Glen Mitchell

Asset Inspector, Sterling Infrastructure

Background: Lineworker

“I’ve been in rail as a linesman and asset inspector for 40 years. It’s been a great adventure.

I’ve worked in so many places. Out west to Kalgoorlie, around Spencer Junction (in South Australia) and up past Brisbane and Rockhampton.

I crossed the Nullarbor on a hi-rail vehicle, that’s a truck with rail wheels set into it. It took us three weeks, checking all the culverts and bridges. The country is so flat the line disappears into the distance.

Some areas are completely remote. We had to take everything with us from water and tools to toilet paper. There are rail cabins every 300km. You travel whatever distance you do for the day and if you don’t get past the 150km mark you travel back to where you were the night before.

I’ve worked the hi-rail along the tracks from Newcastle to Brisbane. That’s amazing countryside. The rail line travels through tunnels, up and around mountains and down along the coast.

I started in rail in 1982 with an apprenticeship as an overhead linesman. In 1986, I had an opportunity to become a line asset inspector checking the condition of rail assets and progressed into culvert and bridge inspections.

I’ve spent a lot of the last 25 to 30 years inspecting rail assets in the neighbourhoods around Melbourne. As Sterling Infrastructure took on work outside the Metro system, we branched into country Victoria and interstate areas. I probably spend three to six months away most years.

I’m getting a bit over remote work these days. I do more work now with some of the younger employees, trying to pass on the 40 years of information that’s stored in my head.

Working in the rail is a fantastic career. There are so many opportunities to learn new skills and expand yourself.

And there are so many job options. The thing in rail is that if you find that you’re not enjoying what you’re doing you can pick up new skills and move on to something else.”