Wire rope is the unseen workhorse of Australia’s lifting fleet, and few people know it better than Peter Morley. Though now retired, Peter worked at All Lifting & Safety for over four years and continues to consult for the team.
With nearly four decades of industry experience, Peter remains a trusted voice in selecting, supplying, and maintaining crane ropes. “The people that come in here have an expectation, and by the time they leave they’ve usually got a smile on their face because they’ve been fixed up straight away,” he said.
A market measured in kilometres of rope
According to the 26th edition of the RLB Crane Index, about 840 cranes were active on Australian sites in early 2025. Each of these cranes was carrying multiple hoist and luffing lines. No single distributor can stock every variant, but Peter argues that All Lifting’s blend of local inventory and global sourcing narrows the gap. “If the customer can wait and it’s just a replacement for one they’ve already got, you’d go offshore and get it,” he said, noting established supply pipelines through Singapore and Korea that can dispatch cut-to-length reels directly to site. Urgent tasks, by contrast, are filled from branch stock so rigs are back on the hook within hours rather than days.
Rope families built for crane duty
All Lifting’s catalogue now spans four principal, high-performance types:
• High-strength non-rotating ropes for tower cranes demanding stability
• Compacted non-rotating ropes offering strength and minimal rotation
• Compacted six and eight-strand ropes for general crane and winch duties
• Compacted poly-filled-valley ropes, which reduce internal nicking with polymer inlays
Standard diameters range from 9 millimetre (mm) to 64mm with tensile strengths up to 2160 megapascal (MPa). Lubrication is tailored by application, from light mineral oils for high-speed hoists to heavy grease for marine environments.
Spec first, sell later
Every order begins with a detailed specification sheet. “You meet with the customer to get the exact requirements – breaking load, crane make, finishing lengths,” Peter said. Only once these are confirmed does the team decide whether to pull from local stock or source mill-cut lengths.
End terminations are considered equally. All Lifting offers poured sockets, swaged sockets, and thimbled eye splices, all assembled in-house with certificates for proof-loading, batch control, and full material traceability.
All Lifting also supplies wire rope presses and provides training – including units delivered to Papua New Guinea – giving customers the ability to manage pressing operations on-site.
In-house pressing at every location
All Lifting is equipped with heavy-duty pressing machines at every store to ensure fast, accurate, and certified rope fabrication on demand. The Brisbane branch operates a 1500-tonne (t) press capable of handling up to 82mm wire rope.
Campbellfield and Sydney both house 500t presses with a capacity of up to 38mm, while Dandenong is equipped with a 600t press that can manage ropes up to 42mm. Newcastle offers pressing services for wire ropes up to 14mm, and the Port Moresby branch in Papua New Guinea operates a 300t press capable of handling up to 28mm. This distributed capability means urgent rope builds and replacements can be completed locally minimising downtime and logistics delays for critical lifting operations.
Cutting downtime, not corners
For crane owners, lost production often dwarfs the cost of replacement rope. That’s why All Lifting ships direct from factory to remote sites, whether it’s a mine in the Pilbara or a wind farm in Egypt, if that is the quickest route.
“Yes, air freight costs more,” Peter said, “but it’s worth it when you look at the cost of a crane sitting idle.”
Service while you wait
Speed also drives the company’s Brisbane manufacturing hub, where ropes can be cut, fitted and certified over the counter. That agility, he adds, is easier to deliver with a smaller enterprise like All Lifting than in a multinational warehouse where paperwork alone can add days.
Digital registers keep fleets compliant
Managing inspections across a fleet of lifting gear can be a logistical headache, especially for operations juggling dozens of cranes, slings, and hoists across multiple job sites. That’s where All Lifting’s electronic asset-tracking platform makes a real impact.
The system tracks inspection cycles and alerts teams when gear is due, whether for a sling check, service, or annual crane audit.
“The system tells the guys when inspections are due,” Peter said. “It frees them up to focus on the job, not the paperwork.”
Each item is logged with its test certificate, service history, and inspection schedule, so nothing gets missed, making compliance simple and reliable.
Beyond steel: fibre ropes gain ground
Synthetic alternatives are also carving a niche. Peter points to ultra-high-molecular low-weight polyethylene products such as Dyneema. “It’s as strong as wire rope and 25 per cent lighter,” he said, though the material still costs five to six times more than steel and demands careful handling around sharp edges.
For now, All Lifting mainly supplies fibre ropes for specialised offshore installations and rescue hoists, but Peter expects wider uptake as crane original equipment manufacturers certify synthetic lines on smaller capacity models.
National footprint, regional agility
From a single Melbourne base in 1974, All Lifting has expanded its presence with branches in Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Batam, and most recently Jakarta, Indonesia.
A second Melbourne branch has also opened in Dandenong, with inspection services extending across the Gold Coast and regional Queensland.
Peter said this reach enables the team to handle everything from mining draglines in the Bowen Basin to container cranes in Port Moresby, all while maintaining the hands-on service that keeps customers coming back.
Each location stocks rope tailored to local industry needs – from marine-grade galvanised strands to low-temperature-rated ropes for blast-furnace shutdowns.
Relationships built on results
“The customer service level here is way better than they would get at a larger company,” Peter said.
He believes that attitude has helped All Lifting capture accounts from competitors and keep them.
Regular toolbox talks, on-site splice demonstrations and same-day certifications all reinforce the message that downtime is the enemy.
Eyes forward, feet on the ground
In a market where every crane down-day is money lost, the partnership between supplier and operator is often worth more than the rope itself – and All Lifting is betting that knowledge, speed and a growing network will keep those ropes turning for years to come.