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Industry farewells Don Stein AM

Though his apprenticeship was a distant memory, Don never lost his love of his tools and his drafting board.

Born on 12 March 1930, at the height of the Great Depression, Don Stein’s early life was spent on a poultry farm in Smithfield (Sydney). Although Don’s father was had plumbing qualifications, the farm was the family’s primary means of survival and was built from scratch by his parents: Don had his share of chores to attend to outside school hours as well as parental examples of the value of hard work. This was the start of a lifelong love of farming, which has passed on to following generations.

Beginning with a trade

Upon completing school, Don commenced an apprenticeship at Bonser Engineering in Merrylands, working during the day and taking night courses at Granville Tech College, finishing as dux of both the Combined Automotive and Fitting and Machining trades. He bought his first motor bike to reduce time travelling to and from work on a bicycle, and the love of motor bikes also endured and passed down to the next generation.

After completing his apprenticeship, Don spent a short time as a plant maintenance mechanic at a Rose Hill factory. Don then moved to Gibson, Battle & Co., Ltd. (Gibson Battle) in Sydney to work as an estimating engineer.  Although it had previously been a manufacturer, Gibson Battle was primarily an agency for industrial equipment manufactured overseas. Later, Don was promoted to a sales contract engineer role.

One of Gibson Battle’s customers was Coates & Co. Ltd. (Coates), which offered Don a job as engineer for the state and assistant manager. At that time, Coates was an agent for vibratory compaction equipment made by English company Stothert & Pitt. The extended delivery times from England were playing havoc with sales, leaving Coates with substantial stocks of unsold machines. Don convinced his sales people to demonstrate the rollers, which proved effective but did not generate sales. A customer asked if they could hire rather than buy the roller, but Coates had no history of hire at that time. Don was hauled over the coals when he started hiring the rollers and was told to take the rollers off hire as they were not covered by insurance. Hostile customers greeted the attempts to regain possession of the rollers and Don returned to the Melbourne office to try to convince management to start a hire operation.

This was the start of Don’s long affair with compaction equipment. In speaking to these potential customers, Don found that many would be willing to hire the rollers and advocated this to management.

However, Don’s role with Coates involved a much broader scope of work, particularly troubleshooting on difficult projects that were often well away from his Sydney base, often requiring him to work 6-7 days a week and share his time between Sydney and the remote project.

When Don was offered a role as works manager at Springvale (VIC), Don declined and left to form Conplant, using the incubator shed and surrounding land of his parents’ former poultry farm as a western Sydney base. Don had long advocated that Coates set up a depot in this area as up to 70% of the hire work was in western Sydney.

Life in business

Don Stein with part of his fleet at Don Stein Plant Hire’s Smithfield yard.

Don took on two partners when he set up Conplant in 1960: they provided some funding but retained their regular jobs and were not active in the business. After returning from a conference of the Earthmovers Federation of New Zealand in 1971 Don and his partners parted ways. 

The generosity of friends and colleagues – many of them from the industry association – saw him form Don Stein Plant Hire later that year, with some loyal Conplant staff joining him. He had full control of this business and was always at the leading edge of compaction equipment technology in his fleet once the business  became established. One of Don’s first activities was to design and build his first tandem vibratory roller

Don made regular visits to the leading manufacturers around the world, both to expand his knowledge and to provide his feedback on the local market and its requirements. He also provided advice to Italian manufacturer Bitelli. Don was also a regular visitor to international trade fairs, sometimes using the occasion to reward staff or combine with a family holiday.

Despite mixing with the leaders of the industry, Don never lost the common touch in his relationships with customers and staff. The families of staff were not forgotten in company Christmas celebrations.

Don didn’t lose touch with his trade either, and there were times when it was necessary to fabricate spare parts to ensure the reliability and availability of the hire fleet.  The hire business was sold to Coates in 1997, by which time it had grown to a fleet of over 350 units.

Assisting an industry

Don became actively involved in the Earthmovers and Contractors Association (NSW) from 1963, only a year after its establishment by Max Pearce: he was immediately conscripted into the management committee and was president in 1971-72.

When Don joined, there were individual state associations but no national body: NSW raised the possibility of a national body on 1967 and a committee to pursue this was formed in the following year. A meeting in Terrigal in 1970, attended by representatives from New South Wales (including Don Stein), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia reached agreement on this issue, with Western Australia also agreeing although unable to send delegates. The Earthmovers and Road Contractors Association of Australia (ERCAA) was formed in September 1971, with filling the role of Chairman in 1979.

The Australian Earthmovers and Road Contractors Federation (AERCF) was formed in 1975 to counter a move by the Australian Federation of Construction Contractors (AFCC) to become the sole industry voice when a federal award was being established – it sought to represent smaller contractors and this was approved after a 2-year process. The AECRF ran in parallel with the AERCF as some states preferred to retain state awards: the national secretary of the CFMEU suggested adopting some aspects of the state awards to satisfy the interests of all parties. This saw a return to a single national organisation that was later renamed the Civil Contractors Federation (CCF).

In 1993, Don was instrumental in fighting off attempts by the NSW Government to apply stamp duty to wet hire, establishing that the as operator was under the control of the hire company, there was no change of ownership.

Don Stein with editor Dean Mesh at a function in 2013 marking the 50th anniversary of The Earthmover & Civil Contractor.

He also fought off attempts to require earthmoving equipment to be registered as the different operating requirements of plant meant that it would be impossible to obtain a roadworthy certificate: a permit system was adopted instead.

When state-based industry associations amalgamated to create a national voice, a publication that started out as a modest monthly newsletter of the Earthmovers and Contractors Association (NSW) became the national voice of the industry, under the name of The Earthmover & Civil Contractor (EMCC). A publishing company, Beaconsfield Press, was set up to oversee the publication and Don was the inaugural chairman of the board, remaining in that position for 25 years before spending a further three years as a board member.

Don also spent time as national president of CCF, and became a life member of the CCF at both state and national level.

It was fitting that when the magazine launched the EMCC awards in 2012 to recognise individual and organisation achievements, Don was the inaugural inductee into the Contractor Hall of Fame, recognising his service to industry over an extended period of time and on multiple fronts.

Assisting the community

When Don was first approached to join the Fairfield Rotary club, he declined because he was too busy with work. In 1968, after persistent approaches from a member, Don joined the Smithfield club as a Charter Member, becoming President in 1982-1983.

When Don heard of moves to set up a Rotary Club at Winston Hills (closer to his home), he joined in the efforts, becoming a foundation member and serving a term as its president. He was active in raising funds for a number of charities – generally through Rotary – but became directly involved with the Micro Research Foundation and was its chairman from 2002 to 2011.

Don’s efforts in business, industry bodies and the community were recognised in 2010 with an Order of Australia.

However, for every visible act of generosity in Don’s life, there were countless more private acts in helping out someone down on their luck or struggling for direction and in need of mentoring. During his life, Don was often the recipient of generosity from his family, friends and colleagues but over the course of his life, he well and truly paid it forward under the guidance of his simple life philosophy of respect, honesty, trust and integrity.

A family man

Don’s son David worked with Don for many years in the plant hire business and his daughter Jenny has worked with Don in the investment business that he established after he sold the hire business.

His parents’ house at Woy Woy and his farm at Tamworth were popular spots for some downtime and Don enjoyed passing on farming skills to following generations as well as mentoring in fishing and motor bike riding – he even got involved in go kart racing at the tender age of 72. Simple things were enjoyed and each grandchild treasures a pocketknife that he gave them, as well as an education on the 101 useful things to do with a pocketknife – the only digital technology being gripping it with your hand.

Don wrote a book about his life (“Fire in the Belly”), the title of which summarised his passion to succeed in business and recover from setbacks when there was no road map and his drive to pursue a cause that he believed in. However, there can be no doubt that above that fire was a very warm heart.


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