9 April 2026

Returning to learn more: Lulu Milfull builds on her Whitehaven journey at Blackwater

We previously caught up with Ella-Luci Milfull (Lulu) in April 2025 following her first vacation program with Whitehaven (read the full story here). Since then, she has continued working with the business in a part-time data analysis role, supporting site from Whitehaven’s Brisbane office. Her second vacation program over the 2025–26 Christmas break provided another opportunity to gain operational experience.

“I’d already been working with Whitehaven in the Improvements and Analytics team two days a week, so applying for the vacation program a second time felt like a natural next step,” Lulu said. “I wanted to build on my knowledge and understanding of the operation rather than start fresh somewhere else, and Whitehaven has such a good culture and strong teams and there really wasn’t another company I wanted to go to.”

This time, Lulu was based at Whitehaven’s Blackwater Mine, drawn by the opportunity to experience the site’s dragline operation. The largest dragline fleet in the southern hemisphere.

“That was the big drawcard for me,” she said. “I really wanted to see how such a large dragline operation works in practice and be part of it.”

During her placement, Lulu joined the Mine Scheduling and Planning team, working closely with the Dragline team. Over the 12 weeks, she was given the chance to contribute to real operational work.

“I got thrown straight in to what the team actually does every week. I basically got given what they were doing, which I was really excited about cause as a vac student, you don’t really get to do that. You’re more on the sidelines.

“I was doing dragline and dozer plans, weekly reporting, compliance work and contributing to plans that are actually used on site,” she said.

“Of course they were heavily reviewed, but that’s where I feel I learned a lot from the feedback.”

A highlight for Lulu was the strong focus on site exposure. Alongside her technical work, she regularly spent time in the pit with supervisors and operators.

“Seeing things in real life makes such a difference,” she said. “I was doing a dozer push plan that looking at my computer looked like it’d be about the size of me, just a small hill. I finished the plan and went out with the dozer push Superintendent and it was at least 10 metres high.”

For Lulu, the experience also reinforced just how important communication and relationships are in mining.

“One of the key learnings I took away from Blackwater was that communication drives execution. The operators and supervisors are critical to productivity,” she said. “You can make all the plans you want, but if you don’t communicate properly or listen to the people doing the work there will be consequences.

“It’s something I’ve always had in the back of my mind, but I never really understood just how important it is.”

She particularly valued the daily collaboration with the Dragline team, including early-morning meetings to discuss performance, challenges and priorities.

“You really get that strong operator-engineer connection in draglines,” she said. “If there’s an issue, you go straight out and talk to the operators. That people aspect is what I loved most.”

Lulu also spoke highly of the support she received from her team.

“They pushed me, but in the best way,” she said. “I asked a lot of questions, and they are so under the pump but were also so willing to help me learn.”

Alongside the professional experience, Lulu highlighted the strong bonds formed with her four fellow vacation students.

“You become like family with them,” she said. “We’d come back to camp at the same time, eat meals together and go away most weekends. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Now in her fourth year of engineering at UQ, Lulu says the practical experience has helped make sense of her studies.

“Until my fourth year, I hadn’t seen how much of what I was doing at uni applies to real work, but I can now see how the background knowledge is useful and relevant.”

Lulu hopes to return to Blackwater Mine in the future with the long-term aim of joining Whitehaven’s graduate program and continuing her career in mine scheduling and draglines.

“My end goal is to be a supervisor one day,” she said. “Hopefully in draglines where I can contribute to a really good team.”

Whitehaven’s vacation program opens for applications in July 2026. You can find out more information here.

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