House removal and relocation is a complex operation – and one that third generation family business Mackay and Sons House Removals has mastered, with over 60 years in the game.
Robbie Mackay says he always knew he’d follow his father and grandfather into the house removals business. He’s just 40 years of age but has already spent the past 15 years at the helm of the company.
“As a kid I was at the depot on weekends and every school holidays – that’s just what you did, you went to work with Dad and Pa. Obviously you really enjoy it as a kid too,” Robbie recalled.
“My siblings and I would all do shifts in the trucks with Dad and with Pa – no one got left out. Back then the trailers had levers instead of remotes, so we’d get out and help guide the trucks for them. We probably weren’t as much help as we thought we were though,” he laughed.
“I loved working at Pa’s depot. He always found stuff for us to do, to make us feel like we were helping. He’d even pay us, so once we were done we could go and buy some lollies.”
Based in Queensland, Mackay and Sons operates from two depots in Narangba and one in Gin Gin, completing an average of four house relocations each week.
The house relocation fleet is made up of eight Mack Superliners – along with six hydraulic gas trailers worth approximately $1.2 million each. The business also runs a demolition arm, with four prime movers, including a Mack Super-Liner, a Mack Triton and two Volvos.
“My grandad loved the Macks, so it’s been born and bred into me – I can’t change now!” said Robbie.
“They have good visibility, driveability and horsepower, and have really moved with the times.”
The Mackay family’s foray into house removals began in 1961, when Robbie’s late grandfather John Mackay recognised an opportunity. Working two jobs, six days a week to support his young family (as a firefighter and a garbage collector), he had noticed the number of old houses in the area that needed restumping, so began doing that on his only day off.
He started his own restumping business, eventually expanding into house raising and sliding houses. Then in 1969, he came across a house removal business for sale. He purchased the equipment and completed his first house move in September of that year. It took 20 hours to move that house just one kilometre.
By the 1970s, through growth and acquisitions, John’s business became one of the largest house removal operations in the country.
John’s eldest son Bob joined him in 1975, taking the reigns in 1996 after his father’s retirement.
Bob’s children all went on to join the family business too, including Ben in 1998, Robbie in 1999 and Matt in 2002. Bob sold the business to his three sons in 2009 and by 2015, Robbie became the sole owner.
Robbie was only 14 when he officially started working at Mackay and Sons, so he worked as a labourer until he was old enough to get his truck licence.
He says the business has grown a lot in the past 10 years or so, with advances in technology making the job faster and safer.
“The trailers are worlds apart from what we used to use. When Dad retired, the trailers went up and down and that was about it. A job that would take six blokes two days to complete, can now be done by one person in an hour and half,” revealed Robbie.
“When I worked with Dad, we would be lucky to do one house move every two weeks, now we’re doing four houses a week. It’s the technology that’s really changed things and made that possible. Everything is quicker and safer.
“Now we have hydraulic jacking systems, the trucks have hydraulic drives on them and everything you can get to make the job easier.”
The company’s state-of-the-art trailers, which represent a sizeable investment, are manufactured by two trailer builders in New Zealand – Modern Transport Equipment (MTE) and Tidd Ross Todd (TRT).
“We have four from TRT and two from MTE. The newest one is an MTE trailer and it’s all computerised. The older ones were hydraulic but not computer controlled. With these newer trailers, they lift, level and steer, they tell you how much everything weighs, they have cameras and are operated with the push of a button,” explained Robbie.
“Compared to the old trailers, these newer ones have double the steer angle which makes it steer twice as quickly.
“You can change the curvature, which gives you more control over manoeuvrability. We get everything into position first go, instead of having to spend hours getting it right.”
Due to the size of the loads carried and the required permits, house moves are done at night. Robbie says having his own workshop makes it easier, especially if anything goes wrong.
“We work in the middle of the night, so if you have to wait until 8am in the morning to fix something, that can cost us a lot of money. We opened the workshop not long after Dad retired. It was done out of necessity. It means we can do all our maintenance, our custom fabrications for the trucks, tyres and all the rest of it.”
While technology has made things easier, the amount of paperwork and permits required to get the job done are growing.
“Due to the amount of permits and approvals involved to move a house, you can’t just delay it. If one job gets pushed out, it’s not just as easy as we’ll do it tomorrow. You can’t just push the permit out by a day, that’s not how it works,” said Robbie.
“There’s no room for error, you need to have your finger on the pulse.
“House moving is one of those things where you need to have that ‘get it done attitude’, there’s no ‘I can’t do it’. You have to work out a way.”
On average, Robbie says it takes about 30 days to get road permits and up to 12 weeks to get council approval for the building’s new site. “That’s a good case though. If there are issues, it could take six months,” added Robbie.
Typically, Mackay and Sons will travel up to 1000 kilometres from their depots. “Further than that isn’t really financially viable for people, but it’s all up to how much the client wants to spend. The cost for all the escorts we need to have keeps going up,” said Robbie.
Most houses are transported in one or two sections, but it all depends on the size of the building. In Queensland, they can go up to 8.5 metres wide and in NSW it’s up to 5.5 metres wide. “You can go bigger than that but it’s a much bigger process, with more approvals required. Anything bigger means we might need to go through road engineers too.”
When Robbie first took over the business, there were around 10 staff. Mackay and Sons currently employs around 60 people and most truck drivers have been there for over five years. “The truck driving aspect is the glamourous part, but the work is a lot more involved and they need to get all of that right too,” explained Robbie. “We’ve had a lot of people come through to learn the job first and then I’ll get them their truck licence and teach them that aspect.
“Every crew has 8-10 people in it. They’ll do the job from start to finish, and then we also have a welding crew that comes across for any steel work.
“During Covid we were doing upwards of six houses a week. But it’s hard to get good staff, so we chose to wind things back and do less moves.”
As the company has grown, Robbie has had to take a bit of a step back from being on the road. “Between the three depots, there are so many moving parts. You do miss being in the trucks. Moving something big like that down the road is a great feeling. I still get in the truck for the more difficult moves, which might be once a month or so.
“We train the boys up and give them the responsibility to do the moves. And they are really good at what they do.”
With the Mackay family being in the business for the past six decades, Robbie remains firmly focused on continuing to drive the business into the future. “I’m very proud to be running the business my grandfather started – that’s something you carry with you. It’s an achievement to be able to continue this but it comes with a lot of pressure too – I don’t want to be the one who drops the ball,” he said.
“My nan is 84 now and she’s blown away every time she comes in and sees what we’ve done.”