Family drill rig outfit Wallis Drilling has opened the doors to its new $30 million headquarters as it taps into electrification and eyes growth into other sectors.
The Hazelmere facility behind the Perth Airport is about twice the size of the company’s former headquarters in Midvale.
The facility which has been in planning since pre-Covid brings Wallis’ administrative, maintenance and manufacturing capabilities together on one site, with room to expand as the company grows.
Wallis Drilling executive chairman Mark Crumby said the new facility would enable more local manufacturing of parts.
“Midvale enabled us to get to that manufacturing capability, but really we were constrained in terms of our ability to take the business to the next level,” he said.
“As the industry moves down the decarbonisation path, we see a greater opportunity and role for us to play more in that space, from an equipment manufacturing point of view as well.
“Certainly for our major iron ore customers, it has been part of their agenda for quite some time, so they are making sure all of their suppliers that are users of diesel aware of their objectives… as far as decarbonizing their business.”
Wallis Drilling was awarded a $704,000 state government grant last year to trial electrification of a reverse circulation drill rig.
Preliminary engineering for that rig is underway, and some key components have arrived from China for testing.
The Hazelmere site houses about $6m worth of machining and lathing operations, which will enable Wallis to manufacture more drill rig components in-house.
For now, the company is focused on its own requirements, according to Mr Crumby.
But Wallis Engineering executive director Graeme Wallis said the new facility could ultimately open opportunities in other sectors.
“We will eventually with the new high precision lathes and milling machines and that sort of thing, I expect we might look at some outside work in due course,” he said.
“Aukus is around, they will need high precision maintenance, and mining companies do as well.”
The new build design pays homage to the Midland railway workshops as a nod to the community the Wallis family grew up in.
The land it has been built on was purchased by the Wallis family about four decades ago.
Wallis employs more than 350 staff in Western Australia and has about 60 drill rigs in its fleet.
The company was founded in 1965 by father-son duo Marty and Jamie Wallis.
