Throughout its first 25 years, Austral gained national recognition for innovative marine piling and civil construction works. This reputation allowed the company to win marine contracts around Australia; from Cairns in Far North Queensland, to northern NSW, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and up the WA coast to Geraldton, Port Hedland and Wyndham in the northern Kimberley. Concurrently, Austral completed civil and dam projects in regional Victoria and NSW and provided specialist subcontract services on large Melbourne infrastructure projects, such as Citylink toll road.
2005 marked a turning point for Austral with its first contract win for Hamersley Iron in Dampier, WA. This first contract was a marine design and construction contract for Rio Tinto’s Project Engineering Group. The impressive execution of this project provided Austral with the opportunity to win civil and structural projects throughout Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s Pilbara Operations, across most of their mine sites and ports. Since that initial contract, Austral has completed over 113 contracts and $500m worth of work for Rio Tinto and has developed its ability to work effectively in remote locations with excellent logistical support. Over the years, Austral has built a reputation for delivering quality construction works where safety management and continued system improvement have priority.
In early 2013 Austral signed its first Framework Agreement with BHP Billiton’s Western Australian Iron Ore division’s Sustaining Capital Group and continues to have an active Framework Agreement in place.
These Agreements provide the platform to be invited to construct new or maintain existing infrastructure across all their rail, mines and ports. Austral has completed over 500 contracts and $250m worth of work for BHP.
Austral continues to purchase unique and complementary plant equipment to enhance its operational efficiency. For its civil and mining services contracts, Austral is virtually self-sufficient with a fleet of excavators, loaders, watercarts, trucks, cranes, mobile concrete batching plant and personnel vehicles. For piling and marine works, Austral operates its own floating and jack-up barges, state-of-the-art piling hammers and vibrators, tracked piling rigs, pile-top and track-mounted reverse circulation rock-drilling equipment, custom-designed frames, leaders and falsework as well as marine and land-based ancillary plant and equipment. Plants of this quality are in high demand, and when Austral is not utilising its barges, hammers and rigs, they are being hired by the industry. Austral provides specialist plant hire as an additional service offering alongside its construction contracting.
