PURPOSE, PEOPLE, AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT – BEHIND THE SCENES OF TARNI RESOURCES
Breaking Waves
"Tarni" means breaking waves in language. The name was chosen because it captures our core purpose: to change how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are engaged, employed, and supported across Australian industry.
That practical shape driving the purpose forward: Labour Hire. Passenger Transport. A partnership network built around Communities.
BUILDING THE BRIDGE TO Opportunity
The Pilbara is one of the most economically significant regions in Australia, and one of the most culturally significant. The same land that holds major iron ore operations holds cultures with connections to Country tens of thousands of years old.
Those two realities have coexisted for decades. Local and Indigenous community members — with skills, knowledge of Country, and a stake in the region — have often been excluded from the economic activity happening on their doorstep.
Tarni was founded with the vision to address that gap at ground-level – through direct employment, reliable transport, and partnerships built on shared purpose.
OUR PEOPLE
Zach Green, co-founder, is a proud Gundjitmara and Palawa man whose career spans Indigenous Affairs across some of Australia's largest organisations. His work building engagement strategies between companies, suppliers, service providers, and remote communities is grounded in a consistent position: that meaningful outcomes for First Nations people require structural change, not symbolic gestures.
Director Bobbi Lockyer was born and raised on Kariyarra Country in Port Hedland. A proud Ngarluma, Kariyarra, Nyul Nyul, and Yawuru woman, Bobbi brings cultural knowledge and professional leadership that extends well beyond the Pilbara. She has collaborated with organisations including Amnesty International, Adobe, Apple, and Google, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2023 Women Changing the World Awards. Her grounding in both Community and the broader professional world guides how Tarni operates at multiple levels.
Managing Director James Turner comes from nearly two decades in transport and logistics — line haul, oversize and over-mass, bulk haulage, and passenger transport. He provides the operational architecture and ground-level expertise that turns purpose into a functioning service business.
The combination is deliberate. Cultural authority and operational experience in the same leadership team is one of our pillars.
What "Connecting Communities with Opportunities" Actually Means
Tarni's positioning line — Connecting Communities with Opportunities — is a description of the work, not a marketing construct.
Labour Hire creates a direct pathway between Indigenous community members and employment in mining and transport. Passenger Transport removes the physical barrier that would otherwise prevent people in remote communities from reaching those jobs. Strategic partnerships with AAC, Go West, and RAC BusinessWise extend the network into operations and regions where Tarni's own footprint is still growing.
And because the business is Indigenous-owned and operates from Kariyarra Country in Port Hedland, the value generated by these services circulates back into the communities it comes from.
THE ROAD FORWARD FOR TARNI
Tarni Resources operates across the Pilbara and regional Western Australia, drawing on decades of combined experience in transport and logistics. The business is growing — in partnerships, in placements, and in the relationships with the communities and partners it works between.
The vision is a Western Australia where Indigenous communities have reliable, structural access to meaningful employment — and where industries operating on Country are genuinely connected to the people who belong to it – looking local for labour and talent for the countless benefits it brings to communities, regions, and operators alike.
Need reliable Passenger Transport connecting your workforce and remote or regional sites?
→ Contact Tarni Resources to discuss how we can help
Looking for transport solutions to get people safely to essential services, or back to Country?
Planning heritage surveys or requiring culturally aware transport for Elders on Country?
→ Contact Tarni Resources to discuss Heritage Survey Transport
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