Keri Harrison: From quarry manager to health and safety advocate

Waimakiriri Irrigation’s health and safety adviser Keri Harrison holds an A-grade quarry manager’s ticket.

You would never picture Keri Harrison as being a person who knows the running and safety aspects of a quarry like she does.

Small, bubbly and full of energy, Harrison is one of a small group of New Zealand women holding an A-grade quarry manager’s ticket, having achieved this qualification last year.

She has done the hard graft, securing her B-grade quarry manager’s ticket in 2015 and earning the respect of her peers.

But don’t call her a quarry woman or quarry person; Harrison likes to be referred to as a quarryman.

She has worked hard to fit into this male-dominated industry and considers herself just one of the team.

“I’m passionate about the mining and quarrying industry and want to continue to improve my knowledge,” she said.

“I enjoy mentoring and coaching work to help develop future quarry managers.”

Harrison spent 11 years at Selwyn District Council working in its asset management team and then worked as a health and safety manager for Southern Screenworks before starting her own consultancy business, Tui Creek Consulting, seven years ago.

Health and safety

Harrison now puts her background to good use as Waimakariri Irrigation’s health and safety adviser.

Waimakariri Irrigation is a shareholder-owned co-operative that manages a large run-of-river irrigation scheme in Canterbury, providing water to around 200 shareholders and irrigating about 23,000ha.

Harrison credits the willingness of the operations and management team to embrace change as the main reason for improvements to the co-operative’s health and safety culture.

“When I started working with [the co-operative] in 2017, it was a very simple health and safety system, but due to the hard work of [the] operations team, the organisation has adapted quickly to meet new rules and regulations.”

Harrison’s background in mining, quarrying and local government has helped her understand the health and safety requirements for the irrigation scheme.

“I previously oversaw the water race intakes for the Selwyn District Council, and that was my first contact with [the co-operative] as one of the intakes started just on the edge of [its] irrigation scheme, which naturally made me interested in learning more about it,” she said.

“I also rewrote the water race bylaws for Selwyn District Council.”

In terms of risk identification and mitigation, Harrison said the co-operative’s staff and directors had a strong awareness of potential hazards in the workplace and are supportive of health and safety.

“The operations team are the people who are most at risk of having an accident, so we make sure to remain aware of all potential risks and to have everything documented with practical steps to take to avoid risks wherever possible.”

Harrison said technology helped the co-operative to change its approach to health and safety and an app is used by the operations team to capture data in real-time.

“I am always looking for ways that we can do things more effectively, and technology is a great enabler for this,” she said.

“Instead of having to write everything down, we can use the app to capture content in a more efficient way.”

Encouraging younger people into the industry, especially women, is getting easier and interest is increasing through open days, career expos at schools and quarry conferences.

It is an industry that offers opportunities for school leavers seeking a hands-on job.