I had assumed that being editor of this magazine absolved me of any responsibility to write anything. However, the persuasion of one R. Shorrock sees me at the keyboard…
I was fortunate enough to be asked by Alliance to do some work on their brand new three-bay hangar in Rockhampton once it was completed. It’s always a pleasure when work takes me to enjoyable places — and in hindsight, I probably should have flown in CSD for the inspection.
Their new heavy maintenance facility in Rockhampton was completed in 2023, and they’ve now commenced a multi-year program of hiring apprentices and labour to ramp up heavy maintenance work within Australia. We’re extremely fortunate that Rockhampton was chosen as the site for this operation. When fully staffed, the hangar can maintain three jets at once — which is a significant undertaking.
Rocky will also see an expansion of Alliance’s already impressive parts network. They’ll be flying in used aircraft, salvaging serviceable parts, and scrapping the airframes once the salvage is complete — a little like Richardson’s AU Falcon wrecking yard, but on a slightly larger scale.
I was shown around the new facility by some of the Alliance head office number crunchers, and they even let me bring Liam along for a look. Alliance is seeking dozens of AMEs and LAMEs in Rocky, so it was a great opportunity for Liam to see it for himself.
The photos don’t quite do the scale of the Rockhampton facility justice.
Then in 2024, I had another call from the number crunchers who had just settled some hangars at Brisbane Airport to expand their operations further. Later that year, I visited their Brisbane operation and even had the chance to meet Scott McMillan, one of the company’s founders. I was given a copy of their book, which made for a great Christmas read. As it turns out, Scott knows our very own Tilley — which led to an interesting discussion.
One of the standouts from the book was Alliance’s “No Dickheads” employment policy — something this world could use a lot more of. The team that showed me around had clearly been hired under that policy.
The Brisbane hangars themselves have some history. One was originally constructed in stages for Caribou maintenance (see drawing extract attached), later extended, and then accompanied by a much larger neighbour built for the MRH90 helicopter program — which included both assembly and maintenance.
One of the Alliance contractors who toured me around had spent the entire MRH90 program working in those buildings. Staff numbers at the time reportedly reached up to 600. Of course, the whole program was eventually canned overnight due to “issues” with the helicopters in recent years.
Again, in hindsight, I should have flown down in CSD for the inspection — we had free reign over the taxiways and hangars back then. After the tour, I was lucky enough to be shown their Brisbane maintenance facility, where, amongst other things, a Fokker was on jacks and an Embraer was in for an engine change.
So once again… this was a tough day at “work.”
By Neil Richardson