Zeeland Adriënne penetrates a man’s world and builds a gold mine in Australia

“Last week I was still sick in bed, but now I’m better enough to carry on,” she says with a laugh on Zeeland’s broadcast when she gets home. Boyfriend isn’t doing well yet. “He still has male flu,” she jokes.

Adriënne must be feeling better too, as co-owner of so many companies, she’s so busy. Moreover, we bought a company a couple of weeks ago, so now we are busy building a new gold mine.

The mine is being built at Norsman in the Goldfields-Esperance region in southeastern Western Australia. “Norsemann is a gold-mining town,” says Adriënne. “There is always a hunt for gold, but on a small scale. The mine has been started and closed a few times. Now they have found a new area where the gold is good enough to extract gold. So we are working on it.”

Listen to the conversation with Adrienne below:

Adrian tells us from Australia

It’s not that Zeelander herself will enter the Australian mine, but that the company she and her new owner friend are supplying concrete to build the mine. “They are demolishing the shed to put the piles, foundations and pavers in the ground. The mill must also be rebuilt to sort the gold out of the ground. We poured this foundation this week.”

Adriënne owning a gold mine is a great adventure. “For us Dutch, such mine is a bit too small alien, but? I think so!”

Adriënne will be managing things on her own for the next week, because her friend Ben is still sick in bed. “Things are going well, but I noticed it’s also the world of men here. It’s every man’s worst nightmare: a young woman, also a foreigner, in Australia is still a real thing.”

Every weekday at Radio Zeeuw Abroad we talk with a former co-county colleague who lives in another country about how he has experienced the coronavirus crisis there.

Adrienne Verburg from Kortgene went to Australia at the beginning of 2016. A trip was planned, but once in Australia she met her current partner and decided to stay. She currently lives in Fraser Range Station in Western Australia, where they run a contracting company, a large cattle ranch, and a campground with a restaurant.

Adrian doesn’t suffer from an uneven male to female ratio among her employees. “It’s mainly about clients. They call me ‘love’ and immediately ask me about my husband. Then I say: you have to do it with me. It’s a challenge, because in Holland of course we’re not like that at all. I’m more used to it, but I already deal with it Much better, this is the beginning.”