Deer Park Engineering - Company Profile

Deer Park Engineering was established in 1942 as a general engineering company by David Ure. In 1961 the company moved to its present site at 800 Ballarat Road after the acquisition of an ex-Army workshop that was dismantled and moved to Deer Park, located in Melbourne's western suburbs.

During the mid-1960s the company developed an internal capability as designers and manufacturers of purpose built cranes. This became an integral part of the company's business activities for the next three decades.

In 1970 the company commenced manufacturing oil drilling, exploration and production equipment through a new business relatonship with Cameron Iron Works (today Cameron Corporation, Inc). By the mid-1970s Deer Park Engineering had become Cameron's principal Australian manufacturer.

General engineering continued to be the major component of operation until 1974, however, as the crane and oil equipment divisions quickly grew, the company gradually withdrew from this market. For the next twenty years these two divisions became the cornerstones of the company's business activities, each occupying approximately half of the manufacturing capacity.

In 2002 the company acquired the machine shops previously owned by Baker Oil Tools (Australia) located in Sale, Victoria and Perth, Western Australia. This strategic acquisition considerably broadened the company's geographic base and manufacturing capability to service the oil and gas industry. These machine shops operate as Deer Park Oil Tools, a separate business unit to Deer Park Engineering.

In recent years the company has used its outstanding capability in heavy precision machining and specialist fabrication to form new business partnerships with Flakt Woods (manufacturers of large fans and blowers and associated equipment) and Valir (manufacturuers of protected personnel cabins for defence force vehicles). Today the company's relationships with Cameron and these two customers provide in excess of ninety-five percent of the business.

David Ure retired in 1996 and his son John, who had previously been employed by the company as an engineer, became General Manager. David Ure passed away in 2002. The Deer Park group of companies remains 100% privately Australian owned.

In 1970 an association with Cameron Iron Works (now Cameron Corporation, Inc) of Houston, Texas, USA commenced. Deer Park Engineering became the principal Australian manufacturer for the Cameron family of oil drilling and exploration equipment, a relationship that continues to the present day.

This partnership and business division flourished during the 1970s and into the 1980s due to the vast exploration and production programmes being carried out in the Bass Strait oil and gas field.

In 1998 Cameron moved its Australian operations to occupy a 5000 square metre office and warehouse facility at 1 Glencairn Avenue, Deer Park, adjacent to Deer Park Engineering's site at 800 Ballarat Road. This move greatly strengthened the relationship between the two companies and improved manufacturing efficiencies.

After a severe downturn of exploration activities in the late 1990s, the past five years has seen a renaissance of the Australian oil and gas exploration and associated manufacturing industries due to high world wide demand, high crude oil prices and a world wide shortage of manufacturing capability and capacity for this specialist equipment.

The crane division was formed in 1966 with the first order being placed by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria for a 35 Ton capacity overhead travelling crane. The company's expertise in crane design and manufacture expanded quickly and by 1969 Deer Park Engineering had manufactured its first dockside container handling crane, a 45 Ton capacity unit commissioned by the Melbourne Harbour Trust.

By this time Deer Park Engineering had established a reputation as designers and manufacturers of high-quality, special purpose cranes. With the introduction of containerisation to Australia this reputation grew as Deer Park Engineering continued to supply container handling gantry cranes, overhead travelling gantry cranes and slewing jib wharf cranes.

Between 1990 and 1997 Deer Park Engineering was a licensee of Paceco® Corporation of San Mateo, California, USA for their range of Portainer® and Transtainer® Cranes. During this period Deer Park Engineering manufactured three Portainer® Cranes and one Transtainer® Crane under the licence agreement. The combination of Paceco's® and Deer Park Engineering's container handling expertise further strengthened the company's position as a leading manufacturer of container handling equipment.

Deer Park Engineering has designed, manufactured and installed equipment for most major companies, government instrumentalities, port authorities and stevedoring companies throughout Australia. In 1992 the company became the first Australian manufacturer to export a container handling gantry crane with unit CJ59 being purchased by the Dubai Ports Authority, and further major export success was achieved in 1997 when Virginia International Terminals purchased crane CJ58 for its container terminal at Portsmouth, Virginia, USA.

The company significantly wound back its crane division in 1999 as the ready availability of cheaper imported cranes from overseas and the on-going reductions in customs duty on this equipment dramatically changed the Australian market. Today the company's activities in this area are generally limited to providing spare parts and specialist consultancy for the many "Deer Park" cranes still in service around Australia.