An electrician sees an opening in plant hire
Brock Harvey was working as a subcontractor electrician to mines in Queensland when he noticed demand for smaller plant hire on the same sites. He approached Guy Rennick at RDW Machinery in Brisbane about buying a CAT D3 bulldozer, his first machine. Guy introduced Brock to MFG so they could work through the purchase together.
With Guy, we worked through the purchase price, monthly repayments, maintenance costs and potential hire income. That gave Brock a practical budget for his first machine before we settled it in 2024.
Two years to test the market
We kept in touch with Brock roughly every six months to see how the new venture was going. The first dozer found casual and short- to medium-term work around mine sites. Brock also found demand beyond mining among rural property owners and farmers in his part of Queensland.
Tree clearing, access work and general property maintenance gave the machine more than one market to serve. Those jobs helped Brock see a deeper pool of work locally than the mine hire that had first prompted the purchase. Rather than rush into another machine, he had two years of actual jobs and cash flow to judge the next move against.
Add capacity and broaden the work
As LEH moved into its second year, Brock contacted Guy and MFG about another CAT D3. We reviewed how the first machine had performed and budgeted the cost of adding a second against the demand he could see. The numbers supported taking that next step.
The new D3 was specified for more of the work Brock was winning, with a tree spear, stick rake and protective sweeps, plus an offset disc plough and seeder set-up. It could serve existing mining and property clients while opening a path into seasonal farm work and land preparation.
A D5 opens the door to larger jobs
Brock then worked with Guy at RDW Machinery and MFG again on a third dozer, this time a CAT D5. We put the repayment and running-cost budget around the work LEH expected it to take on before making the commitment. The D5 added capacity for larger mining, rural and property jobs.
Fitted with GPS, the D5 also gives Brock a way into civil work. LEH now operates three dozers across mining, private property, agricultural and potentially civil jobs, as well as a small skid steer. A float may be the next decision as the fleet grows, but the same principle will apply: work through the numbers and the work before adding another commitment.
