Tamworth is home to the Golden Guitar, the Country Music Festival, the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre – and just 20 kilometres away is Boral’s Currabubula Quarry.
Located just over four hours from Sydney, the small village of Currabubula is in the Liverpool Plains local government area. The village was established around 1838 and is known as a horse-friendly town with hundreds of acres of land available for trail riding. There is an impressive hotel on the main street as well as a public school, general store, playing fields, war memorial hall and a showground for its population of just over 330 people. Boral is a proud sponsor of the annual Currabubula Red Cross Art Exhibition.
Quarry Manager, Dan Smith and his team of 11 full-time staff supply product to Boral Concrete and Asphalt as well as nearby local Councils, Transport for NSW and local customers. They also provide work for more than 20 local contractors. Currabubula produces a range of rock aggregates from 20mm to -3mm for concrete, sealing, road base and fill and their usual blast volume is 70,000 tonnes.
Leonie Kelly has worked at Boral for 18 years. She started at Widemere Recycling Wetherill Park NSW as a Weighbridge Operator before moving to Currabubula Quarry 11 years ago.
“Boral has given me the opportunity to work at other Boral sites such as Deer Park Quarry in Victoria to gain further experience in different quarries, I have also received a qualification as a trainer of weighbridge operations and am currently studying for a Certificate 3,” said Leonie.
“Having happy and satisfied customers is what I enjoy most about working with Boral along with my great friendships with other weighbridge operators”.
The quarry was granted consent as a greenfield development in 1996 and is currently approved for a production limit of 400,000 tonnes per annual of andesite with eight blasts permitted each year. There have been six modifications to its consent over the years, these include an increase to production, extending the extraction area and building an additional dam.
The quarry, associated processing facilities and haul road occupy approximately 22 hectares and the approved extraction area is 11 hectares. The remainder of the 600 hectare site provides a large buffer to the nearest neighbours. The quarry comprises a series of benched working quarry faces and in-pit mobile crushing and screening equipment.
