Agribusiness | Rooney Earthmoving
Focus | Bealey’s Speight’s Ale House
Putting in the
groundwork We’ve all got to start somewhere. No one knows that more than Gary Rooney and his wife Adrienne, who founded a small earth-moving business with a single bulldozer in Waimate in the early 1970s. Thirty-eight years later Rooney Earthmoving has 250 employees with branches in Waimate, Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru and Ashburton. Rooney remains a hands-on managing director, with a skilled and experienced team of managers, engineers and operators. Ashburton regional manager Andrew Rae says that experience is the company’s selling point. “The point we stress to our clients is that we’re experienced and committed to value and quality. Rooney Earthmoving has been doing this for a long time and we have a team of very experienced, long-serving staff members to construct our projects.” Rae says the company is committed to using that experience to work hand in hand with the Canterbury and Otago farming community. “Because of the size of our firm, we are in the position that we can be infrastructure providers. Irrigation schemes are a good example. We can design, finance and build the scheme which takes the issues around securing finance away from the farmers leaving them to concentrate on running their businesses. When the scheme is operational we can sell the scheme back to the farmers as an operational scheme when finance is much easier to secure.”
A good example is the Acton Irrigation scheme south of Rakaia where Rooney Earthmoving is constructing an open race irrigation system to deliver water to 6500 hectares of farmland. This race system will run in conjunction with the existing Acton stock water scheme. Another infrastructure project which will be driven by Rooney Earthmoving is the Rangitata South irrigation scheme which will irrigate approximately 12,000 ha of farmland from the Rangitata River at Arundel to the coast at Rangitata. Earthworks are planned to begin this year. “This is another example of Rooney Earthmoving taking on the role of an infrastructure provider and pushing the project from design stage to completion,” he says. Rooney Earthmoving recently completed a $6.3 million waste water treatment upgrade for the Ashburton District Council. This involved the construction of oxidation ponds, wetlands and the installation of 70km of pipelines with 1400 pop up sprinklers to dispose of treated effluent. The farm also needed to be contoured for silage cutting operations. “Rooney Earthmoving consistently completes projects ranging in size and complexity, on time and within budget. Our goal for the future is to do more of the same.” Rooney Earthmoving Ltd Head Office — 4A William Street Waimate T (03) 689 7881 F (03) 689 6299 E enquiry@rooneygroup.co.nz www.rooneygroup.co.nz — Advertising Feature
tradition continued “Rugby, racing and beer. Rugby, racing and beer. Down under they’re mad over their rugby, racing and beer.” This 1960s folk song captured the ethos of the traditional ‘Kiwi bloke’ who loved nothing better than to watch the rugby, bet on a horse and drink a good local beer.
Many would argue little has changed during the past four decades, maybe only that the beer has got better over time. Fact is though, the beverage has a long and illustrious history in our little south Pacific slice of life. Captain James Cook lays claim to brewing the country’s first beer in the 1770s. Today, New Zealand’s distinctive beers are as well respected around the world; Speight’s has become one of the country’s most reverred beers and the ‘Pride of the South’ brand has become a nationwide icon.
We carry out Auto Electrical & Air Conditioning Repairs to the following.. • Cars, Vans and trucks • Light commercials • Farm machinery • Earth equipment We also work on: • General sets for irrigation units • Electronics for hydraulic controls • Developing automated equipment for electronic controls
Cool and Electrical 285 Havelock Street, Ashburton T 03 307 7155 E info@coole.co.nz
• Frozen foods
Goughs is proud to support Rooney Earthmoving
• Chilled foods • Dry goods
Machine Sales
Finance & Insurance
Parts
Power Systems
Service
Engineering
Rental Christchurch Branch: Branston Street, Hornby, Christchurch Phone: 03 983 2300 For Machine Sales phone Marc McSkimming 029 208 0423 www.GoughsCat.co.nz 56 | Canterbury Today | June/July 2010
• Ethnic products
Simply Squeezed is a proud supplier of Bealey Alehouse
220 Cumnor Terrace, Woolston, Christchurch P.O. Box 7005 Sydenham, Christchurch.
Daryl Greentree
Phone 03 389 9909 Fax 03 389 9699
Ph: (06) 836-7066
Web www.servicefoods.co.nz
Fax: (06) 836-7264 Mob: 021 862 930 daryl.greentree@simplysqueezed.com