David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to bring to the attention of the House a major milestone for a major local company operating in my electorate of Lyne. Recently Expressway Spares celebrated 50 years of successful operation. Expressway Spares was founded by Gerard Cassegrain in 1964 to service the logging industry and it has subsequently grown and developed into the largest major spare parts business for Caterpillar parts in the Southern Hemisphere. It has used its expertise, specialising in spare parts and refurbishment of machinery, supplying to all facets of the earthmoving equipment industry including mining, general contracting and the rural sector.

The company has now grown to be one of the biggest employees in our electorate with over 180 employees. Its major workforce is located at Sancrox, halfway between Wauchope and Port Macquarie. It also has opened operations in the Hunter Valley at Mount Thorley, MacKay in Queensland and Perth in Western Australia. Its headquarters incorporates of 7,000 square metres of covered storage area and workspace and a 25-hectare machinery display and storage area.

At an event two weekends ago to celebrate 50 years of successful operation, we heard speeches from Patrick Cassegrain, the son of Gerard, and his sister Catherine Dunn, who have been involved in the business along with other family members Dennis and nephews in the Dunn family.

Gerard's vision was related. He was a French emigre who came to Australia in the 1950s with his wife and children. He started off in Sydney and moved to the far end of the Hastings Valley, to Yarras, as a logging contractor with one vehicle. He saw the need for spare parts on the North Coast, and his vision transformed into a little shed on a newly declared stretch of the Pacific Highway, which was effectively in the middle of nowhere—nowhere near Port Macquarie and nowhere near Wauchope, which were the historical centres. But he had a vision and started there with a single shed. It is now a huge industrial supplier to all those industries that I have mentioned.

Long service awards were given to their valued staff for five, 10, 20 and 25 years of service. The current business manager Patrick Cassegrain complimented his wonderful staff, because their business is their staff. They are a very professional operation. They know their product and they know their market. They are flexible, efficient and have highly trained staff—I commend them.