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Based in Coffs Harbour, Mirri Cranes and Rigging is setting its sights on expanding the business, following its 2022 rebrand. With its recent acquisition of three new Zoomlion truck cranes through national dealer Gleason Cranes, Mirri feels it’s ready to do just that.
Shane Golding is a proud Indigenous man. Residing in Coffs Harbour – Gumbaynggirr as it is called by the traditional custodians of the land – he wants to immerse himself and his company as much as he can with its local community and heritage.
“We’re trying to work out how to give back to the local Indigenous community,” says Shane. “With us, it’s not all about money; it’s about everyone working together and facilitating a good environment with good people and ensuring everyone’s happy when we work together.”
Mirri Cranes and Rigging originally started its journey back in 2002, in the hands of Shane and his partner at the time. But its original iteration fell by the wayside as Shane says that he needed to “get out for a while”, closed the business and moved on.
But now, with his son at his side, the two are ready to bring their services to wherever they’re required.
“We’ve rebirthed ourselves,” says Shane. “My son wanted to start us back up as a family company, and we’ve been kicking goals ever since.”
With most of the company being Indigenous, Mirri Cranes and Rigging is big on Aboriginal participation in local communities through employment, training and donations. When it comes to their work, the company possesses experience in steel work, general crane and equipment hire, civil construction, mining and stevedoring.
“We’re located in Coffs Harbour,” says Shane, “but we’re open to work anywhere really.”
“We do export work through the wharves in Brisbane, general steel erection through the local jobs in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour,” adds Shane. “We work anywhere, that’s the nature of the game. That’s the industry; we work wherever we’re needed.”
Adding that operations have been “going really well” since the company rebrand in early 2022, Mirri Cranes has also just purchased three new Zoomlion cranes through national distributor Gleason Cranes to aid in its future operations.
“We’ve just acquired a 25-tonne Zoomlion, and we’ve ordered a 35-tonne and 60-tonne crane to go with it,” says Shane. “We want to modernise our fleet to expand our operations, and those three new cranes should help us do exactly that.”
Speaking about what drew them to the Zoomlion brand, the owners at Mirri Cranes are steadfast in their view that the technology and performance from the Chinese-owned crane manufacturers has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years.
“One of my friends owned one, and with the right operator they were really good cranes,” says Shane. “You get really good value for money from the Zoomlions, and the short turnaround time from purchasing the crane to actually receiving it was another big selling point.”
Shane says the cranes should be considered as being “up there” with rival OEMs in terms of their technological capabilities and practicality, and that the service from Gleason Cranes was second to none.
“I’ve always thought they (Zoomlion) were good,” he continues. “It required some discussions internally but, as soon as we saw it, we were convinced to invest in three new ones. They’re readily available, the new technology is good, and they possess a very practical interface.”
Complimenting the “accessibility” of the Zoomlion brand, Shane says the crane’s safety features “tick all the boxes” whilst still allowing the operator to feel as though they’re driving the crane.
“It’s very accessible; it’s not fully automated, so you can really handle the crane – it’s very driver friendly,” he says. “We’re planning to put these to work on local highway jobs, the new city bypass, even steel jobs for warehouses in Sydney. These new cranes are allowing us to expand our business.”
Returning to his relationship with Gleason Cranes – which facilitated Mirri Cranes’ three new Zoomlions – Shane says that sales manager at the Melbourne-based distributor is “always wheeling and dealing and is a very helpful person”.
“Over the years, I had my own business for 12-14 years, and I’d work with Chris throughout. Even if I don’t buy anything off him, he’s always helping me out to get what I need,” he says.
“This is about the fourth or fifth crane I’ve gotten off him, and they’ve always been very reliable. Whenever I rang him, he’d always take my call to allow me to pick his brain for a bit, and he’d always come back with a very helpful suggestion.”
“I can’t fault him at all. I feel like I’ll have all the support available to me should I need it; accessibility has never been a problem with Gleason Cranes and Chris.”
READ MORE: New Zoomlion truck crane helping NR Cranes to new heights.
