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Welcome Geebung, a suburb north of Brisbane based around it's railway station on the Caboolture railway line. If you're wondering where the suburb's name came from, its named after the Geebung Tree. Importantly, it's also home to a unique Coates Hire service known as Geebung Northern Industrial Services, or as the locals call it 'NOIS'.

And they are making plenty of noise. Geebung Industrial has two unique functions, as a support to our Coates Hire branches throughout Queensland and as a specialist support service for major shutdown projects.

The team is very successful wearing two hats. As a support to our general hire branches, Geebung Industrial supply Hydraulic Jacking, Hydraulic Torque Tools, Chain Blocks and a range of small industrial equipment as well as acting as a technical support. The good news is that the revenue for this equipment goes to the branch organising the
hire and just as pleasing is that the demand for the service is growing, as is the return on investment.

The second hat is also worth shouting about. Geebung Industrial also plays a big part in supporting shutdown projects
throughout Queensland. Shutdowns are projects conducted by large companies to conduct programmed maintenance on their capital equipment. The NOIS team tend to take over and manage shutdowns where revenue is expected to be greater than 100k.

Shutdowns under this value are managed by the local branch with the NOIS team providing assistance where required. In April 2010 the Geebung Hire branch team executed its fi rst shutdown. The client was BOC at Pinkenba and the project was valued at $27,000. The team loved being a part of this successful project which is a mark of things to come, reflecting the evolving skill and capability of the branch. Since then the list of ‘shuts’ conducted by the team is impressive - Phosphate Hill Mine (Phosphate Hill), Mt Isa Acid Plant (Mt Isa), Caltex Refi nery (Lytton), BP Refi nery (Pinkenba), NRG (Gladstone), Cement Australia (Gladstone) and United Group Goonyella & Shovel (Moranbah). Smaller ‘shuts’ include Visy, Nestle and Laminex.

So what’s involved in a shutdown?
Companies commencing a shutdown provide the team with a full list of equipment required which can contain several thousand items ranging from small sockets to large compressors or booms.

Larger equipment is generally sourced by the local, surrounding and specialists branches. The majority of medium to small equipment is sourced by the NOIS team. This equipment is then packed into shipping containers and sent to the site for the duration of the shut (on average 4 – 8 weeks). Shuts can be manned or unmanned. Manned Shuts have Coates Hire staff onsite managing hires. These facilities may contain containers fi tted out as hire offi ces, serveries, workshops and stores. Equipment and tools are bar coded and are scanned and managed in a
system called CHASE.

2011 looks like a busy time with a full programme of ‘shuts’. The next major shut is for Incitec (Brisbane). The Geebung Industrial team are eager to keep the momentum going and believe there are plenty of opportunities to still be tapped into. Well done guys!

Meet the Industrial team
Industrial & Transport manager: Ian Nicoll
BDM Industrial: Darren Parker
Branch manager: Alan White
Onsite & Shutdown manager: Russell Olofsson
Yard person: Shayne Tamatea
Onsite Staff: Gary Naysmith, John Peacock and Thomas Maher