October is Safe Work Month across Australia, and for many organisations, it's the moment to move beyond compliance and build a culture where everyone genuinely goes home safe.
The right speaker at the right event can shift mindsets in ways that training manuals simply can't.
Here's who we recommend:
Brant North
In 1999, Brant was working at an underground longwall coal mine in Central Qld when he was trapped by a moving conveyor chain. During his eight-hour ordeal, Brant had to have both legs amputated – which was followed by weeks of delayed physical trauma, including kidney and lung failure.
Just over 12 months later, Brant represented Australia in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games – competing in both volleyball and basketball. Today, he is a husband, and father to eight children. For the past 13 years, Brant has travelled across Australia and New Zealand, sharing his experience and the learnings from his accident to industry sectors. Brant’s strong message of personal ownership of safety continues to hit home with workforces, further supporting attitudes and behavioral changes towards safe work.
Hawk Vagg
In December 1998, tall strapping farmer, Hawk Vagg was standing on a tractor’s front-end loader on a farm near Jerilderie NSW, elevated so he could cut down the higher branches of a huge river red gum which had toppled in a recent storm; as he chain sawed off the last big trunk, he miscalculated the way it would fall and it knocked him off the tractor. Hawk plunged onto a steep river bank - a fall that changed his life forever.
Hawk Vagg was 38 years old with a wife and four boys aged eleven, nine, three and two when he became a quadriplegic. Hawk’s journey from devastation and despair back to living a full and productive life taught him a lot about himself and life in general. He realised that life is all about ‘attitude’ – controlling your attitude.
Karen Maher
Karen Maher is a leading Australian work health and safety consultant and keynote speaker specialising in enhancing workplace culture and the reduction of psychosocial risks and hazards, such as bullying, harassment and sexual harassment.
She presents at conferences and panels and to all levels of organisations across Australia and internationally, including boards of directors, management teams including senior leaders, and employees.
Her experience in this field spans over 20 years, firstly as an employment and safety lawyer in Australia and the UK, and then as a work health and safety consultant, investigator, trainer and keynote speaker.
Garth Callender
Garth Callender has travelled a remarkable road. At the heart of his story is years of formal military training and operational experience in war-zones. Garth was the first serious Australian causality of the war in Iraq, after his armoured vehicle was targeted by an insurgent bomb attack. What is remarkable about Garth’s story is his ability to overcome both the physical and physiological trauma and re-deploy to war zones again and again.
Garth motivates and inspires with tales of surviving a bomb attack in Baghdad, through to chasing insurgent bomb-makers in Afghanistan. His stories are truly unique and spellbinding, and often mixed with a touch of irreverent humour.
Helen Fitzroy OAM
Helen’s passion for workplace safety commenced following the death of her husband, Steve, in an underground mining accident in Norseman, WA in 1991. The accident left Helen a widow in her early thirties with three young children to raise. At the time of Steve’s death, mining fatalities were largely ‘normalised’ by companies and government regulators. The deaths were considered an inherent risk of the industry, with virtually no support offered to families to enable them to move forward with their lives. One of Helen’s coping strategies was writing. She wrote to her husband Steve, but also to herself and her children leading to the publishing of her first book some years later, “Just a Number”.
Still Prefer the Personal Touch?
Great Expectation continues to offer full-service support. Our team knows your industry, understands your audience, and provides curated recommendations from inquiry to event.
Contact Speakers simply gives you a faster self-service option when you need it.
Many of our clients use both strategically depending on the event.
Contact Speakers Discovery Call
If you would like we are offering personalised 15-minute session where we walk you through Contact Speakers, answer your questions, and explore how the platform can save you time and hassle booking speakers for your events. No obligation - just clarity.
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