From this…

… to this:  And In Just 9-1/2 weeks

Well Done Noel Schwarz Excavations.

The 2nd business to build in the Gibb Group’s ‘Gracemere Industry Park’, shows it mean’s business when it comes to a building big and with a very short time frame. The above photos show the transformation from 26 May to 31 July this year. A credit to the builder JM Kelly and to Noel Schwarz Excavations who have been able to do much of the site preparation, landscaping and fit out, with their own team.

Noel Schwarz bought two blocks of land in Enterprise Drive up from Toll’s new freight facility and with an area of 20,000 sq metres Schwarz Excavation now has a state of the art workshop and office facilities and plenty of land for their fleet. This includes their entrepreneurial rail excavators which are about to be part of a Caterpillar video film clip featuring Noel and his staff and show casing a wonderful example of innovation to give their customer Aurizon a time saving method of laying and repairing rail track, keeping this business safely in the hands of a local firm which employs 55 people, many of whom live in Gracemere.

Noel’s first task was to cut and screen 5000 tonnes of  decomposed granite from the block itself. Around 2 to 3 thousand tonne of the decomposed granite was then re-used on site to level the block and provide the pad for the workshop. Left-over product has gone out to be used as capping at the Rockhampton Regional Council’s rubbish dump.

Local builders JM Kelly erected the stand-up concrete building in record time with perfect weather throughout the Central Queensland winter.

The 5 bay drive-through very high workshop features a 15 metre long pit for servicing Noel’s trucks and machinery and the pit is built to railway gauge size for servicing his specialised track machines. Other facilities include a truck service pit, car hoist, oil gantries and 10 tonne overhead crane and mezzanine storage for parts.

The workshop area comes in at 30 metres in length by 25 metres wide and has features such as stainless steel airlines, underfloor plumbing to take waste oils to storage, a drive through wash bay, and numerous other labour saving features thought out by Noel and son Jeffrey.

600 sq m of office space at the front of the building facing Enterprise Drive features an attractive reception area with wonderful views up onto the Overpass, 2 offices and a Meeting Room along with a canteen and large storeman’s area. Upstairs are four offices, a server room, and training room.

Landscaping includes the use of Barlow Blocks from Yeppoon and hedging and turfed lawns will complement the fully asphalted area around the workshop. A gated security fence will surround the entire 20,000 sq m block. Pleasing to note is the use of water tanks and filtering of run off water instead of the ugly eye-sore of the detention ponds to capture water run off.   Future ‘builds’ in the GIA could learn from this innovative and far more aesthetic idea. Great to see.

Schwarz Excavations investment in the GIA is going to be hard to beat when it comes to presentation, practicality and functionality and combined with the short build time-frame, Noel, Jeffrey and all the team at Schwarz Excavations along with JM Kelly and all contractors and those involved in seeing the job to completion should stand very proud on opening day. Well done Noel Schwarz Excavation.