Backed up by diligent and experienced staff in a network of branch offices throughout the country, Barry Bros has established a name for their professional and practical approach to issues that mostly relate to the use of their extensive vacuum truck fleet. Moving or removing water, wet and dry wastes is their core business, one that is fast approaching a 50 year milestone and showing every sign of moving inexorably forward with no loss of enthusiasm for the business at hand.

So what has changed over that 50 years?

Obviously some of the original personalities are no longer with the company, surprisingly however, there is a significant group of long-serving employees at Barry Bros who have weathered the changes and can mark the improvements.

“I can remember when we would go out to drain jetting jobs with some fairly rudimentary equipment. Air-conditioning was unheard of and you were lucky if you had a radio in the cab,” said one employee who has been with the company for over 30 years.

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“These days, the new Mercedes Combination units leave them for dead; they are far more powerful, they deliver high-velocity airflows up to 6,000 cf/m of vacuum through 100 or 150 mm suction hoses and can carry up to 11 cubic metres of waste. They’re more adaptable and can handle wet and dry materials or a combination of both and they’re more reliable and comfortable.

“I must admit we are better trained and equipped and able to service the customer more effectively than we could back then.”

Recent examples of exemplary service include the fatal train crash at Lismore - one of the worst in memory in Victoria - where the rapid and professional response from Barry Bros earned a note of praise and high commendation from local police coordinators and insurance assessors alike.

Over a three week period, working among the crash debris and in extremely adverse conditions, Barry Bros moved and removed over 140,000 litres of liquid waste (mostly wine) and over 4,000 tonnes of solid waste (fertiliser, pasta, frozen meat and car-parts). This was done under intense public scrutiny, with a high-level focus on OH&S and external pressures to reopen road and rail to traffic.

A more regular job involved Barry Bros removing 160,000 litres of bentonite from tunnel excavations on the Tugun bypass project on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The material is a modified form of clay used to stabilise excavated ground prior to casting diaphragm walls. It has to be removed prior to casting and is usually fully recoverable. A call came in late one Thursday night when the usual mode of recovery and treatment had failed and the material needed removal to enable planned work to proceed without penalty. A crew was mobilised from Barry Bros Gold Coast branch and after working throughout the night and well into the next day, finished the job much to the relief of the contractor on site.

Such levels of commitment and continuity serve to keep Barry Bros in pole position, well able to cater for their customer’s vacuum needs be they wet, dry or a combination of both, as well as some of the more specialised services on offer such as non-destructive digging, CCTV, Laser Profiling and Hydraulic Demolition - to name but a few.