Widely known throughout the industries in which it operates as simply ‘Shamrock Civil’, the company is involved in a variety of construction and environmental projects in both remote and metropolitan locations, with works including concrete, roads, pipelines, and major earth works.
Shamrock Civil’s team provide expertise for a diverse range of construction projects delivering services to gas and mining, transport infrastructure, commercial, defence and government development sectors.
They have had a hand in constructing gas fields, defence facilities, major shopping centres and even concrete bridges such as the Chardon Bridge in Logan City, south of Brisbane.
An area of increasing activity for the Shamrock Civil organisation is the preparation of refuse waste dump sites for clients such as, local councils and major contractors such as Cleanaway.
This sector can encompass the initial earthworks and the ‘capping’ procedures necessary as the refuse landfill cells reach their capacities.
Rehabilitation of mine site areas is yet another sector where Shamrock Civil’s experience, expertise and equipment are put to good use.
“The one area that we don’t get into is residential sub-division work,” explains Shamrock Civil Director, Leslie Zeeman. “A couple of years ago we decided to become more geared up towards the management of bigger jobs, with bringing in sub-contractors and equipment to complement our own if we needed to.”
Shamrock Civil has grown to employ around 150 full time employees including managers, engineers, quantity surveyors and safety advisors.
The company comfortably contracts for projects totalling around $150 million per year. Currently there is at least $150million of future work on the books.
“There are very good conditions at the moment and we have to be prepared on how to get through all of it,” says Leslie.
The core fleet of equipment includes more than 120 items ranging from bulldozers, graders and excavators with up to 50 tonne capacity, dump trucks with up to 40 tonne capacity, skid steer loaders, as well as small and large tippers with up to 40 tonne capacity.
They also own 20 water trucks ranging from 8,000 to 40,000 litre capacities.
“We’ve gone through a big capital expenditure program over the last couple of years and have spent about $5.5 million on plant and equipment, with an additional $3 million over the next six months,” says Leslie.
The fleet includes many items other than vehicles and earthmoving equipment such as generators, pumps, portable site offices and a series of attachments.
“The basic intention is to use company-owned assets as the mainstay, especially in the work being done for defence and our larger contracts for Cleanaway doing rehabilitation of refuse sites as well as our current work with premium companies such as Santos and Arrow Energy,” says Leslie.
“We’ve always stuck with Toyota as our main fleet vehicle, but last year we decided we needed to diversify so we could keep up with the supply and demand. After we did a bit of investigating, we decided on supplementing our fleet with the Isuzu D-Max.”
In addition to the water tankers, the Isuzu brand appears on tippers and service vehicles for maintenance of the various pieces of earthmoving equipment.
A dedicated team of diesel fitters perform scheduled servicing and maintenance on the plant and equipment, which reduces the risk of down time and ensures the fleet is utilised to its maximum capacity.
John Delaney, Plant Manager for Shamrock Equipment, is proud that the company’s Isuzu FVZ 260-300 water truck was a finalist in the Isuzu Truck of the Year awards.
“We love our Isuzu water truck, it’s the perfect addition to our fleet,” he says.
Consequently, three similar Isuzu 15,000 litre water truck units are on order from Isuzu.
The FVZ 260-300 is a 6×4 configuration with a GVM of 26,000kg and a GCM of 36,000kg.
It is powered by the 8.0-litre Isuzu six-cylinder engine which meets Euro 5 emission regulations without the use of a Supplementary Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system and its associated requirement for AdBlue liquid.
The engine develops 221kW of power and delivers 981Nm of torque and the truck rides on Isuzu’s six rod multi-leaf rear suspension.
In similarity to operators around the world, a challenge for Shamrock Civil is more about being able to get the equipment.
“We have ten Isuzu D-max utes on order,” says Chief Financial Officer Shamrock Equipment and Shamrock Site Services, James Moore, who looks after the company’s assets.
“We were hoping we would get them by January, but the world of COVID has pushed that back so we’re probably talking about mid this year.”
Shamrock Civil has been in the vanguard of corporate and community responses to recent and past incidences of flooding in Brisbane.
“In 2011, we saw some of the worst floods Brisbane had ever dealt with, that’s when we first got involved with the Brisbane City Council,” says Leslie.
“They even used our premises to fill sandbags and deliver them to affected areas. We got involved again in the 2022 flood events and this time made machinery available to repair roads and help with the wide scale clean up. We often do silent charity work because that’s just the way we are and we like helping where we can. If people need us and we can help, we most certainly will.”
Flood clean-ups and equipment delays aside, the future for Shamrock Civil looks very positive.
The construction industry in Australia has not been as badly affected through the COVID pandemic as others.
Achieving $160 million this year represents a 60 per cent increase and is an indication of the greatly increased level of activities in which Shamrock Civil is involved.
“We’re thinking positive, and we are having a good run, but we have our ups and downs just like any business,” says Leslie. “At the moment we are doing well.”
Shamrock Civil has a strong commitment to understanding, meeting and continuously evolving its approach and responsibilities to the environment.
They have developed, and rigorously apply their own environmental management system to reduce the impact their operations have on all aspects of the environment, including native flora and fauna, air and water quality, soil conditions and cultural heritage.
Shamrock Civil also has a strong commitment to ensuring they provide a healthy and safe work environment for their employees, subcontractors and project partners.
The company approaches its 30th year in 2024 and in an industry sector like road transport, one of the biggest challenges is recruitment and retention of qualified people.
Shamrock Civil commits significant time and resources to retain its reputation as an employer of choice and a core group of employees has been extremely loyal to the business over the past couple of decades.
The very first employee appointed by Shamrock Civil is still with the company today.
“I’ve been here for two years, and I’ve never worked in a company where so many of the people have been here ten plus years,” says James.
Shamrock Civil also aims to make a positive impact on the local communities in which they operate, which includes employing local people and supporting local businesses wherever possible.
Shamrock Civil also has a strong history of providing indigenous employment opportunities and developing cultural understanding.