Harding's Earthmoving, a family-owned and run civil construction company based in Uki on the NSW North Coast and which has been using Komatsu equipment since it was formed in 1981 has received a number of awards over the years recognising the high quality
The company's most recent award is the Gold Coast Airport BEX Tweed Business Excellence Award in the Manufacturing & Construction category, which it won out of a field of over 40 nominations.
Other awards include a "Pride in Workmanship Award" from Tweed Shire Council and the local Rotary Club for the high standard of its various works, and it was recognised by the NSW Department of Main Roads for the completion of a very challenging paving project between Uki and Kyogle.
Working out of Uki, Harding's Earthmoving operates as far south as Ballina, up to Tugun on the NSW/Queensland border, and west to Kyogle and Tenterfield, carrying out contracting, civil works, land clearing and contour ploughing for the NSW Forestry Department.
Its clients include farmers, local landowners, property developers and state and local government organisations and even hippies from communes in the region.
Very much a family-run business, Barry Harding and his son Darryl run the civil construction operations, while Barry's brother Trevor runs the Uki sawmill operation and another brother Paul looks after the rock-crushing side of the business. As well, Barry's wife Diane has worked in the office in administration since the business's inception.
Its fleet of 102 pieces of machinery includes a large number of Komatsu machines, including excavators, mobile crushers, loaders, dozers, graders and a forklift. Included in the fleet are
Two D65EX-15 dozers
11 excavators a PC45, a PC60-7, two PC200-6s, a PC220-5, four PC220-6s, a PC220-7 and a PC300-7
Four loaders, a WA250PZ-6, a WA350-1, a WA420-3 and a WA480-6H;
Three crushers, a BR350JG-1 and two BR380JG-1s
Two graders, a GD525A-1 and a GD530A-2
A Komatsu FD25DT-11 forklift
The company's rock crushing business, called Terragon Mobile Crushing, uses the BR350 and two BR380 crushers, along with the WA250, WA350, WA400 and WA480 loaders plus the PC200-6, PC220-6, PC300-7 excavators.
Harding's has its own quarry at Uki, trading as Uki Quarry, where it produces roadbase, drainage aggregates of various sizes down to dust, as well as a blue metal and quartz quarry in nearby Murwillumbah, from where it crushes various sizes of aggregate for concrete, bitumen and drainage aggregate, down to crusher dust.
In addition, one of the D65EX-15 dozers is used to push off overburden, and push gravel and materials up. Additional equipment at the quarry includes a screener, cone crushers and secondary crushers.
"We are constantly moving our crushers between our two quarries as well as local council ones," he said.
"We also crush concrete which is recycled for councils and others, such as Wide Bay Recycling."
Terragon Mobile Crushing carries out a lot of crushing for Tweed Shire Council, as well as for other councils and businesses in the NSW North Coast and southern Queensland.
Harding's Earthmoving started purchasing Komatsu machinery 27 years ago with a D65E-6 dozer on August 5, 1981.
"We bought our first Komatsu machine from our local sales rep 27 years ago and since then for the past 18 years from Ron Moodie, who is a real people person," said Darryl. "We've had a close friendship with him the whole time, and he's a good, reliable gentlemen to deal with.
"We've kept dealing with Komatsu due to the efforts of Ron, plus we find the performance and fuel efficiency of the Komatsu equipment is very good, the reliability is excellent, and our operators prefer driving Komatsu products.
"In terms of service and support from Komatsu, we have had our moments, but generally it is very good," he said.
The company really prides itself on carrying out earthworks to a very high standard, said Darryl.
"Our forte is road construction and we have all the equipment, staff and expertise to cut a road in, shape and gravel it with material we have crushed ourselves, right through to bitumen sealing thus creating the finished product ourselves in a very short time frame.