Dynamic Rigging Hire has delivered what is now one of Victoria’s most substantial heavy lifts this year.
The project’s scale and the equipment assembled spoke volumes. Managing Director Ross Johnson offered a glimpse into its magnitude.
“In the rental space, this will be the largest gear available in Australia once it comes out of this job,” Ross said.
The major lift capped off what had been a sharp turnaround for the Melbourne-based rigging specialist.
Ross said this time last year had been slow, with projects delayed and equipment sitting idle.
“We reflect what our customers are doing. If they don’t need the gear, it doesn’t leave the factory,” he said.
The year, however, ended well and 2026 began at pace. Dynamic Rigging Hire and its Queensland Rigging Hire have both been busy across commercial high-rise construction, major infrastructure and the day-to-day “taxi crane” work that keeps the industry ticking over.
“In Victoria, the crane and construction industry has just been really strong,” Ross said.
“From one-day hires right through to six-month rentals, we cater for all of it.”
But the turning point this year was securing a supply agreement for a major bridge lift in Melbourne.
Gear that was unheard of in the rental market
What set this lift apart was not just the weight of the structure, but the rigging required to make it happen.
“We’re talking 700-tonne capacity spreader bars, 400 and 500-tonne shackles, 400-tonne round slings,” Ross said. “None of that existed in Australia from a rental perspective.”
The shackles, 400 tonne and 500 tonne, were sourced from Van Beest in the Netherlands. About two dozen units were ordered and shipped in. For the slings, the project had a preference for Australian manufacturing. Dynamic engaged United Sling to produce 410-tonne and 365-tonne round slings using high-modulus polyethylene (HMPE).
“Even with the high-performance thread making them smaller, a 400-tonne sling is still bulky and heavy,” Ross said. “They’re not easy bits of kit to work with.”
The centrepiece, however, was the new 700-tonne lattice construction spreader beam. Based on an earlier 240-tonne design, the new unit was scaled up in every dimension – thicker steel, larger joining plates, more bolts and greater overall width.
“Everything’s just bigger”
Fabrication was completed in Geelong, allowing the project to avoid lengthy international lead times. Ross said importing a similar beam from the United Kingdom would have taken up to six months including fabrication and sea freight.
“We were able to have them fabricated locally, which was a big advantage,” he said.
The bridge lift involved two crawler cranes working in tandem, each with a complete matching rigging set.
When the weight of the rigging was added to the load, the total lift reached approximately 910 tonnes.
“It’s nearing 1000 tonnes when you include everything,” Ross said.
The spreader beams for the first series of lifts measured 8.5 metres in length, but the design allows extension to 44 metres while maintaining a 500-tonne capacity. A later lift in the program saw a 25-metre configuration used for a single crane operation.
The equipment is committed to the project for six months and will not enter the wider rental market until around September, 2026. After that, Ross expects demand from interstate resources projects and potentially offshore opportunities.
“The capacity of this equipment is on a global scale,” he said.
Backing the investment
The investment ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, with a large portion spent on Australian fabrication.
Ross said that such a commitment requires careful consideration.
He said some smaller independents may not have had the financial capacity for the upfront spend, while others may have been wary of the scale.
“We’ve got the backing from our owners in Sweden (Axel Johnson International) to make that investment,” Ross said. “If you want to stand at the top of the heap, you’ve got to get involved in these projects.”
The long-term value also played a role. While synthetic slings have a defined lifespan, the spreader beams and shackles are expected to remain in circulation for decades.
“They’ll still be around in 20-odd years’ time,” Ross said.
He sees the lift as part of a broader industry trend.
“Ten or 15 years ago, a big crane was 450 tonnes,” he said. “Now there are 850s and even over 1000 tonnes in parts of Australia. The loads are getting bigger, so the rigging connecting the hook to the load is getting bigger too.”
Designs have also evolved. Lattice-style spreader beams are increasingly preferred over traditional tubular systems for long-span bridge work.
Yet there are practical limits.
“I think the pure rigging weight on this job was around 20-odd tonnes before you even pick up the load,” Ross said.
“Beyond the lift itself, there is the challenge of storage and handling. Large rigging components spend most of their life in the factory, requiring space, inspection and safe movement.
“We keep outgrowing our factories,” Ross said. “If we keep it up, we’ll need a building the size of Bunnings.”
For now, the focus is on what has become one of Victoria’s standout lifts of 2026. The bright lime-green spreader beams, painted for visibility, were hard to miss under site lighting.
