K & RJ MATTHEWS QUARRIES PTY LTD

ROB MATTHEWS is a foundation member of the CMPA and the K & RJ Matthews Quarries Pty Ltd on the northern side of the Latrobe Valley has grown and his business interests have expanded as the CMPA has also developed and grown. An outline of how Rob Matthews and his business have grown from humble beginnings follows.

Rob, like many in the CMPA, learnt his quarrying skills from his father Keith. Keith started as a contractor at the APM Quarry on the Walhalla – Tyers Road north of Morwell back in 1952. The quarry mainly supplied material for APM forestry tracks in the local area and Keith moved onto greener pastures in 1954.

Keith never forgot the potential of this resource and in 1980, he and his son Rob started up the long abandoned quarry again. Things started small with just 2 tip trucks and a back hoe and a small home built mobile crushing plant.

The quality of the resource meant that demand kept on growing and a larger capacity mobile plant was required in 1981 with progressively more equipment built and acquired over the years as the production of crushed stone and aggregate increased with demand.

Rob has now just installed his latest set of crushers, being a 48×40 Kemco single toggle jaw crusher and a 450 and 380 Cedarapids.

Rob’s brother Graeme joined the firm in 1987 and helped fill the gap as Keith moved on in years and his involvement in the business dropped away.

Over the last 5 years Rob and Graeme have been busy planning and building the major upgrade to their processing plant so that it is now one of the most modern and efficient plants in the Latrobe Valley. This plant upgrade has been worked in conjunction with the expansion of the Work Authority and Work Plan variations which have had to go through numerous regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. The last major Work Plan variation will hopefully be finalised soon.

The Matthew brothers have also expanded their earth moving business, with graders, dozers, dump trucks, excavators and rollers forming part of the fleet that works on road construction, land sub division and other jobs in the Latrobe Valley area. They have even expanded into the concrete business with a concrete batching plant and a half share in a significant local sand pit to become a major player in the Latrobe Valley construction industry.

Over the years K & RJ Matthews Quarries Pty Ltd have found the CMPA to be an enormous help in providing advice and would like to especially thank Ron Kerr for his energy and assistance to the industry.

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