Why this exists
Building Project Women was created for women who want to feel more capable in construction spaces. Not louder. Not tougher. Just clearer, steadier, and better supported.
It started on a building site
"You can't buy that feeling."
My dad was a builder. That's where this story starts — and it's also where my sister Vivienne's story starts. Two sisters, the same small corner of Victoria, the same sites, the same sawdust.
Every school holiday, we were our dad's labour — hauling bricks, cleaning, learning the rhythm of a working day. I have a vivid memory of a house right on the dunes: digging out stumps all day, then swimming in the sea as knock-off.
There were water fights, nail gun practice, and climbing roofs. Picture this: I'm sixteen, Vivienne is fifteen. It's the eighties. And not a lot of girls in men's shapeless overalls were wandering around town.
Building sites weren't intimidating to us — they were interesting. That was the first thing I had to unlearn on other women's behalf — that not everyone had that start.
The moment I realised those worlds were the same one
Vivienne went into publishing, then became a building designer. I went into banking. I spent decades in banking, technology, and project management building corporate frameworks and systems.
But the sites were always there in the background. The smell of cut timber still does something to me. It's like a welcome home.
Then came the key realisation: the frameworks from business could be applied directly to building. The project management principles from banking and tech translated perfectly onto a construction site.
Nobody was connecting those dots for women. So I decided to do it.
The scars are the proof
If you're hoping this is where I tell you I've never made a mistake on a project, you're in the wrong book. Those experiences are not separate from my credentials. They are my credentials.
Real Credentials
- Mixed grout wrong and watched it fall out the day before a holiday.
- Ran out of money and had to paint a fence myself — badly.
- Hired tradies on price and paid for it twice.
- Stood on nails.
- Dropped glass splashbacks on my runners when I should have been wearing boots.
- Many scars on my hands from cutting myself with a chisel.
Professional Foundation
- Author of "The Girl's Guide to Property Inspections"
- Years of coaching in performance and leadership, with a particular interest in social enterprises
- Runs Helcro Electrical — solar, battery storage, EV charger installation, air conditioning, and VEU energy upgrades in Melbourne
Renovation really is in the family
Vivienne is a building designer — between the two of us, we've looked at more floor plans, argued about more structural decisions, and carried more tools than most people twice our age combined.
Vivienne designs, I manage and build, and between us we've done things we never would have managed separately.
Making construction undeniably theirs
That's why this book exists. And that's why Building Project Women exists. Not to make construction easier for women — although I hope it does. But to make it undeniably theirs.
Every story shared inspires another woman to start. Every project completed proves it can be done. And every woman who walks onto a building site with confidence and knowledge is changing what this industry looks like — one project, one story, one woman at a time.
Ready to start your journey?
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