COVE is proud to announce that Damien Palazzi, CEO and Training Manager of SITETRAIN, has been awarded the prestigious COVE Master Trainer Award, a recognition reserved for trainers who demonstrate exceptional skill, dedication, and impact in delivering Visual Literacy training worldwide.
This award marks a major milestone in COVE’s growing presence in Australia and reflects Damien’s outstanding leadership in bringing Visual Literacy into one of the country’s most high-risk and essential industries: mining.
A Transformative Year for Visual Literacy in Australia
Over the past year, Damien has played a pivotal role in launching and expanding Visual Literacy training across Australia, beginning with the country’s first-ever COVE workshop in Cobar, NSW. Delivered alongside COVE Senior Advisor Pete Batrowny, the inaugural session with CSA Mine marked the start of an exciting new chapter for hazard recognition training in the region.
The success of that workshop set the stage for continued collaboration with CSA Mine and Mac Copper Limited, finishing with Harmony Gold, where workers took part in a powerful hands-on training experience focused on:
- Sharpening observation skills
- Interpreting subtle risk cues
- Challenging habituation and routine blindness
- Making safer, more informed decisions
The feedback from participants and site leaders was overwhelmingly positive, signaling strong demand for practical, engaging safety capability development across the mining sector.
Damien’s Master Trainer Award reflects not only his expertise, but also the positive impact Visual Literacy is already having across Australian worksites.
Damien Palazzi: A Leader in Safety, Training, and Workforce Capability
With 25 years of safety and training experience across mining and heavy industry in the Asia-Pacific region, Damien has dedicated his career to building essential competencies that keep workers safe and organizations operating effectively.
As the CEO and Training Manager at SITETRAIN, a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) operating in NSW and Western Australia, he has led the development of engaging, high-impact training programs grounded in real-world practices. His approach blends technical expertise with a passion for empowering workers to operate safely, confidently, and competently.
Through SITETRAIN’s strategic partnership with COVE, Damien has helped bring Visual Literacy, a proven methodology for enhancing hazard recognition and critical thinking, to organizations across Australia and New Zealand. His ability to connect COVE’s structured tools with the realities of mining and heavy industry has made the training both practical and transformative.
A Growing Movement Toward Safer Workplaces
From the early success in Cobar to expanding interest across Australia, Damien has been instrumental in driving a movement toward more attentive, more aware, and more capable workforces.
COVE is honored to recognize his contributions and looks forward to continued collaboration with SITETRAIN as more organizations embrace Visual Literacy as a foundational safety skill.
Congratulations, Damien, on this well-deserved achievement—and thank you for your commitment to creating safer workplaces across Australia and New Zealand.
