Quarry digs Hitachi excavator

Hard rocks need not mean hard work. A Hitachi ZX490LCH goes through its paces easily with an impressive efficiency and fuel economy to match.

NSW-based Mulgoa Quarries (MQ) is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, a sure sign of its longevity and strength in the industry.

The family business, headquartered in the Sydney suburb of Erskine Park, is a civil, excavation and transport contractor, with services including contract quarrying, bulk earthworks, landfill infrastructure, contamination remediation, bulk material supply and transport, bulk waste disposal, and various civil and road contracting works.

Company director Matt Wearn said he and his brother Tom were carrying on the legacy of their grandfather John, who started MQ as a quarrying operation in Mulgoa in 1964.

"Originally, we had a quarry which supplied shale to the Sydney brick yards as well as road base to the market," he said.

"The quarry has since been remediated and the land was sold to developers. The Mulgoa Quarry allowed us to build a relationship with the brickyards that is still strong today, with a lot of our work being for Brickworks & PGH Bricks."

Matt and Tom's father Rob, along with uncles Adrian, Bill and Bruce, took over the business when John passed away in the early 80s.

Bill and Bruce left the business by the early 2000s, leaving Rob and Adrian to grow MQ into a multi-faceted business which now serves many industries in Western Sydney.

"These include housing and industrial estates, landfill construction, large land contamination remediation and road and civil works," Matt said.

"MQ now employs more than 140 people and over 50 per cent of those have worked at MQ for more than five years, and 30 per cent over 10.