Women of Meridian - Kate Gullery

As a child, Kate Gullery was slightly underwhelmed with some of the presents her geologist father would place under the family Christmas tree.

“I used to get rock sets for Christmas,” recalls Kate. “Back then I thought it was so boring.”

Turns out, though, that her dad John knew what he was doing.

These days Kate finds herself collecting and displaying all manner of interesting inanimate objects. Rocks, shells and pieces of driftwood all adorn her shelves.

“Now I wish I had those old Christmas presents all boxed up somewhere,” says the Environmental and Sustainability Specialist in Meridian’s Renewable Construction team.

Having always had a fascination with the physical environment, and being an animal lover to boot, a career in environmental sustainability was very much part of Kate’s life plan. The journey to get there, however, wasn’t exactly a straight line.

After spending her early years growing up in Brisbane, Kate’s family relocated to Dubbo, an inland New South Wales town of just over 40,000 whose major industry is exporting lamb and wheat.

For teenaged Kate, growing up in Dubbo consisted of classic Aussie staples: riding motorbikes on the farm, bachelor and spinster balls, swimming, water skiing and camping at the local dam.

“It was a small country town. I spent a lot of time on friends’ farms. It was a real low-key upbringing.”

At 21 Kate headed for the big smoke of London for a gap year that stretched into four.

She split her time between working as an office temp, corporate waitressing gigs and travelling, and met a Kiwi boy in the process.

When the time came to head back Down Under, Kate chose Auckland, enrolling to study a Bachelor of Science at Auckland University.

At university she connected with a bunch of fellow mature students in their mid-20s, establishing a friend group that has been part of why the still true-blue Aussie has resided on this side of the Tasman for well over two decades.

“I’m a permanent resident here and my kids were all born here, but I’ll always be Australian. I’ve still got my Australian passport.

“But I have such a big and well-established friend group here, and I love living in Auckland.”

Kate’s professional career can be neatly divided into two phases. After university she worked for about eight years in environmental-focused roles with Auckland Regional Council and Auckland Airport.

She then took about seven years off to concentrate on raising her three children.

“And then I jumped back into the workforce pretty much where I left off, working on the City Rail Link.

“I really enjoyed working on that massive infrastructure project. And it is just as exciting at Meridian being part of a great team working on our renewable assets. It is super-positive with everyone working toward the same goals.

“It is nice getting back into the corporate side of life again. And I still get to be in construction, so it is the best of both worlds.”

Part of Kate’s role at Meridian involves mitigating, evaluating and monitoring the environmental impacts of Meridian’s new and proposed renewable generation sites.

“The goal with these large infrastructure projects is to not harm the environment,” says Kate.

“Obviously with these projects we do make a lot of changes to the environment, but at Meridian we are very serious about mitigating environmental impacts, which is great and leans into my values. If we do make changes to the land, we make them as clean and tidy and be as good a corporate construction citizen as possible.

“I am a greeny but you have got to be into change as well. There has got to be a balance.”

Initiatives such as trapping feral cats and other predators of native birds, and planting trees to help regenerate wetlands, are examples of how Meridian achieves its goal of net environmental benefit.

Just as important is the work done to minimise environmental impacts in the first place.

“In major projects you've always got risks around erosion and sediment control. You don't want any sediment getting into places that it shouldn't, like streams, rivers and wetlands.

“So, we have very strict controls that contractors must adhere to, and we mitigate the risks by performing weekly inspections.

“Other risks are things like noise. We don't want to impact our neighbours, so we have noise and vibration management plans that everybody needs to adhere to.”

Her Australian hinterland upbringing prepared Kate well for the demands of her current role, including completing a 4WD and all-terrain vehicle course to prepare her for driving to Meridian’s more remote generation sites.

“That was good fun. I really enjoyed it. I grew up riding motorbikes and dune buggies and 4x4s out in the middle of Australia, so that kind of thing is super fun to me. And obviously we have to do it properly at work and follow all the rules!”

“I've been so lucky with the companies I've worked for. We've always been doing really exciting things and I’ve always worked with good people.

“Meridian is very family friendly. It's very forward thinking. Everybody here is super cool, fun, innovative. I really enjoy it. The first three years have just flown by.”

Meridian is an equal opportunity employer with Advanced GenderTick accreditation. To learn more about working at Meridian, check out our careers homepage.