Wamarra works on projects for the impact they leave behind – social good for communities, financial security for staff. Now, that approach is paying off as the contracts keep getting bigger.
On a flat stretch of reserve land outside Griffith, roads and footpaths have been rebuilt, drainage dug, fencing erected and landscaping completed as part of a long-overdue upgrade.
Like many former missions and reserves across NSW, the Three Ways Aboriginal Reserve was built without the basics other communities take for granted: sealed roads, drainage, lighting and fencing.
Now, thanks to the NSW Government’s $173.8 million Roads to Home program, supporting 34 Aboriginal communities statewide, it has them.
Creating opportunity, transforming lives
The project was delivered by Indigenous-owned and operated civil contractor Wamarra. For Managing Director Hayden Heta, a proud Wiradjuri man with family ties through the Riverina, it had personal and professional meaning.
“We engaged five local residents, from plant operators to labourers,” he said. “All were offered full-time employment – two travelled with us to the next project when there wasn’t ongoing work locally.
“We’re not about quick wins or short-term contracts. We hire people with the intention of building meaningful, long-term careers.”
Heta set up Wamarra six years ago to create genuine career opportunities for Indigenous people. Three pillars underpin the business: continuity of employment, individualised training and cultural safety. Today, Wamarra employs around 100 people, including 32 engineers – 62 per cent of them Indigenous.
“We also have a large cohort of non-Indigenous people from all walks of life,” Heta said. “But everyone who joins understands who we are and what we represent.”
That cultural identity is increasingly formalised across industry; federally, the Indigenous Procurement Policy requires agencies to direct a rising share of contracts to Indigenous businesses.
But Heta said Wamarra isn’t interested in ticking boxes.
“We’re about transforming lives. Job security leads to financial independence, which maximises the social impact.”
He’s direct about the industry’s blind spots, warning against “black cladding”, where non-Indigenous operators dress up a business to look Indigenous-owned purely to access contracts.
“Our business is centred around people, not just creating wealth for owners. We’ve been able to shift the dial on what it takes to genuinely engage Aboriginal businesses.”
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Diversifying and future-proofing
Wamarra maintains a steady pipeline of work for its staff through diversification into other states and sectors, and community and major infrastructure alike.
From the Riverina’s reserve roads to Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal Project and Suburban Rail Loop precinct, Wamarra has also helped to reshape the Yarra River itself.
Partnering with parent company Symal on the first stage of the $300 million Greenline Project, it fitted a 450 m stretch of the Birrarung Marr precinct with 235 m of new boardwalk using 83 t of structural steel, all while planting 76 native Australian plant species.
The site’s significance runs deeper than its scale. Birrarung Marr sits on culturally significant Kulin nation land, with the design shaped through consultation with Traditional Owners, including the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.
“Visitors get to enjoy the deep cultural connection the area has with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung,” Heta said.
The project was also a chance to bring new people into the business, such as Katie Macinnis, who joined Wamarra as a graduate engineer last year to work on the Greenline project.
“There was a lot of learning across the business,” she said. “It was a particularly exciting package because it was something Symal and Wamarra hadn’t delivered before, so there was a big focus on collaboration and problem-solving to get it right.”
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Different angles
Macinnis is now working on Spark, the joint venture delivering the North East Link – Victoria’s largest road project, an $11 billion “missing link” connecting Greensborough to Bulleen.
For her, diversity isn’t just about demographics; it’s about a team that approaches problems from different angles.
“In engineering, there’s rarely one way to solve a problem. Bringing people together with different backgrounds and ways of thinking helps you find solutions no one person would have reached alone.”
Wamarra is now taking on a new challenge: building an explosive ordnance storage facility – the Myambat Explosive Ordnance Depot expansion – for the Department of Defence worth over $40 million. It comprises three storage buildings surrounded by blast-containment earth traverses plus supporting roads and infrastructure.
It’s the company’s largest project to date – and is highly complex, said Heta.
“It’s springboarded us into defence, and now we’re tendering for larger works.”
That growth only broadens Wamarra’s wider mission.
“We want to be the largest employer of Aboriginal people in our sector,” Heta said. “We’ve had ten Aboriginal staff buy their first homes since working full-time with us – six of them the first in their family’s lineage to do so.
“That makes me incredibly proud.”
