Life’s journey is often more about the twists and turns than the final destination, and that couldn’t be truer for Karen Frehill.
Growing up in South Africa with dreams of becoming a physiotherapist, fate had other plans when she didn’t get into the program she’d set her sights on. Instead, she found herself veering into the world of science, where some earth science subjects sparked a passion that would ultimately shape her career.
Whether it's untangling complex environmental regulations or juggling the demands of family life, Karen has learnt to take things in her stride and have a laugh along the way.
Q: What is your role at BCI Minerals and what does it involve?
A: I’m employed as the Environmental Approvals Specialist. My role involves a lot of internal liaison with different stakeholders and engagement with regulators at the State and Commonwealth level.
My role also requires engagement with external consultants who might be the subject matter experts or have a long-standing history with the Project, requesting them to undertake baseline monitoring/surveys in order to support the understanding of what we potentially have to protect and not impact during the construction and operation of the Project.
Q: When did you start?
A: I only started in May 2024 but in some ways it feels longer, especially given the tasks we’ve accomplished and ticked off the ‘to-do list’.
At the same time, it doesn’t feel very long in terms of how much I can still learn about the business and the Project. I don’t have a very strong marine background, so there’s a lot from the marine side of this Project that is relatively new to me. I’m also learning more about salt and the Project itself, which is really exciting – I love to learn.
Q: How did you get into environmental approvals?
A: It was all an accident really. When I left school, I really wanted to be a physiotherapist. The University I joined in South Africa only accepted 40 students every year, so if you didn’t get accepted, your default was to do a generic Bachelor of Science, and then at the end of the first year, you would try to reapply for physiotherapy. But because of the very small number of people that they accept, I ended up doing two years of the general science degree.
By the end of the second year, I stumbled across some of the earth science subjects, and I discovered I really enjoyed them. I ended up sticking with it and let the physio dream fall by the wayside.
In retrospect, I am so grateful that I never got accepted for physio and actually went down this path of environmental science and approvals because I’ve had the opportunity to travel and work in different places. It’s also a career in which I am constantly learning.
I’ve been very fortunate to have worked on quite diverse and interesting projects in South Africa, the UK and Australia. While the principles behind all the approvals and impact assessments are pretty much the same regardless of where you work, it’s the legislation that goes behind it that’s quite intricate and different depending on the location.
The aspect of what I enjoy so much about the job is that every project has its own nuances like the environment where it's located and the challenges you face with the approvals or implementing the Project to minimise impacts. It’s almost like a puzzle or a problem-solving exercise, so it’s never boring; every Project is different.
Q: You mentioned you’ve worked in a few different places, what was your path to coming to Australia?
A: I did my undergraduate degree in Cape Town, South Africa, and then I came to Sydney to do my postgraduate degree. I had every intention of staying here, but I couldn’t find a visa, so I had to return to South Africa.
Once I was there, I could apply for a permanent residency visa. I had 30 days to put the application in before they changed the rules, and I wouldn’t be eligible for it. I had to scramble to get all kinds of documentation and medicals completed, but I put it all in and then it took nearly 3.5 years for it to be granted.
I stayed in South Africa for a year and ended up back at the university where I studied. There was a little consultancy underneath that I worked at.
At the end of that contract, I decided I didn’t want to stay in South Africa and I went to the UK. I found a job there with a consultancy based in Huddersfield, where I worked on wind farm developments across the country.
When I got my Australian visa approved, I was in the UK, and I had to arrive in Australia by a certain date in order to validate the visa. I flew from Manchester via Singapore to Perth and back again in three days. It was so quick, I don’t even think I suffered from jet lag.
In January 2025, I will have been here in Perth for 18 years, and this is home for me.
Q: You’ve been here a long time now. What do you love about Perth?
A: It’s a very safe city and the lifestyle is awesome. It’s quite comparable to South Africa in terms of the climate, the mentality of the people and the lifestyle.
Perth is a fantastic spot to be. There are many different projects available for environmental approvals. From a work perspective, there are always opportunities.
Q: What do you like about your job at BCI Minerals?
A: I think the people, their knowledge and the fact everyone is so open to helping and sharing that knowledge. I am also very appreciative of the work-life balance, which definitely comes from the top down. I’m hugely appreciative of it as I am still learning about the Project, how the salt is produced, and who/what everyone’s role is in the company.
Having three kids and no extended family in the country, the flexibility of being able to work from home when kids are sick or attend school assemblies is so important to me and I am grateful for the trust and respect afforded to me by the company to know that I will get the work done, regardless of whether I am based in the office or working from home.
Q: What’s something people don’t know about you?
A: I’m actually a fully qualified high school science teacher. During the last really big global downturn, I could see the writing on the wall, and I applied to an organisation called Teach for Australia, which looks for people with a STEM background to re-train as school teachers.
I got placed in a school in one of the northern suburbs and started teaching high school science, and…wow, it was an eye-opener. The whole experience was a huge period of growth for me, and I have an immense amount of respect for teachers at all levels. It is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had.
In hindsight, if I knew what I was going to go through during the whole process then I probably would have never signed up for it. But at the same time, I am grateful for everything that I learnt in the process. It wasn’t just knowledge from a purely academic point of view, it was also a huge personal growth period for myself.
Q: What do you do on your weekend and in your spare time?
A: I don’t have much spare time, as I play ‘Mum’s Taxi’ with my three children, ferrying them around to various playdates, parties, or soccer training or matches. I do love baking, and when I do have some free time, I love to try out a new recipe or an old favourite. I love to share my baking with others and hope to have some time in the new year to try out some new recipes to share with everyone in the office.
Q: What is a time in your life when you’ve been proud of yourself?
A: I think when I was doing the high school teaching and studying at the same time. I also had my third child in that period. It was a time when I had to juggle the whole work-life balance, and it was a very fine line with many late nights to ensure my university assignments were submitted on time.
It was also interesting because I was teaching high school science even though I never did high school science to year 12. There were aspects of what I was teaching that I had to teach myself before I could teach the kids, so there was a lot of stress involved. But I think juggling that period was probably the most difficult, but I came through relatively unscathed.
Q: What would be your advice to your younger self?
A: When I was younger, I always felt that there was this burning need that you had to be able to answer every question on the spot and know everything. I’m quite happy at this stage of my career and life to acknowledge I might not know the answer to the question right now, but I can come back to you and let you know.
If I could go back in time to tell my younger self that it’s ok not to know everything, but also to have confidence in your own abilities and to be more patient.
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“Salt of the Earth” is a series where we get to know our dedicated team members.
To see the current opportunities at BCI Minerals, please visit our careers page: https://www.bciminerals.com.au/careers.html