Debbie Schroer - Electrical Engineer, Shell Geelong Refinery, Victoria

It was a decision that earned her a place in the Shell history books as the refinery’s first female apprentice. “I was perhaps seen as a novelty at first, however I was welcomed and treated exactly the same,” she says, remembering her first weeks on site.

Later, with Shell assistance, Debbie studied for her electrical engineering degree at Monash University. However, subsequent downsizing meant reduced job opportunities at the refinery, so she took the opportunity to join Mobil before moving west to the North West Shelf LNG plant at Karratha. After four years working as an instrument electrical engineer in this remote but sundrenched location, she moved back to Victoria and returned to Geelong Refinery in late 2001.

“The sense of family at the refinery was still strong,” she says of her return, but saw developments in other areas, particularly greater individual awareness of environmental and safety issues.

A key environmental concern for her team is the management of hazardous and electrical waste, such as spent lamps, capacitors and transformer oil. A campaign was launched to identify equipment potentially containing hazardous waste (the main source being transformer oil and capacitors) and then to progressively eliminate them on site. As for spent fluorescent lamps, the standard industry procedure was to crunch the tubes, remove the solids and flush away the remainder.

Deciding there was a better approach, Debbie and her group initiated waste management procedures to dispose of electrical waste externally via waste management specialists.

Debbie’s personal interest in the environment also found an outlet through a two-week Shell sponsored Earthwatch fellowship to study forest wildlife and ecology. Held in Marysville, Victoria, the project focused on the study of the last known wild population of Leadbeaters Possum and the effectiveness of existing conservation strategies.