Mawsons wins Progressive Rehabilitation Award
Mawsons Glenrowan Quarry was awarded the CMPA Progressive Rehabilitation Award (Large quarries category), sponsored by Resources Victoria, at the CMPA Annual Dinner on 30 August 2025. Jason Comben, Chairperson, CMPA Management Committee, presented the award to E.B.
Mawson and Sons, Managing Director, John Mawson.
Submissions were assessed on how well the nominee demonstrated delivery of effective progressive rehabilitation. Judges considered elements of planning, delivery and outcomes, including:
- Standard of rehabilitation delivered;
- Alignment with approved rehabilitation plan;
- Approach to monitoring, assessing and improving rehabilitation activities; and
- How operational decision-making reflected rehabilitation objectives.
Founded in 1912, Mawsons is a family-orientated business operating hard rock and sand quarries, premixed concrete plants and landscaping supply centres throughout Northern/Central Victoria and Southern NSW.
Mawsons Glenrowan is a large scale hard-rock quarry supplying around 250,000 tonnes annually with two quarries onsite: Granite pit (Glenrowan Quarry) and Hornfels pit (Warby Quarry). Both quarries operate on traditional lands of the Yorta Yorta people who have been regularly consulted on the rehabilitation of the land.
“At Glenrowan we are managing our work plan to ensure a sustainable future for both our operations and the environment,” John said.
“With the addition of the Warby Quarry we faced many challenges including the creation of the linking haul-road between sites, relocation of infrastructure, traffic management, pit design, community relations and overall expansion to regular operations.”
With the work authority approval in 2022, Mawsons created detailed plans to ensure minimal working area was disturbed hereby allowing for ongoing rehabilitation.
Mawsons’ pit design minimised disturbance of natural vegetation with plantings exceeding minimum requirements. Thorough planning meant that plantings significantly reduced the potential visual impact of future quarry operations.
The creation of a new haul-road to connect the two quarry sites required approval under a WA Variation and was built to avoid nearby crown land, whilst also considering haulage safety and efficiency.
Proximity to the community rifle range was another important factor for consideration; an ongoing agreement ensuring that materials would not be carted when the Rifle Range was operational. Works were also completed to rehabilitate the rifle target mound with gates erected to prevent traffic access on closed days.
The two sites undergo constant rehabilitation as materials are extracted, and end-of-life benches are battered off. The regular erosion control measures together with targeted tree planting have resulted in thriving vegetation.
Strategically placed bunding and vegetation planting ensures that dust and noise limits are complied with.
With the site being in direct proximity to dry forests of the Warby Ranges, native wildlife can cause destruction to completed work; Mawsons invested in special electrified fencing around work areas, mainly where tree planting has been completed.
“Setting up wildlife corridors allows the native ecosystem to be protected while we work in the area. This is a great example of our site going above and beyond and delivering a practical and realistic solution,” John said.
Drone surveying software is used to compare completed works with the approved rehabilitation management plan, enabling visibility of specific areas while providing quantitative measurements to assess performance and compliance. To monitor proximities to work authority boundaries, regular drone surveys are also completed.
Centralising environmental management systems and rehabilitation plans in an accessible digital format has improved Mawsons internal and external communication efficiencies. All documents, procedures and training material are securely stored in a central locations within “Maw-Central” – company intranet.
‘Drone technology enables us to efficiently, in-house mark-out extraction boundaries of each stage of the quarry and also mark-out areas for rehabilitation.”
Operating under a continuous improvement framework, encouraging feedback and implementing changes, the site is also open to regular audits.
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