Madeleine made early start to records career
Records assistant Madeleine Herne made her first visit to The Perth Mint in January 1996 and, even then, it seems the 15-year-old was preparing herself for a future career in information management.
After the visit with her grandparents, sister and cousin, Madeleine recorded some of her impressions in her diary. She has hung on to that diary, along with many others, and was happy to revisit the day when we put out a call for employees to share their connections to the Mint as part of our 125th anniversary celebrations.
“I was at high school. I never dreamed then that I’d end up working here, I was just writing down what happened that day.”
This is Madeleine’s report in her own words:
“This morning Grandma, Grandad, Catherine, Michael and me went to Perth Mint where they store gold. They had a 12.44 kg bar of gold which was heavy in your hand. Heaps of people have probably touched it. And I'm worth about $977,000 my weight in gold. A lot.
“There were small golden nuggets worth about $700, or even more. They have the purest piece of gold in the world - it's 99.9999% gold! Gold has to be at least 99.5% pure gold to be in there, no gold is 100% perfect though (no 100% pure gold) and the coin set from 1980 the year I was born is worth $12.00. 1990 for some reason is worth 85 dollars!”
Madeleine went on to study a bachelor of science in library technology, and eventually achieved a masters degree in information management, majoring in records management and archives through Charles Sturt University in NSW.
She joined the Mint’s corporate information services team in February 2024. Among her duties has been working with the AML customer due diligence team, sorting through identification documents to ensure they are all correctly named and saved so they can be found if needed.
Previously, she was at the Department of Justice working with the records of prisoners and offenders receiving non-custodial sentences.
And for the record, Madeleine is still a meticulous journal keeper, maintaining a regular personal diary which may just provide a useful reminder of her current experiences at the Mint in another 20 years' time.
