SBI Cranbourne Quarries
PAUL WILLIAMSON, Managing Director of SBI Cranbourne Quarries looks at the history of the organisation.
SBI Cranbourne Quarries was originally a sand pit supplying brick sand, packing sand and top soil to the Melbourne Markets. In the mid 1980’s owner Kerry Williamson leased the property to a Melbourne operator on a royalty basis.
In 1990 Kerry was forced to resume operating the sand pit when the lessee failed to meet their obligations.
The licence which covered 160 acres was in Kerry’s words like a dog’s breakfast. The previous operators had chased sand everywhere leaving quite a mess.
Kerry decided then and there to clean the property up, and rather than extract sand off the whole area, he focused on quarrying deeper into sedimentary rock deposit, which he knew to lay under the sand from previous test bores. He purchased a Jacques mobile crushing plant consisting of a jaw and cone each trailer mounted.
Kerry gradually built a market for farm tracks, residential subdivisions, lower sub base on highway duplication’s etc. In 1995 Kerry’s son Paul came home after working in Canada for 8 years and started working in the operation. Paul attended Box Hill Institute of TAFE and completed a Quarry manager’s course and gradually took over the running of the Quarry.
Today the Quarry operates a fixed plant up at ground level which consists of primary Jaw, secondary and tertiary cones, and two McCloskey mobile jaws and screens down in the quarry which is by now one hundred and fifty feet deep.
Products made include; Class 3, Class 4, NDCRs, aggregates, graded rubbles and crushed Type A materials.
The last six years have seen considerable expansion in the quarry’s output mainly due to residential, commercial and industrial growth in the South Eastern corridor.
This coupled with SBI being one of the main suppliers of product for the new Victorian desalination plant and following that the Peninsula Link Freeway.
Says Paul, “Originally we won the contract to supply material for construction along the 90 km access road beside the pipeline. Following this we supplied material for the desalination plant itself. With this and Peninsula Link going simultaneously, we had three crushing plants producing in excess of 7,000 tonnes per day.”
“At SBI we pride ourselves on good customer service. Th key is satisfied competent staff . Their professional attitude is portrayed in the job they do and this is then passed on to the customer. We can have the latest, most efficient, reliable loaders or excavators, but those machines are only as productive as their operators.”
“Over the years we have had many family members working here. At one stage we had three father-son and one father-daughter teams working with us.”
SBI have been members with the CMPA since the organisation started. “The information shared and support received over the years has been invaluable to independent operators, such as ourselves.
We have learnt a lot from the experience of others in the industry. Taken with an open mind these things can only improve safety, productivity and ultimately profitability.”
60 SECONDS WITH A VOTING MEMBER…
What is your name?
Paul Williamson
Who do you work for?
SBI Cranbourne Quarries
How many years have you worked for this business?
21 years
How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
21 years
What is your role at the company?
Managing Director
What does your job involve?
In my role I oversee the day to day operations as well as future development opportunities for the company.
What is the best part of your job?
People interaction.
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