Beauty queen Gráinne is now a model employee on a mining site in Aussie desert
A FORMER Miss Universe Ireland has been named ‘Employee of the Year’ in her new job – at an Australian mining site. Gráinne Gallanagh, 29, who took part in Miss Universe in 2018, made the big move out to Perth with her fiancé Ryan Coleman last year and has been working on a construction mine site in Western Australia. The Donegal native, who has also competed in Dancing With The Stars, and her partner work on a ‘fly in fly out’ basis, where they work on the mine for two weeks at a time and then get a week off. But she is taking the career change in her stride, joking that she has ‘the most colourful CV of anybody that I know’. When she’s working on the mine, Gráinne’s alarm goes off before 4am and she drives trucks around the site in nearly 40C heat.
She told EVOKE: ‘The job that I do is escorting trucks. So trucks will come into the site with deliveries and I’ll bring them around the site and do all their paperwork.
‘I drive the fuel truck as well, so I drive around and fuel up all the machines. It’s a busy site, it’s all go go go. [I’ll also be] getting the boys stuff. They kind of call me the site Uber. If they need something, they’ll call me up on the radio. But it’s good. I really like it!’
Despite having been in the job only six months, Gráinne’s positive attitude impressed her employers so much that they awarded her the title of ‘Employee of the Year’.
She said: ‘I got Employee of the Year! I nearly died when I found out. They had a big awards ceremony and I wasn’t at it because we were in Melbourne at the time. I found out when
I got back to work. It was great. I just find it so hilarious. I couldn’t wait to ring home and tell my daddy.
‘He was like, “Oh, you’ll not last five minutes up there. You’ll hate it,” and all this, and then I rang home and said “I’m Employee of the Year!”’
As well as her new job, Gráinne is busy preparing for her wedding after her long-term partner Ryan popped the question on a road trip along the coast of Australia last November.
She said: ‘I was obviously, delighted and I was hoping it was coming down the line at some stage. We had been together a long time. But it was a lovely surprise. I didn’t expect it at the time. [The proposal] was on the beach at sunset, so it was perfect.’