Tyrone Adams is a Dubbo boy through and through.

The 21-year-old started his schooling at Buninyong Public before attending South High before completing his HSC at Senior Campus.

He heard about career opportunities at Fletcher International Exports while at school but also knew all about the company through his father, who worked at the meat processing plant.

“I finished the HSC and worked at a couple of jobs but they didn’t really interest me and then I started over at the abattoir and then I found out about the grain harvest, so I came over here to work the harvest and stayed, I’ve been here for three years now,” Tyrone told Dubbo Photo News.

“Harvest was unbelievable, it was quite a big rush and a lot to take in but over time I learnt how everything worked in together and I was given a lot of training which helped me out a lot.

Along with many Fletcher International Exports employees who we’ve interviewed on these pages, Tyrone is keen to talk about the ongoing training and how the company culture is structured to really challenge people, but also support and train them along the way.

“That’s absolutely how it works,” he said. “Absolutely – the company doesn’t want anyone to fail, they don’t set us up for failure, they set us up for success and while it can be tough to take up these challenges, in the long run it really does help you as an individual and by becoming more skilled, that in turns helps the company.”

Tyrone said he’d grown enormously as a person since signing on with Fletcher International, in large part because he’s constantly being pushed to try new roles and improve his skill base and he’s graduated to grain sampling and driving the giant forklifts and reach stackers, to move shipping containers around the terminal and also load the trains.

“I got my forklift ticket, the company put me through that course last year and a couple of weeks ago I completed the Reach-Stacker course, a machine which is partly a crane, they put me through that, which was excellent.

“It’s so rewarding, I love driving those vehicles. I didn’t have any interest in them at all when I first started but now that I’ve got all these tickets and these experiences behind me, all the hands-on work with the train and the other vehicles, I love it.”

Tyrone said he’s incredibly grateful to have been given so many opportunities he had no idea even existed before he started working at the grain terminal.

“I feel valued and trusted by my managers, supervisors and all my peers. It feels like they can all trust me to do the job, trust that I’m a safe operator and that really makes me feel good about what I do,” he said.

“Safety in the company is paramount; do it safely, do it properly, do it once, and I like that because it’s so important to have a safe workplace when you’re handling such huge quantities of grain and other commodities, and I’m so glad we’re always on top of the safety, and we prioritise that.”

He said the fact everyone starts on the ground floor with the most basic labouring jobs is a critical component behind the success of the company, but also the strength of the positive workplace culture, where everyone in supervisor or management positions have walked in everyone else’s shoes rather than being parachuted in as a boss.

“That definitely helps, to start from the bottom and work your way up, to know and understand the full operations of the site – it’s the best way to do it and I really feel proud that I came here with none of these skills, started at the bottom, and have worked my way up so quickly into my current jobs, absolutely.”

As a Dubbo boy – working just a kilometre up the road from his high school and who has his homegrown career on fire – he’s keen to encourage other senior high school students to try out the company’s upcoming harvest jobs – those young people who are looking to make a bit of money over the holidays and who aren’t yet sure what they want to do with their lives?

“Come and try it out. It’s a very rewarding job that can be hard work but it’s very rewarding. It’s good pay and it’s a good experience to get with hands-on work within the agricultural sector and it gives you a good insight on how things operate.

“Come and join us. I love this job, I’m very happy and I’m so glad I started here. I never wake up not wanting to go to work, I work with a good crew out here, everyone’s very supportive and we get along very well so it doesn’t really feel like a job in many ways, I enjoy the work but I also enjoy the people and I get paid to do it.”