In just five years, Perth-based Indigenous female-owned company, Bunbara, has grown into a multi-million-dollar business supplying procurement and engineering services to global oil and gas companies including Woodside, Inpex, Shell, Santos and Chevron.
This success has led to being recognised by the Telstra Business Awards as the Western Australia winner of the Award for Indigenous Excellence, putting Bunbara in the running for the national award.
Nikky Barney-Irvine and Pamela Baldwin established Bunbara on the back of extensive business experience, such as policies, procedures and sales, including in the oil and gas industry. They joined ICN as a subscriber right from the start to ensure they had access to up-to-date project information.
According to Nikky, they use Gateway to “see what jobs are out there, put our names down, and try to be noticed”. This allows them to get early visibility on potential work.
“We’re out and about constantly finding out what’s going on and doing our research so we know what’s coming. Then those companies go to ICN to see who’s put their names down,” Nikky said.
They also attend networking events, both through ICN and other industry events, describing them as “crucial” to building relationships and getting to know key contacts.
Being proactive and consistently showing up to these events builds credibility and helps them get noticed.
In fact, Nikky’s advice to new Indigenous companies is to “keep networking, turning up, turning up, until people start seeing your face, and then they start talking to you more. They get to know you.”
The combination of using the ICN Gateway and actively networking allows Bunbara to stay informed about upcoming opportunities and position themselves as a known and trusted supplier. This multi-pronged approach has been effective for their business growth.
This persistence has paid off with Bunbara being awarded a multi million dollar contract with engineering company KBR to supply piping components into Woodside’s Pluto Train 1 Scarborough modifications project.
The company put in a lot of upfront work before landing the contract, including travelling to the UK for an in-person meeting with KBR London.
“We went at it from every angle,” Nikky said. “We put in an EOI through ICN to start with and then contacted KBR directly as well.
And while working with Bunbara helps Woodside and other major project owners meet state and federal Indigenous procurement policy targets, it only gets their foot in the door. They then need to prove themselves.
“We actually perform, so they are hitting their Indigenous participation targets as well as getting quality products and services.”
A big reason why Nikky and Pamela established Bunbara – which means ‘open country” in Nikky’s language – was to give back to the Indigenous community in scholarships and sponsorships.
“We’ve done 17 so far and I hope we can at least double that in the next five years,” Nikky said.
“We are giving them a platform to be able to believe in their dreams and get out there and actually do a sport, or some sort of education. Sometimes they are the first in their family.”
For more information go to https://bunbara.com.au/
