House relocation specialist Jo Veneman is kicking goals as she saves old Queensland homes from the scrap heap, giving them a new lease of life.
Veneman is the director of Renewable Homes, which is run from a depot at Roseneath, just west of Townsville. The company specialises in house relocation, house raising and re-stumping.
“There is another house relocating company down in the south east that is run by a female so the only difference is I run the business and I also drive the trucks,” Veneman told Big Rigs.
Renewable Homes specialises in saving iconic Queenslander homes from being demolished, along with any other perfectly good homes from heading to landfill.
“Australia is facing a housing crisis and it makes no sense in throwing them into the dump,” she said.
Moving often to and from remote locations, and even landing straight onto the beach at Magnetic Island when a barge is needed for the sea leg. Veneman travels far and wide.
“No one up here is game enough to do it,” she said.
Soon Veneman and her crew will remove a historical church and its church hall from Hughenden, which is 400km from Townsville, along the notorious Flinders Highway.
“It often takes up to three months preparing for a removal and relocation, it just depends how hard government departments make it for us,” she said.
One of her latest jobs was a three piece move from the Burdekin, 100km south of Townsville. The Queenslander was picked up from the Inkerman Mill, travelling along the Burdekin bridge.
“We’ve just finished another job down in the Burdekin this week which had received 100mm of rain. But with our wet weather gear installed on our truck recently purchased from the biggest house relocators in Australia (Mackay and Sons), it makes house moving less stressful on the gear and for us who have physically got to get the job done,” she said.
The removal involved police and pilot escorts, Queensland Rail, traffic controllers and Ergon Energy workers who all worked together to ensure the building had safe passage through road infrastructure and under powerlines.
“As usual we are keeping up our massive workload and still shifting in the rain. It doesn’t bother us with our new equipment designed to get us out of wet weather troubles,” she said.