16/02/2026
This is the Mount Erin packhouse project. To say it was a big one is an understatement. New switchboards, refrigeration systems, power factor correction, and over eleven kilometers of cable (enough to reach the bottom of the Mariana trench).
This job came in on time and on budget - not because we got lucky, and not because anyone pulled off a miracle in the last two weeks.
Working alongside Active Refrigeration and Tuatara Structures, we picked up improvements in the spec early; the kind of things that don't look like much on paper, but turn into expensive problems once a packhouse is running flat out.
For the client, that matters more than most people realise. A packhouse isn't just a building, it's a facility that needs to perform under serious pressure, at the worst possible time, when you can least afford for something to go wrong. Harvest doesn't wait, refrigeration doesn't get a day off, and when something fails at 2 AM during harvest, the cost isn't just the callout - it's everything sitting in that coolstore while you wait for it to get fixed.
That's what we're actually thinking about when we're on your project. Not just getting the job finished or hitting the handover date. But whether the person who owns this facility is going to get a phone call they don't want in twelve months - and what we can do right now, while we're still on site, to make sure they don't.
That means having the experience to see around corners. Knowing what fails under operational pressure. Knowing what looks fine on a drawing but causes problems in the real world. And having the kind of relationship with the other trades on site - Active Refrigeration and Tuatara Structures - where those conversations actually happen, early enough to do something about them.
Over the years we've learned something simple: you don't rise to the occasion; you fall to your systems.
And at Hillmac, we've had over 20 years to build ours.
When you're planning your next project, the question worth asking isn't just who can get it done. It's who's going to make sure you never have to think about it again.
