The Global Lifting Group is best known as the lifting industry’s quiet connector – a nationwide network that links specialist lifting, rigging and height-safety suppliers from Perth to Townsville and everywhere in between.
“The group basically covers pretty much the whole Australian region,” said Steve Flint, a 38-year veteran of the trade and long-time Global Lifting Group member. “We’re trying to provide a network of like-minded businesses that can offer customers and suppliers a consistent, high-quality service.”
What now sets the group apart is its collective push behind the Australian Made campaign. The initiative is not a marketing slogan; it is a supply-chain strategy born from COVID-era shortages and the current geopolitical volatility.
“Nearshoring supply became critical when shipping lines stalled,” Steve said. “In uncertain times you’ve still got the security of Australian manufacturing.”
A single voice for local manufacturers
Global Lifting Group’s scale gives home-grown fabricators the kind of order volumes they once struggled to secure on their own.
“If we went to these guys as individual companies, we probably wouldn’t have enough volume,” Steve said. “As a group we can make it economical for the manufacturer and strengthen their own supply chain.”
Member companies channel that pooled demand to key Australian brands such as SpanSet, Townley, Andromeda and Delphi Loadcells, providing a reliable pipeline of locally-made slings, chain, hardware and engineered devices. The alliance already represents “many of Australasia’s leading lifting, rigging and height-safety suppliers.” The member directory stretches across every major state – only Darwin remains uncovered – giving project managers access to identical products and certification paperwork regardless of postcode.
Quality control is a second pillar.
“The reliability of Australian product and the quality is superior to imported product,” Steve said. “You also get the guarantee that every item is built and tested to the relevant Australian Standard.”
From policy to practice
To see how the philosophy plays out in the field, Steve said you only have to look at Dynamic Rigging Hire, Global Lifting Group’s Victorian member. The company manages more than 2000 pieces of specialist gear from its Melbourne headquarters and supplies contractors on major State Government projects ranging from North East Link to the Metro Tunnel.
“We’ve touched almost every major project in Victoria,” says Dynamic Rigging Hire manager Ross Johnson. “Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel, North East Link – you name it, our gear’s probably been on it.”
Ross’s operation is proof that ‘Australian Made’ is about more than patriotic stickers. Dynamic Rigging Hire works with Geelong-based fabricator Maxirig to develop one-off solutions such as a folding, four-point spreader beam “that’s the only one of its kind in Australia”. He said the ability to sit across the table from the designer, refine a drawing and have the finished beam certified to AS 4991 within weeks is a commercial edge imported hardware can’t match.
“There’s no point pretending to be everything to everyone,” Ross adds. “We know lifting. We know rigging. That’s what we do, and we do it properly.”
That focus extends to inspection: every item leaving Dynamic Rigging Hire’s yard is checked to Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) standards, and the company brings in non-destructive testing (NDT) and load-cell specialists when needed – a compliance culture Steve said is common across the Global Lifting Group.
Economies of scale meet economies of trust
Global Lifting Group’s purchasing power also helps protect Australian jobs in an industry already squeezed by low-cost imports.
“Australia’s ability to manufacture is diminishing all the time,” Steve said. “We see a real place for high-end, locally made product – and we’re determined to support it.”
That resolve is reinforced each time a project requires certainty rather than the cheapest line item. Earlier this year a Global Lifting Group member completed a complex lift in Tasmania using SpanSet slings – gear chosen as much for traceability and technical data as for strength. The job, completed by Dynamic Rigging Hire, involved tilting a 200-plus-tonne bridge segment. It demanded proof that the slings met the standards and could be load-tested on short notice.
The numbers stood up.
Training for the long haul
Steve concedes formal qualifications for inspecting lifting gear remain a “gap” in Australia, but said every Global Lifting Group company invests in its own programs while lobbying through LEEA for a national framework. “There’s no actual formal qualification for inspection in our industry– but we’re building the pathway,” he said. In practice that means shared modules on chain-block strip-downs, sling retirement criteria and electronic register management – knowledge the group disseminates free among members.
Why Australian Made matters in 2025
Beyond compliance and logistics, the Australian Made push has a strategic dimension. Steve points to tariffs, Middle-East shipping disruption and volatile exchange rates as reminders that single-source offshore supply is a risk. “When it’s uncertain you want control,” he said. “Local manufacturing gives you that.”
Ross adds to the reasoning. “Customers don’t ring us because a spreadsheet says our shackle was two dollars cheaper,” he said. “They ring us because the gear turns up certified, it fits, and if something goes wrong we can get it sorted the same day.”
Global Lifting Group’s next step is bringing newer partners deeper into the campaign and rolling out a national branding package so end users can instantly recognise Australian-made options. Steve also wants to showcase more case studies that quantify lifecycle savings versus low-cost imports.
“We’re not saying imported gear has no place,” Steve said. “But when the lift is critical and the stakes are high, supporting local manufacturing is good for quality, good for the industry and good for Australia.”
At a time when supply-chain resilience matters as much as capacity, that may be the lift that keeps the nation building.