E08 – Pennington Primary to the Pilbara
Produced by David Ward on December 5, 2017
Tags - Interviewed by Barry Neylon - Raelene Benier - Rio Tinto - UCare
Raelene Benler had a successful career in Western Australia as an accountant in the mining industry. She retired some years ago and devoted many years to serving and helping others. This is her story. It was recorded May 2017, just a few months before she retired as the Volunteer Coordinator at UCare in Gawler. Have a listen, Raelene’s devotion to helping those who are down on their luck is inspiring.
Raelene Benier wrote the manual on iron ore invoicing as a Systems Manager for mining giant Rio Tinto, but when she moved to Gawler she found her talents were needed in a different area.
For the last 8 years Raelene Benier was working 5-6 days a week in a high-pressure job where the advice she gave and the decisions she made had a lasting effect on her colleagues and clients. But she wasn’t working in the mining industry where she had forged a successful career as an accounting manager, instead Raelene was the Volunteer Coordinator at UCare, the not-for-profit community organisation that helps support the often overlooked population of vulnerable people in Gawler.
Whether through unemployment, family break-up, financial crisis, health issues, or through many other ways, we can quickly find ourselves in hard times, but in Gawler we know that UCare is there to help, and Raelene is immensely proud of her contribution to UCare and the difference it makes in the community.
In the latest of (Y)Our Stories, Barry Neylon talks with 2015 NILS SA Volunteer of the Year, Raelene Benier about her past career in the mining industry and for her more recent work supporting the activities of UCare in Gawler.
Raelene Benler
From Pennington Primary to the Pilbara, Raelene Benier spent much of her working life managing accounting systems for large mining operations in Western Australia
The Young Raelene
From Woodville High School a young Raelene worked at Myer’s and at Timer Fashions in Gawler before heading west
St George’s Anglican Church, Gawler
Raelene married Geoff at the St George’s Anglican Church in Gawler, before they both headed off to Woomera
The new challenge
After years of contributing to the mining industry, circumstances have given Raelene a chance to contribute to her local community with her work at UCare in Gawler
UCare Gawler
UCare Gawler, just opposite the Foodland, is always trying to lend a helping hand to anyone in need
Uniting Church, Gawler
UCare is an initiative of the Uniting Church, Gawler
Production notes
Title: GOHP E08 – Pennington Primary to the Pilbara
Guest: Raelene Benier
Host: Barry Neylon
Editor: Ian McDonnell
Producer: Barry Neylon
Transcript: Barry Neylon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
