The growth of a state-of-the-art technical hub by Birdon at Henderson has coincided with a significant scale-up in defence sector activity in the region – but the firm is focused on more.
The anointed designer of what will be a fleet of 18 Landing Craft Medium vessels for the Department of Defence – built by Austal – established its technical design and engineering hub on Sparks Road in Henderson around 18 months ago.
The technical staff on hand at the facility have grown from one to 54 since then.
Birdon’s growth has coincided with a re-imagining of the vision for Henderson, where the state and federal governments are planning to establish a dedicated defence industry precinct.
A marine engineering firm like Birdon, which delivers major defence projects in Australia and the US and is already working on Australian vessels, is ideally positioned to benefit from the plan.
“What it allows us to do is become known on the Henderson strip as a provider of support to the prime [contractors],” Birdon marine, defence and engineering executive general manager Mark Albertson told Business News.
“But probably where the attention pivots is what other support we can provide, in the maritime sense, to the Henderson consolidation and expansion, and some of the defence work that’s coming on the horizon that’s not quite here yet.
“How do we, not only position ourselves for that, but how do we become an organisation of choice to partner with?”
While motivated to service the sector as evidenced by its large-scale Western Australian ramp-up, Birdon’s response to the announcement in October of a dedicated defence precinct to be set up at Henderson raised eyebrows.
Some diversified operators flagged plans to hone their focus on defence, and away from resources, to fully capture the opportunity presented by the state’s vision to make defence services its second-largest industry.
Birdon took a different view.
Mr Albertson said while there was a prospect that parts of Henderson that once serviced resources would become defence only, the defence boom did not need to come at the cost of the resources sector.
“For us, it’s not one or the other,” he said.
The state is exploring its options to duplicate the Australian Marine Complex common-user facility, currently shared by heavy industrial users like Birdon, nearby Civmec and others, so that a resources capability is not lost at the hands of defence.
Birdon has also operated a shipyard at Dampier since 2021, where it provides vessel dockings for repairs and maintenance, offshore mobilisations and decommissioning work to industry.
“If you look at facilities where you can dock a 500-tonne-to-2,000-tonne vessel between the Henderson floating dock and Darwin, Dampier is the only place to go,” Mr Albertson said.
“It’s the only capacity in the area where you can dock those size vessels.”
Birdon’s strategic decision to take on the asset in addition to its expanding Henderson presence gives it options in servicing the state’s largest industries side by side.
Defence remains the lion’s share of the WA workload – estimated to be a 70:30 split with resources currently, with a vision to 50:50 in the future.
“The defence projects, they’re not sporadic but they can be a bit peaky,” Mr Albertson said.
“There are some large ones, and a few companies get involved in the large ones, but then we go to balance the books and there’s some gaps – there’s some smaller ones that might pick up some of the throughput in that.
“But if you can balance that division with a nice commercial business as well it derisks us and allows us to keep growing as a footprint.”
The potential for additional work is also there, with $8 billion worth of upgrades being carried out across the water at HMAS Stirling on Garden Island, and a similar level of investment expected to make Henderson a dedicated defence precinct.
Mr Albertson said Birdon, one street back from the water in Henderson, was well placed to support the precinct’s growth, as it lays a WA growth path of its own.
