Rocket & Satellite Composite Material

[Music plays and the Earth can be seen spinning in space, and inset images appear of a female operating a computer, a satellite dish, and a female smiling at the camera, and then text appears: Space Careers Wayfinder]

[Image changes to show a view of the Gilmour Space Centre, and text appears: Gilmour Space, Helensvale, Qld]

[Image changes to show Hayley Young sitting inside Gilmour and talking to the camera, and text appears: Hayley Young, Gilmour Space Technologies]

Hayley Young: I’m Hayley.

[Image changes to show a view of the outside of a building at Gilmour Space]

I’m 32 years old and I manage the Composite Department here at Gilmour Space Technologies on the Gold Coast as the Lead Composite Technician.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

I went to school in northern New South Wales. It was a public high school, really sort of sporty environment.

[Image changes to show Hayley and a colleague working together inside the factory, and then the image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

I did well in class but I just wasn’t really that interested in school and I actually left school just shortly after Year 10 finished up.

[Image changes to show a tool board in the factory, and then the image changes to show Hayley placing a tool back in place on the board]

I definitely enjoyed the manual arts, you know, the woodworking and the textiles and design, things like that.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

I didn’t mind English but to be honest I wasn’t really a super maths or science kid.

[Image changes to show a close view of Hayley and a colleague working on a laptop on a tool bench]

I don’t know, I guess I just preferred to do the hands on sort of work.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

So, yeah I really excelled in things like woodworking and metalworking.

[Image changes to show Hayley and a colleague in conversation as they work, and then the image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

The career advice I remember getting was pretty much stay in school and head on to uni, and that just wasn’t really for me. So, I definitely felt like I wasn’t really left with much of an opportunity there.

[Image changes to show the Gilmour office space with multiple workers at long desks with computers]

I didn’t feel the need to stay on at school and be sort of university educated.

[Images move through to show Hayley talking to the camera, Hayley and a colleague working together on a part and laptop, and then Hayley talking to the camera again]

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do actually, so it was a bit of a shock to my mum but eventually she supported me and it was for me the best decision, I think. Like, there hasn’t really been a time, I don’t think, where I’ve looked back and thought, I really wish I’d stayed on, I really wish I did, you know, those extra three or four years at uni.

[Image changes to show a 3D printer in operation, and then the image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

While I was in school I just had like a local takeaway shop job and I worked there after school and on weekends. So, it wasn’t probably the best career move for me to leave school and stay there.

[Images move through of customers looking at records in a store, a close view of a female flicking through records, and then Hayley talking to the camera again]

I really didn’t know what I wanted to do but I ended up landing a job in a record store and I worked there for the next sort of four years.

[Image changes to show a close view of a worker working on equipment, picking an instrument from an instrument case, and Hayley talking to the camera again]

And that was probably, still to this day, one of my favourite jobs. What I learnt at school in those manual arts classes definitely helped me along the way.

[Image changes to show a close view of a hand working on equipment]

And I used to sort of tinker around a lot at home as well pulling things apart and seeing how they worked and fixing them up and stuff like that, so I think that definitely helped yeah.

[Image changes to show a close view of a person working on equipment]

I first heard about STEM actually when I started here with Gilmour Space.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

So, we do a lot of school engagements with kids in the STEM programme. It’s such a great programme and I actually wish I had something like that when I was at school.

[Image changes to show a view of workers in the factory]

My current apprentice came back from his second week at our specialised TAFE and said I had to do trigonometry.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

You don’t really think about using it on the daily but I guess it is a really handy skillset. So, we often have to use, you know, angles and measurements and things like that to work procedures out and processes out. So, it’s certainly a really handy subject if you think about it like that.

[Images move through of Hayley working on a machine, Hayley working on a computer, Hayley talking to the camera, and a worker operating a machine]

The technical skills needed in my role are chemistry based. We use a lot of like resin systems. But we also do anything from sort of carpentry work right up to metalwork in framing moulds and things.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

I remember when I first landed in the industry I wanted a trade but I wasn’t sure what. And I was sort of applying for all different areas of, you know, carpentry and plumbing, what have you, and I think I stumbled across a job that was titled a Composite Technician Assistant, something along those lines, and I literally had no idea what any of that meant.

[Images move through to show Hayley adjusting a machine, a close view of Hayley setting the machine up, and then Hayley talking to the camera]

But I remember going for my interview, and one of the things that came up was I’d just recently taken apart my clothes dryer and replaced a little part and put it back together, mainly because I couldn’t afford to buy a new one. I was like a 19, 20 year old kid.

[Image changes to show Hayley setting a machine up and checking it, and then the image changes to show fume extraction pipework at the roof level]

And that actually really interested the boss that was interviewing me because he could see that that’s something that I enjoy doing, was figuring out how things worked.

[Image changes to show Hayley putting on a filter mask, a close view of the machine she is setting up, and then Hayley talking to the camera]

When I meet new people, and they ask me what I do, and I say, “I work for Gilmour Space, we build rockets and satellites”, and you’re always usually met with a bit of a, whoa, you know, excitement.

[Image changes to show Hayley setting the machine up, and then the image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

So, I usually just explain like we’re Australia’s first rocket manufacturing company and if we launch successfully this year we’re the first hybrid rocket motor to get to space.

[Image changes to show Hayley setting the machine up again and operating it, and then the image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

If I was talking to kids, you know, round the age of 14 to 16, I would just tell them there’s so many different avenues to get into a space company like myself.

[Image changes to show Hayley and a colleague operating the machine, and then the image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

You know, I didn’t go to uni. I didn’t actually even finish high school but I did an apprenticeship.

[Image changes to show a view of workers working in the factory]

You know, if you’re looking around our factory we’ve got storemen, forklift drivers, truck drivers, safety officers, security guards.

[Image changes to show an aerial view looking down on the Gilmour Space facility]

So, there’s so many different avenues to get into a company like this.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a male working with wiring at a bench]

You don’t have to be an engineer, or a scientist, or a PhD student. You know, there’s all walks of life through here.

[Images move through to show a rocket model, Hayley talking to the camera, and a rocket blasting off from the ground into the air]

I’ve never really thought about the space industry prior to landing this job but now that I’m here and I know a little bit more about it, it’s so extremely exciting to think that pretty soon we’ll have a rocket in space and satellites in space from our own ground here in Australia.

[Image changes to show Hayley talking to the camera]

It's one of the most exciting things I could think of and I’m so grateful to actually have this job.

[Image changes to show a satellite orbiting the Earth]

But it’s an incredibly exciting race to Space.

[Music plays and the image changes to show the CSIRO logo and text appears: CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency, Space Careers Wayfinder 2022 except where otherwise indicated, The Space Careers Wayfinder materials may be used, reproduced, communicated and adapted free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes provided by all acknowledgements associated with the material are retained, Space Careers Wayfinder is a collaboration between the CSIRO and ANU]

[Image changes to show the ANU logo on a white screen]