Traditional Owner business Gallawinya partners with BHP on West Australian tyre supply contract

Giovanni Torre Published March 7, 2023 at 9.25am (AWST)

business

Gallawinya owner Troy Eaton and BHP Head of Global Indigenous Procurement, Chris Cowan, signing the contract. Photo supplied.

A new contract between BHP and Pilbara Traditional Owner business Gallawinya will see up to 4,000 light vehicle and truck tyres supplied to BHP's Western Australia Iron Ore operations each year.

The contract will see Gallawinya initially service WAIO's Mining Area C, South Flank and Yandi operations, with a view to expand to additional sites including Jimblebar, Newman and Port Hedland.

Gallawinya owner Troy Eaton said the BHP contract would create more training and employment opportunities for Indigenous people in the Pilbara.

"The benefits of what we are doing now with BHP will bring a lot of rewards back into the community for a win-win situation that has sometimes been fractured because we are Traditional Owners up there," he said.

"It's a healing process as well. We're from the Pilbara, mining is central in this great nation, it's just how do we engage to keep moving forward. The best thing is, we can actually disagree, to agree, with BHP."

Gallawinya owner Troy Eaton. Photo supplied.

BHP's Head of Global Indigenous Procurement, Chris Cowan, said working with Gallawinya represented "a major step forward" in a non-traditional supply area, and would create opportunities including more regional employment.

"We're working hard at all levels of BHP to build sustainable operational partnerships with Traditional Owner businesses," he said.

"Teaming up with Gallawinya is a fantastic example of this as it represents a new category of supply by a Traditional Owner business, while also contributing to the communities where we operate."

Gallawinya, a subsidiary of Nyamal-owned and operated East West Pilbara Group, employs more than 10 people across its facilities in Port Hedland and Karratha.

In the first half of the financial year, BHP's Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) spent more than $120 million with more than 80 Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses through its Project Rise initiative.

WAIO has increased its year-to-date annual spend by around 62.5 per cent from the same period last financial year and is on track to achieve its financial year 2023 target of a $225 million contractual spend with Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses, which will increase to $300 million in financial year 2024.

BHP's half year results released late last month also showed that the company had more than doubled their spend with Indigenous suppliers.