Twenty-one-year-old Jemmah Ronsen has joined Babcock as an apprentice and will spend the next four years completing a Diploma in Aeroskills (Mechanical) at our base on Horn Island in the Torres Strait.
A proud Argun and Italgal woman, Jemmah is keen to serve her community after spending much of the last few years on the mainland attending boarding school in Toowoomba and a stint as a Parks and Wildlife Officer in Cairns.
We sat down with Jemmah to learn about why she applied for an apprenticeship with Babcock and what she’s looking forward to most about starting her career in aviation.
Jemmah! Welcome to Babcock. It’s great to have you on board. Tell us a bit about yourself? Are you born and raised in the Torres Strait?
I’m born and raised on Thursday Island. I did my primary school years there, then I did my secondary education for two years in Brisbane, away at boarding school at St Margaret Anglican Girls School, and then from grade nine, completing in Toowoomba at The Glennie School.
What made you want to join the aviation industry?
It was actually my Nan’s idea. One of [Babcock’s] pilots was staying at my Nan’s Airbnb, and my Nan and them had a chat. And so my Nan pushed me to apply for it.
What appealed to you about Babcock?
The mechanical side of the job. After doing my interview with [Babcock Maintenance Manager] Mike [Leaver] and [Quality Manager] Sheridan [Austin], I felt like it was a good place. Like, I can see myself here, this is where I want to be.
What are you most looking forward to?
Getting my hands grubby with the helicopters!
Do you know any of the other members of the team?
My cousin also works there, Stevie Boyd [who joined Babcock nine years ago via a similar apprenticeship opportunity].
Growing up in the Torres Strait, did you often see the helicopters overhead?
Yes, they are always flying around. Unfortunately, I do know a lot of family members and friends who have used these helicopters.
How does it make you feel then, knowing that the job you will be doing will contribute to keeping these aircrafts operational and getting community members the medical attention they require?
It’s more of a privilege than anything, especially being from the community and then giving back and just knowing how much these resources are actually needed.
How critical do you think those emergency services are to the people of the Torres Strait?
You can’t stress it enough how important those services are in the Torres Strait, especially, when in an emergency, you’ve got to go from the outer islands to TI [Thursday Island], TI to mainland. It’s a very vital part of living in a remote community.
Do you think that the community appreciate having those services available to them?
Yeah, especially for those who have had to use them before. But other people from outside communities, they don’t realise how, it is literally a lifeline. It is life support right there in the Torres Strait.
What do you get up to in your spare time in the Torres Strait?
I hang around with my uncles. We go fishing, boating, swimming, diving. We fix random stuff like cars and forklifts just for fun.
Sounds like a great life. How does it compare to you’ve experiences on the mainland?
It’s not a busy life. Up there you run TI time, which is basically, if someone says, ‘I’ll meet you at the pub at six’ they actually mean seven. It’s a 5km small island, so you know it takes five minutes to get to where you need to be. So, they take an hour anyway, because they know how small it is.
It’s very different, city life and remote life. I’m grateful to be able to experience both, because not many from remote communities get to experience that.
If you were to describe in a sentence what this opportunity means to you, what would you say?
You can’t describe it, because the outcomes that come after completing this apprenticeship is way more rewarding than anything I could possibly have in my life. That’s how important [this is]. That’s what this means to me.
Is it daunting?
There’s a lot of pressure, I guess, coming from a big family like mine, being indigenous, working for really big company. I’ve worked for the government before but this is international. That is massive.
Once completed, it’s an opportunity that not many people get, or have even considered that they’d be able to do something like this, so I’m very grateful, very keen to start.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Four years is this apprenticeship, so I want to be a licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. Not only that, a female, Indigenous licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer working in my own community. That’s my goal. So my fifth year is that title, right there. That’s the goal.