Natasha Hinrichsen

In her own words

I am a Mt Isa school of the air girl. My family had grazing properties in western Queensland and I understood from an early age the impact of distance and weather.  We only had dirt road access into our property, meaning we were often isolated after significant rainfall. It gave me an enduring appreciation of the inter-related challenges of supply chain logistics, safety and weather events.

After completing my Bachelor in Applied Science I joined the then New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation to facilitate the delivery of the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative. Based in Moree I travelled the NSW portion of the Basin to work with land holders on capping and piping their bores. As a first job, it was a challenging role. There were a lot of long drives followed by lengthy discussions with landholder groups in sheds. The project taught me the principles of co design, negotiation, as well as how to influence consensus decision making.  When you are working with stakeholders it’s all about building trust. In the case of this work, it was about converting what the engineers on the team were saying into language that could be readily understood by the landholders. There are direct parallels in my role with the Bureau today. My current role involves working with climatologists and meteorologists to develop solutions for the transport sector.

Throughout my career, interacting and forming partnerships with industry have been a constant. I have grown my skills and experience through working across a variety of roles. One of my greatest achievements was working with all jurisdictions to develop the National Urban Water Planning Principles, which were adopted by the Council of Australian Governments in 2008.  The focus of the principles is on delivering urban water solutions in a sustainable and efficient manner.

When I moved to work in the transport sector, it came as a surprise to a lot of my colleagues, given I had spent most of the first part of my career so focused on natural resources, and in particular the water sector. Upon reflection, there are a lot of similarities between the water and transport sectors. The foundations of both are in supply-demand planning. For both sectors, infrastructure investment decisions are extremely expensive, have long lead times and often require the displacement of people. Decisions need to be made with the best available information and climate and weather projections are critical in supporting future investment decisions and improving safety outcomes.

Striving for safety

One thing I value about the transport sector is the constant striving to improve safety and efficiency outcomes. I don’t think people really take into account just how much weather and climate impacts safety, including driver fatigue. When you are driving in the heat of the day, these conditions can really impact your level of alertness when you are behind the wheel.

I have also been supporting the delivery of transport infrastructure projects through the Bureau providing weather advice. This advice is utilised by the sector to support decisions, so providing tailored information is essential. Safety is my top concern.

When it comes to the land transport sector – comprising road and rail – the inter relationship between weather, safety and data is an emerging area of focus. There are many opportunities via Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to integrate weather information to support in-vehicle decision making by drivers. As we see more extreme weather emerge in the Australian environment, this will become a growing area of interest for vehicle owners.

In terms of rail, I have been working with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to analyse rail incident data relating to weather phenomena. Through identifying trends, we can support the Australian rail sector into the future.

Network or die

I live by the creed that you ‘network or die’.

Creating and being part of a network is how you get things done. Most of the strong professional relationships I have are a result of leaning in and supporting when I’m asked – in other words, saying yes! In return, I know that when I call upon that person in the future, I can count on their support.

I am consciously living a ‘year of yes’, choosing to have the courage to be bold and so far, it’s going extremely well!  Taking this positive attitude has provided me with many opportunities.

When people come to me for career advice I say even if you are slightly interested in a role or project put your name forward. You don’t have to make the final decision whether to take a job until it is offered to you, but you need to take the first step and make the application and keep open to opportunities.

Other advice is to reflect upon and be mindful of the degree of influence you have in your organisation and within your network, particularly in regard to young people coming up in the industry.

Working in an agile environment is also important to me. There is nothing better than being part of a team where you can lean in and help each other.