November is Men’s Health Awareness Month and Pilbara Minerals was lucky to have the founder of Blue Tree Project and WA Young Australian of the Year, Kendall Whyte on site viewing three Blue Trees and talking about mental health awareness.
The mission of The Blue Tree project is to help spark difficult conversations and encourage people to speak up when battling mental health concerns.
By spreading the paint and spreading the message that “it’s OK to not be OK”, we can help break down the stigma that’s still largely attached to mental health.
The idea for the first tree on site at Ngungaju came from Mark Separovich. Mark first thought of finding a suitable Blue Tree in early 2021 and enlisted the help of Fabian Todd to locate a fallen tree not far from Baldy North.
They worked with a local paint supplier in Port Hedland, Mark Rose from Days Contracting, Glen Van Dongen, and Chris Streat and their crews.
Today, the Blue Tree helps identify the location for the muster point at Ngungaju.
Kendall chose the Ngungaju Blue Tree as her favourite Blue Tree on site because it was the first tree on site, and the NLO team took the initiative to embrace the project based on one person’s idea.
“Never underestimate the impact one person’s actions can make,” Kendal said.
“Due to this one person’s idea, the message of The Blue Tree has now spread company wide.”