I am 38 years of age and have been in the construction industry for 22 years. Early in my career I wasn’t specifically working within in the crane industry, but cranes made up a significant part of the area I was working in.
After working for a couple of companies as a steel fixer, I secured a job with Smith Cranes in January 2001. I initially began as a Steel Fixer and soon moved upwards through the ranks. In 2005 I was given the task of foreman for the Precast Department in Christchurch, managing or working with up to 20 staff at any one time.
In 2008, I was given the task of being part of the team that installed bridges and culverts for the Pike River Mine. Later that year, after having worked with and around cranes for about 10 years, I decided to specifically move into crane operating. After doing some small jobs, I ended up in a crane at what was the AMI Stadium. From there, I had a couple of jobs in a crawler and then moved into the taxi crane mobile side of Smith Cranes. I soon found out that this side of crane work wasn’t for me and instead I was given the opportunity of 8 months learning the transport logistics and assembly methods of crawler and tower cranes. From there I moved to a role of Operations Manager for all term hire crane jobs.
Just recently I was in Auckland as a Branch Manager and had approximately 50 plant machines and 65 staff to manage. Having been in the industry and seeing the shortage of skilled staff, I have made the move into the crane training industry, training operators and employees in safe crane usage. It is my strong wish to share my knowledge and skills so that our industry can move forward.
Projects I have been involved with include:
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Six bridges, seven culverts and the water tank floor at Pike River Mine
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Sheet piling at the Timaru Wharf and moving the breakwater
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Cranes at the build of the Deans Stand of AMI Stadium
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Wind turbine maintenance, Palmerston North
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Erection of post trainer cranes at Lyttleton and Tauranga Ports
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Wind farm erection, Mill Creek Wellington
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Assembly, turn around and disassembly of Waterview Tunnel boring machine
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Rescue and recovery of the people at the collapsed CTV Building, Forsythe Bar building, Durham St Church and PGC Building after the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes
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Milk factory dryer install at Darfield, Pokeno and Dunsandelle
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Disassembly of New Plymouth Power Station
- Disassembly of Marsden Point Power Station