JH Cuthbertson Pty Ltd
KATHLEEN CUTHBERTSON, reports on the history and changes to the family business JH Cuthbertson Pty Ltd.
LIKE the man who first bought it, the quarry on Old Telegraph Rd at Jindivick has a history that is entwined with Gippsland itself. As far back as the 1940’s entrepreneurial loggers Jack Cuthbertson and Ray Richards were on the look out for bush blocks to clear. They would buy a block, clear the timber and put a dairy farm on the property. They also had forestry allocations and set up their own timber mills.
By the 1980’s Jack and Ray had built up a healthy saw milling, dairy farming and property development business that stretched from Drouin in West Gippsland to Canberra. All those logging roads and farm tracks needed rock, and Cuthbertson and Richards had a mobile crushing unit with which to do the job.
Jack bought the Old Telegraph Rd block in the 1960s. He first found the rock beneath the hills while he was clearing and asked a local geologist to look at the site.
Jack had owned other small quarries in the past but it wasn’t until 1986 that he and son Peter decided too open the earth at Jindivick, trucking in their crushing unit as an experiment. Soon the quarry was producing the soft rock needed for the company’s logging roads and cow tracks.
In 1991 the company was granted their work authority and began selling rock commercially. Peter became the quarry’s first manager.
The company got out of the saw milling business in the late 1990’s and these days the quarry’s main business is supplying rock for farm tracks (including its own) and subdivisions. Soft rock for farm tracks to prevent cows becoming lame as they walk to and from the dairy is a niche product and the quarry produces around 100,000 tonnes a year. Demand tends to soar in wet years, when tracks need more maintenance.
The quarry does also take on larger jobs when they arise. It supplied 90,000 tonnes of Type A structural fill for the Pakenham bypass.
In February 2009 the Jindivick quarry was one of the company properties to be damaged in the bushfires. Sensing the danger a few days prior, Peter Cuthbertson fortunately had all of the machinery moved into the middle of the site, which saved it from being destroyed. The brew room, pump house and other surface structures were burned. Ironically, exactly two years later the major challenge has been extremely wet weather.
These days the quarry employs between four and six people full time and according to Peter has enough untapped material to last well into the future. The plant recently received a multi-million dollar upgrade and is now fully computer operated.
JH Cuthbertson Pty Ltd is a longterm member of the CMPA and Peter Cuthbertson credits the organisation with helping keep him up to date with industry issues and developments, as well as changes in regulations and legislation.
Jack is 91 this year and still works every day. His old Ford can often be found parked at the quarry gate.
60 SECONDS WITH A VOTING MEMBER…
What is your name?
Peter Cuthbertson
Who do you work for?
JH Cuthbertson Pty Ltd
How many years have you worked for this business?
Since I was 18, apart from a two year stint in the army, so more than 40 years.
How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
Well over 50 years
What is your role at the company?
Director
What does your job involve?
I oversee the management of the site, make decisions about production rates, expansion, staffing levels etc.
What is the best part of your job?
Seeing the quarrying side of our business take off is satisfying because it has taken a long time to build up.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login