EILEEN BREEN
Business Development Manager, NTEX Civil Construction & Demolition
Eileen Breen watches the sun come up as she runs around the track circling the periphery of the eight-hectare bush block she calls home just outside Darwin. Skipping ahead is the small form of her 11-year-old toy poodle, Mojo, while cartwheeling through the bush is effervescent rescue dog Dobby. During wet season, a seasonal creek bordering the property is home to the occasional crocodile.
The hour between five and 6am is sacred time for Eileen. It’s the 56-year-old’s hour of power, before workers turn up on site and home becomes the business she shares with her husband, Gerry. Fluoro is donned, excavators fire and the cogs behind their civil construction, demolition and resource recovery company, NTEX, begin to whir.
It’s an interesting space for a woman who’s passionate about sustainability. “I actually moved away from the industry for a few years. It just didn’t align with my values,” Eileen explains. “It’s one of the most destructive, wasteful industries on the planet. Typically, it’s not an industry where you’re helping people. It wasn’t feeding my soul.”
A strong sense of values and bright curiosity has driven much of the optimist’s life decisions. Self-described as a “square peg in a round hole” growing up in Melbourne, Eileen’s inquisitive nature led her towards work in horticulture, as a landscape designer, a massage therapist and an eco-tourism operator.
“Moving to the Territory in 1997, I immediately got that feeling of space. I felt like I could breathe. It’s a harsh landscape and an interesting place because it feels like the last frontier,” she says. “The extremes of climate attract a certain type of person; someone who isn’t afraid of hard conditions and can see all the possibilities.”
It was here that Eileen met Gerry. The pair moved back to his native Northern Ireland 12 months later to start a family and
