| 45 T T Hugh de Lacy Sub-division work keeps firm busy Monk Earthworks has been heavily involved in residential sub-division work in the Queenstown area since 2006. Monk Earthworks Ltd CONTRACTING The first mechanical digger to arrive in the Queenstown Lakes area, a dragline excavator, is a beloved relic of Arrowtown company Monk Earthworks, and it still takes pride of place at the company’s McConnell Road base. Monk Earthworks has been heavily involved in residential sub-division work in the Queens- town area since it was founded in 2006 by father and son team Roger and Sam Monk. Today, it boasts a staff of 16 and a growing inventory of trucks and earthmoving equipment that includes a new 15t Leibherr wheeled excavator, but it was the old dragline that got the enterprise going. Sam’s grandfather, Jim Monk, was the man who brought it into the Lakes District market, and today it sits grandly in the company yard on the family farm. Jim Monk operated as a sole contractor for years before passing the baton to his son and grandson, who formed Monk Earthworks together after Sam came back from two and a half years of overseas experience as a builder in the United Kingdom. The dragline’s best days were behind it when Roger and Sam Monk launched the company with just two excavators and an old five-tonne Isuzu truck, with their first job being the laying of a water pipeline at Speargrass Flats, near Dalefield between Queenstown and Arrowtown, for Arrow Irrigation Co. Monk Earthworks then rode the boom in residential sub-divisions around Queenstown that began early in the new century and continues to this day. The company’s fleet has grown steadily over the past 18 years, and the list of plant these days runs to a range of mostly Komatsu tracked excavators, ranging in weight from 1.8t to 20t. The old Isuzu truck is still plugging along, but the real grunt in the nine-truck fleet comes from the four Scania tip-trucks, backed up by a couple of three-tonne Mitsubishis and, as water trucks, an old Hino and an equally old Mercedes. Roger Monk, a pilot and farmer as well as an earthworks operator, is not much involved in the company these days, with son Sam now the owner of the business and its primary operator. Sam learned everything he knows about the trade from Roger, and the tightknit family revels in having their business and home together on the farm. “Residential sub-divisions make up the bulk of our work, and we have one of 24 lots at Hayes Creek near Lake Hayes, where we’re in the process of installing the civil infrastructure, and will have it completed by the end of the year.” The company has also had a hand in the development of the upmarket Millbrook Resort in Arrowtown, featuring four-tiered de luxe accommodation. Such is the strength of the residential sub-division market in the Queenstown District that Monk Earthworks has felt little impact from the recent economic downturn. “We’re happy with the consistent flow of work and we’ve no plans to expand,” Sam says. The company has also had a long-term involvement with the large Millbrook Resort. CENTRAL MACHINE HIRE ARE PLEASED TO PARTNER WITH THE TEAM AT MONK EARTHWORKS AND PROVIDE EQUIPMENT AND TRUCKS FOR THEIR PROJECTS. SOUTH ISLAND WIDE SERVICE: Depots in Dunedin, Christchurch, Queenstown, Cromwell & Wanaka Enquiries to: Email: office@monkearthworks.co.nz Phone: 027 2114 893 www.monkearthworks.co.nz
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