Late in 2007, the IOQ chose Dennis Cochrane to be the recipient of a Citation for his long standing service (approx 18 years) to the Northland Branch of the Institute. Before it could be awarded, Dennis died suddenly in March 2008.


As a measure of the high esteem held for Dennis, the Citation was awarded posthumously at the Goughs Group Dinner, with Sandy Sime of Kaigoose Lime, accepting the Citation on Aileen Cochrane's behalf from IOQ President, George Kelcher.

President George Kelcher passes the RD Hassed Memorial Trophy to Murray Francis Director Road Metals for his outstanding service and support of the Institute of Quarrying.

Murray is a long time, behind the scenes, supporter of the IOQ NZ and the NZ Quarry Industry. Murray, as Managing Director of Road Metals Co Ltd, has been a very firm supporter of the IOQ NZ in many ways.

Murray is very vocal about the positive attributes of the annual Quarry Conference, the networking opportunities, the value of the relationships formed and the business opportunities that arise from being a member and attending the annual Conference. He has also been active in the role of presenting papers at Conference, undertaking in 2006 a NZ wide tour presentating at Branch level and generally supporting the IOQ at every opportunity.

Murray, and Road Metals Co Ltd, provide direct input into the IOQ Executive through senior management being available to be on the IOQ Executive, Exito Board for a number of years, Branch level input throughout the South Island, and all this comes at no financial cost to the IOQ NZ through Murray’s firm support for, and belief in, the direct benefits of IOQ NZ.

Murray is also very vocal at every opportunity in raising the profile of the NZ Quarrying Industry. He does this in a very positive and personal manner and this is something that all participants in our Industry should be taking notice of and be active in doing the same thing.
Murray has been in the Industry since childhood since his father, Stan Francis, founded North Otago Road Metal Co Ltd in 1956. Murray has come up through the ranks as truck driver, loader operator, crusher operator and has been Managing Director for the last seventeen years.

He has played his part in supplying materials for many of the major projects that have taken place in the South Island in the past thirty five years.

He has also managed the company in other projects in the North Island including major contracts with Stevenson and Sons in Auckland. This contract came about from Murray forming a relationship with Steve Ellis at a Quarry Conference in Dunedin many years previous (an excellent example of the value of being an IOQ Member and attending the Annual Conference.)

Murray encourages many of his staff to join and be active members of IOQ NZ, and ensures that he, and Road Metals Co, makes the effort to have a number of people at the Annual Conference and Branch meetings and maintain the high profile that is part of Murray’s personality and belief in the NZ Quarry Industry.

John McCallum speaks to the delegates at the Goughs Dinner, after receiving a Life Membership from the Aggregate and Quarry Association NZ Inc from George Cunningham.

John is pictured here with AQA President James Boyce, and MC Steve Davis.

Notes from George Cunningham's presentation:
"When I met John McCallum is 1967, he had already been in the industry for a long time, running both a sand-dredging business together with a sand supply business.

“He also had the agency for Guardian Cement at both Onehunga Wharf and at Beaumont Street Auckland Depot, prior to acquisition by Milburn and more recently Holcim.

“In 1969 when the Aggregates Association formed, several key people were involved – Sandy Cormosant (Hamilton) Sir William Stevenson (WA Stevenson & Sons, Auckland), John Gillingham (River Sand & Shingle, Lower Hutt) and John McCallum (McCallum Bros, Auckland). The Aggregates Association soon had representation in Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin with most of the meetings held in Auckland. Many of the early meetings were around sorting drivers & union problems.

“One of the things that first impressed me”, said George, “was the size of the McCallum operation. You see, John’s grandfather was a tug master, and his father the founder of the barging business”.

John has been a supporter of Aggregates Association particularly in Auckland, spending over a decade with the Association making submissions to Auckland Regional Council to ensure maintenance of access of sand to Auckland market. As the rights to extract sand from the Waikato River reduced in the early 1990’s, McCallum’s became a dominant force assisting the Aggregate & Quarry Association with preparation of submissions to protect the right to win sand.

In addition to the sand business the McCallum name is synonymous with the red decorative chip (McCallum’s chip) which is featured on the shoulders of most of Auckland’s motorways. The product is won from McCallums’ Island. Transport to the island each day is by boat from nearby Kawakawa Bay, and tranpsort of chips all barged to the Beaumont Street Depot for distribution.

“John has been a cornerstone of the Auckland quarrying and sand scene. He is astute and excellent work ethic. In 1967 when NZ converted to metric, he was instrumental in assisting the industry standardise from imperial to metric units, and was McCallum Bros was one of the first quarrying companies to sell by weight rather than volume.

John also assisted rebuilding the TCA (Technical Certification Authority) course with the authors of many of the Unit standards consulting John about the content prior to final issue of the modules.

“In short, John has provided very significant assistance to the quarry and sand industry. A Life Membership is a fitting honour to John McCallum”.

Winner of the 2008 Komatsu Travel Award is Gordon Laing who is well qualified and has a wide range of experience in both the mining and quarrying sectors.

He led a team of similarly-minded staff to win one national and two international Awards (Caernarfon Award) for Winstone Aggregates while Quarry Manager at Three Kings Quarry. His commitment to both environmental and safety issues have always been important components of his management style, and he was well-liked and respected by all his colleagues and staff.

Gordon and his colleague Arsini Hanna presented a paper at the IOQ Waitangi Conference in 2005, entitiled "What's Left" covering the difficulties facing worked-out quarries along with the methodology and issues in assuring cleanfill site issues are adequately researched and administered.

Gordon joined Fulton Hogan in 2007 as Quarry Development Manager.

He has been a member of the IOQNZ for some 8 or 9 years, and has rarely missed a local Branch Meeting in that time. His contribution to the Auckland Branch as a committee member assisting us organise the successful 2001 and 2008 Conferences was invaluable and greatly appreciated. Gordon is currently Treasurer of the Auckland Branch and a member of the NZIOQ Executive Board. His carefully considered opinions at the committee and branch meetings are always well received.

Gordon has indicated that he will use the Komatsu Travel Grant to futher his career, by actively promoting the development of recycling within Fulton Hogan honing in on the following areas:
* What process is to be used?
* What recycling streams could be used - Concrete, RAP, Glass etc
* Look at what other recycling operations do, how they are set up, laid out, what equipment they use?
* Put Fulton Hogan to the forefront of recycling in NZ.
* Explore if there can be an increase in the allowance of recycled materials in a range of products? E.g. crushed concrete in concrete mixes, road bases, sub-base, RAP in Asphalt mixes, sub bases etc.
* Lobbying function via IOQ/AQA for promoting recycling to specifiers to encourage the use of recycled aggregates or aggregate based materials.

Chief Inspector of Mines Tunnels & Quarries, John Walrond, has been a great supporter of the Institute of Quarrying especially at his local Auckland Branch

One of the fixtures on the Auckland Branch Diary has been John's presentation of the "Annual Health & Safety Review" which he has made every year for the last 8 years.

At the 2007 Christmas Fuction, John was awarded the Blackwoods Shield for "Outstanding Contribution to the Auckland Branch over the years"

It is a fitting tribute that John has been made an Honorary Fellow at this year's conference. Well done.