IN FOCUS / LIEBHERR ALL TERRAIN Matherson Cranes will be the first customer to take delivery of the new LTM 1120-4.1, the most powerful four-axle all-terrain crane ever built.
JEWEL IN THE CROWN 2020 sees Gladstone based Matherson Crane Hire celebrate 40 years in business. To mark this milestone, managing director, Wayne Matherson recently ordered a Liebherr LTM 1120-4.1, the first to be delivered in Australia. IT ALL BEGAN BACK IN THE 70S WHEN Neil Matherson was working for Evans Deakin Industries (EDI) Hire as a crane operator. At the end of 1979, he told his boss, Ivan Ruzic he wanted to start his own crane business. “At the time, there was a lot of work in Gladstone. I went to Ivan with the idea of starting my own crane business and he was that supportive, he even promised to give me work. My wife Beth and I borrowed $50,000 and started the business with an 8t BHP on a Chamberlain tractor, ‘an 8t wobbly’,” said Matherson snr. “Ivan was true to his word and EDI Hire were supportive, so much so, they spent time showing Beth how to keep the accounts and manage the business. We never looked back,” he said. Back then mobile phones didn’t exist, and Beth would take the phone calls on www.cranesandlifting.com.au
the landline, and relay the bookings via UHF and repeater stations. Customers were more organised in those days, said Matherson senior, booking cranes a week in advance. The early business was a family affair, with their five-year-old daughter Tanya, answering the phone and taking bookings when Mum and Dad were busy. “It was all hands on deck, with everyone pitching in and I couldn’t have done it without Beth, she had the toughest job,” said Matherson snr. With a continued focus on customer service the business grew, cranes were replaced every five years or so. Crane two was a 10t BHP “wobbly” on a tractor base. Crane three, a 12t Linmac and crane four a 16t Linmac; then the business started to grow. In 1996, Wayne Matherson’s brother in law joined and for a while it was the two of them operating two cranes. When Wayne
joined in 2000, it was the three of them with three cranes. “We were basically doing our thing, you didn’t have the legality of the rigger at the time, so we were rigging our own loads and we were running around like madmen. We have always been 100 per cent in Gladstone and proud to have serviced the community for all this time,” he said. It was around 2005 when Matherson began thinking there had to be more to the business. “You never stop working in and on your business, but we were working six and sometimes seven days a week. It’s hard yards being an owner operator and I thought we should probably start employing people to assist. Also, the riggers law in 2005 forced us to have extra people on hand. “At that point we purchased our July 2020 CAL / 35
