Independently Owned, Locally Grown, Community Loved
From a $2,000 ute and a toolbox to a Burdekin industry mainstay, Hayward Hydraulics marks 30 years built on reputation, innovation and community.
Not every business starts with a blueprint.
For some, it begins as a calling… in more ways than one.
Burdekin local Robert Hayward had been in the hydraulics industry since he was 18. A diligent worker who loved his job, he quickly built a reputation locally as one of the best in the business.
But despite a mutual affinity with the industry that had formed over years, he stepped away in the early 1990s to help his father-in-law maintain a cane property in Clare.
Until he received a call.
Then another… and another.
Rob quickly realised that, despite his brief hiatus, his reputation in hydraulics had not faded.
With that, he was pulled back into the game, this time with nothing but a $2,000 ute, a toolbox, and work up to his neck.
And the only way to keep himself from drowning in it was, ironically, to go in deeper.
“As the Burdekin is, if you do a very good job, word travels quickly between the community. One farmer talked to another, he talked to another, he talked to another…
“Until I sat down with my wife one day and said, ‘I think we can make a business out of this.’”
His ute would eventually make way for a permanent space—a small sub-shed at Larry Hudson Engineering in the Ayr Industrial Estate that would serve as his headquarters for the following four years.
He tackled the first year solo, before demand forced him to put an apprentice on in the second year, and a qualified tradesman in the third.
By the end of the fourth, Rob’s work had outgrown its humble base, moving down the road into a new purpose-built shed that would become the home of Hayward Hydraulics.
That shed would officially open in 1996, spurring a 30-year legacy sustained by three defining pillars.
“I had no idea how to use computers,” Rob said with a smirk.
Admittedly, he hadn’t realised he signed himself up for a three-decade, three-fold evolution between an entire industry, his own business, and himself. What he did know was that he was ready to learn, and eager to grow.
It started with the basics. For Rob, that meant wrapping his head around modern computers, attending TAFE courses on emerging welding techniques, and becoming a leader.
“I went from being a very good tradesman to having to be an employer,” he said.
“You have to be a people's person, you have to treat people the right way, treat your workers the right way. That part I never even thought of until we started getting into it.”
Rob treated this evolution as a marathon rather than a sprint, dedicating the business's first decade cementing its reputation as a local leader. After striking up deals with major companies, including Queensland Rail and Wilmar Sugar in the mid-2000s, he decided to take the leap into the mining industry in the early 2010s as a safety net for the unpredictable sugar industry.
With that growth, Hayward Hydraulics’ shed would undergo its third structural expansion to accommodate its continuously increasing popularity and modernised technology.
He built a habit of gleaning ideas from various online hydraulic magazines, and then building on them to not only keep up with the industry, but to will it into the future himself.
“I eventually built a reputation for thinking outside of the square. If somebody's been doing something for 20 years, I'll look at a better way of doing it,” he said.
Albeit, he admits he and the business are still evolving today.
“I've seen harvesters and planters go from chain and sprocket to hydraulic motors, to hydraulic motors being linked to satellite GPS,” he said.
“The industry has changed in leaps and bounds, and you have to keep finding ways to move with it.”
Hayward Hydraulics’ evolution was founded on something Rob didn’t need to be taught.
Care.
And he makes sure his staff do, too.
“I didn't come from a real wealthy family, so we were brought up to work; you work, you do the job right, you get paid,” he said.
“So if I'm not happy with something, I'll ask my workers: ‘would you pay for that?’”
When the mining industry began to boom in Queensland, Rob admits he had a difficult time retaining workers. To compete, he was forced into paying top-dollar for what he called “good quality workers,” causing financial tension.
When asked if compromising staff quality for cost was ever an option, with the conviction of a true-blue purist, he said:
“No.”
“I've always maintained that a business is only as good as your employees. You can be the best boss in the world, but if you've got workers that people don't like, they don't come through the door,” he said.
“My current staff are up there with the best that I've had. I just try to make sure they’re happy to come to work every day.”
With quality and care as its engine, Hayward Hydraulics became known not just for technical know-how, but for doing things the right way.
As its stature in the industry continued to grow, so did the scope of its customer base. Calls started coming in from as far north as Tully, all the way to Mackay and Western Queensland, all saying the same thing:
“We heard you were the guy to talk to about this problem.”
For the last 10 years especially, the business has made a point of supporting local organisations and sports clubs, most notably the Burdekin Roosters Rugby League Club.
Rob described it as a duty to a community that has given so much to him and the company.
“The community has been so important to it all. I’ve got some customers that have been with me from day one, and with some, I’m onto the third generation of the same family,” he said.
“The’ve given a lot to me. They've helped me grow and supported me, so it's about time I supported them back.”
Beneath it all, though, he points to his family as the driving force.
“I remember those early days when we were setting up the new workshop, building benches and all that, my two brothers-in-law and my father came out and gave me a hand,” he said.
“But my biggest support is my wife. Especially in the early days when I wasn't home, and she solely looked after the kids and everything.
“It got to the stage where I was working seven days a week, 12 hour days, and my wife would bring the kids on a Saturday and Sunday, and we'd sit on the shop floor and have lunch.
“She's been with me through the lows and the highs, and that I thank her for.”
Now, thirty years later, it’s his family pulling him out of the industry. Driven by the desire to make up for lost time with his wife and kids, Rob has loosened his grip on business operations, working four days a week with plans to eventually let his brainchild find its own footing.
As for right now, he’s not yet ready to call time on a chapter that was, perhaps, never meant to last this many pages.
“I still love what I do,” he said.
“The early days come with sacrifices, but when I look back now, it was all worth it.
“I remember when it all first started, looking on the ATO website and coming across that statistic that most businesses fail within five years.
“When I read it, I said to myself, 'well, I'm gonna make sure I’m not that statistic.’”
And that, he did.
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