Gill Mailman is a trailblazer. As Australia’s first Aboriginal woman to become a qualified electrician, Gill has gone on to create companies that work across several countries. She also takes women with her. In this conversation with Larisha Jerome, Gill shares how she dominates in a male-dominated industry. This is an edited transcript of RBW: A podcast sharing inspiring First Nations women’s stories. To hear more, visit tomorrowmoney.co/rbw

My name is Gill. I’m Bidjara, so that’s around the corner of a gold range in Queensland, but I grew up in Mt Isa and I live in Cairns and i’ve been on the Islands, but right now i’m glamping in Cook Town. 

Larisha: Let’s unpack a bit of your story.

Gill: I think I spent about 15 years – including my apprenticeship – working for other companies. I went into business because you know what? Our culture, who we are, we have deadset a place in business in Australia and I felt in the industry I was working in, it just wasn’t good enough. So, I wanted to do something that I was proud of that was good for my industry.

My industry is telecommunications. I’m very passionate about making sure all of us can do things that matter where we are in this beautiful country of ours. And I am modelling that a bit. So that’s something I’m concentrating on a bit now. But I set it all up so that I’ve gone through everything in business and I’m now in succession. So Mama Bear doesn’t have to be there; I don’t have to be in the business. So I’m in succession planning now where I actually live on dividends so I don’t have to turn up to work.

I’m living the dream because I did that work all the way through. So the goal when I set up my business is exactly how it has turned out and I think it’s about having that 10, 15, 20, 21 years in business, now 22 this year. It’s like having a child. You’ve got to work, you don’t sleep that first year. A business is a person, isn’t it; it’s got its own identity. I found my business grew with my children; my children went through that adolescent period and my business went through that adolescent period. I spent so much time on it in the first five years, you know, then it was like they were at school. You had a bit of time to do other things, R&D, look at other ways that you were able to build a bit more. And then, you come to a time where I am now, it’s been more than 21 years – it’s grown up.

Larisha: You’ve got a couple of businesses I want you to tell me a little bit about and something that’s stuck with me – you’re living on dividends and you can just put your hand in whatever piece of project that you want to work on. That’s something that I want to do and something that I want to achieve as well, so just tell us a little about that.

Gill: You will achieve it. Believe in yourself! That’s something we’ve got to do as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. We’ve got something inside of us; inside our DNA. You just have to believe in yourself.

But my businesses – my first baby is fibre optics in Queensland. We do a heck of a lot of government work; we’re the very best. We are absolutely the best in the area we work in. We work in Papua New Guinea, up to Mt Isa, down in the Straits, Townsville. Anything south of that, the boys complain about the cold, so we like to keep it up this area. Right now, I’ve got about seven techs and three trainees: A mature age-Indigenous one, a young one and a woman. Now the woman, she’s not indigenous, but I’m telling you, I’m looking for that next for my next round!

What I enjoy in fibre optics is establishing we’re the best. And I mean, you have to. You’re a black woman in a male dominated field. You just can’t go for second best. You have to go to the best because you just get eaten alive.