Just south of Mackay city at Interlink Court, Paget, the new centre comprises two large workshops covering more than 3000 square metres of floorspace, a machine shop, a paint bay and a high-rise warehouse along with office facilities.

“With this new branch, we have one of the most modern facilities in the industry, including the latest servicing and machine diagnostic equipment,” Sandvik Mackay branch manager Ryan Jones said.

The Mackay service centre will allow Sandvik to carry out a full range of rebuild and repair work on a wide variety of equipment while the high-rise warehouse can hold more than 6000 line items, combining the capacity of two previously used storage facilities to speed up supply and operations.

“Workshop one, which can carry out strip and rebuild on anything up to large continuous miners, has two 20-tonne cranes, a 5-tonne auxiliary crane and 1000-volt power supply so we can do complete testing and diagnostics,” Jones said.

“Workshop two, which can carry out a wide range of fabrication work, also incorporates a paint bay – again capable of handling large continuous miners.”

Tradespeople will be happy with the separate 15m by 9m wash bay to clean up machines before servicing. The new centre also features field service support storage and a brake-testing area.

During QME, Sandvik will invite visitors to its stand to attend a spit roast and inspect the Mackay branch on the evenings of July 27 and 28.

A shuttle bus service is available to ferry visitors between the Mackay Showgrounds and the new branch.