The Women in Arboriculture Climbing Workshop ran the day before the ACT Tree Climbing Competition in May of this year. Tyla Bickley was there.
Canberra was putting on its best display of early winter fog as almost 20 women gathered early in the morning for the Women in Arboriculture Climbing Workshop, supported by Arboriculture Australia and run by local business, Treasure Trees. As those that had travelled from Victoria and NSW mentally confirmed their preconceptions of Canberra, locals hurried to assure everyone that morning fog meant a beautiful, sunny day to come.
Mentoring team
There were many familiar faces in the group. This was the fourth event to be held between Victoria and Canberra since 2022, organised by women for women in the industry. Samantha Burkingshaw, who organised the first event in Geelong, travelled from Melbourne to be one of the volunteer mentors for the weekend, along with Alana Murray, current Australian tree-climbing champion and ranked fourth in the world, and Isobel Watson, ranked second in Australia. Canberra’s very own Maja Blasch, twice Australian champ and previous Asia-Pacific champ, rounded out the mentoring team.
Under way
The day began with demonstrations from the stars of each of the five events that comprise a tree climbing competition: aerial rescue, throwlining, open ascent, speed climb and work climb. Competitors were taken through the scoresheets and rule book before splitting into groups and practising each event.
Husqvarna continued its support for the arboriculture industry, kitting out each participant with welcome bags stocked with necessities like insulated bottles and caps. As the sun did indeed come out, the day warmed up and everyone enjoyed a picnic lunch among the yellow boxes from Queer Food before getting back in the trees.
With one-on-one mentoring, some participants donned a harness for the first time and were later seen walking way out on limbs and practicing swinging from station to station. Others nutted out some of the peculiarities of competition climbing and scoring.
A full day
The energy was high as we all learnt and practised new skills, with eight women preparing to enter the ACT competition
being held the next day.
Thanks to sponsors Arboriculture Australia, ACTC, Timbertops Tree works and Carotel Motel, we were able to provide accommodation and food for all participants for the duration of the weekend at a very low cost. This felt really important as it recognised the travel time and costs participants were footing to be able to participate in a career-benefitting workshop.
Back at the accommodation, we debriefed the day over dinner and filled out the gear-check forms for the competitors before turning in for an early night before the comp.
Husqvarna and Clogger generously donated some awesome gifts to the workshop, and these were awarded to those who had shown outstanding enthusiasm and determination.
Onward and upward
Competition day brought fierce cold winds that even the staunchest Canberrans couldn’t sugar coat, as competitors gathered at Weston Park. It was exciting to see eight women on the run sheet for the comp, a 400% increase from 2023’s ACT comp.
After the first day of competition, we enjoyed dinner with the broader competition field at the Croatian club, thanks to local company and big supporter of the workshop, TimberTops Tree Works.
Despite the weather, the competition weekend was enjoyed by all. Some first-time competition climbers really put their skills from the workshop into practice, coming away with top overall places in the throwline and aerial-rescue events. Others from the workshop put in a huge effort over the two days, volunteering in a judging or time-scoring capacity.
A bright future
Events like these workshops, and the supportive and friendly community they foster, are a real highlight of the industry. In such a male-dominated environment it’s amazing to connect with and learn from other women. We’re lucky recipients of the work done by women in the industry before our time, and having industry organisations and businesses support the event shows a real commitment to the progression of our industry. Gender-diverse representation has been a slow
growth, particularly in the competition space, but when you have comp days like this, the potential of turning up at any competition in the future and naturally having a more equally diverse competition field doesn’t seem like it’s all that far away.
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