
On top of all of this, George is responsible for ensuring all the essential services of the resort continue running smoothly, which includes drinking water supply, waste water treatment, gas supply and waste management (garbage and recycling).
George started at Mt Hotham in 2003 as an administration staffer on the front desk, and since then has done many roles across resort operations including property and planning, and also environmental management after completing an Environmental Science degree by distance with Charles Sturt University.
“The Hotham Assets and Ops team has always supported me, even though I am one of a small number of women in the team! I would love to encourage women to try out and take up opportunities in different operational roles in the resorts. It’s challenging and so rewarding to see a project come to fruition.”
Lucy Jackson – Resort Operations Officer, ARV Falls Creek
Hailing from Western Australia, where there is definitely no snow, Lucy Jackson became familiar with Victoria’s alpine region in 2021 as a winter seasonal worker at Falls Creek, then was forced to become a local when the state borders closed due to COVID.
It turned out to be a case of being at the right place at the right time.
“I’d been working in hospitality and it wasn’t really for me, so in 2022 a few of my friends who were working on the new mountain bike trails at Falls Creek suggested I go and work with them. They thought I’d be really well suited for the work and they needed workers and I was willing to give it a go.”
In Lucy’s opinion, having a team that gets on well is essential, as it encourages women in these work environments to speak up and ask for opportunities.
“We are really fortunate here. We’ve got such a great, involved group and everyone is open to giving us a crack with learning things that, generally speaking, women don’t have as much knowledge of, like using power tools.”
“It’s really important to be confident and keep asking questions and keep putting yourself in a position that’s a bit outside your comfort zone.
* 3% of ARV staff have a gender identification that is not specified
Page last updated: 08/03/24