Our History

Early Years

The creation of the Mabey name in the engineering and construction world began in the early 1920s in the United Kingdom, when the family's patriarch, Guy Mabey, opened a successful building supplies company.  After WW2, Guy's son, Bevil, took over the family business, and he began to expand into engineering work, particularly bridging. 

Bevil Mabey was a soldier in the Allied campaign during WW2 and saw the speed with which the Royal Engineers provided solutions to connect the most inaccessible and difficult sights. Once back in the UK, he began to buy in supplies of components for Bailey Bridges, which he had seen in Europe, with the intention of selling and leasing these bridges to contractors huge rebuilding projects of the post-war era.

Fast Forward to the 1950s 

While the construction industry laboured to change the British landscape, Bevil saw another opportunity to speed up the construction process. He created a grand plan to rent building materials that are temporarily on the ground and that will keep workers safe as they shape the permanent structure. 

So Bevil founded Mabey Hire.

With this in mind, Mabey developed a set of modular steel bridges for use as a highway structure. Bevil's design was lighter than the old fashioned Bailey Bridges, with fewer components, had twice the cargo capacity, could be built with longer spans, and have a much longer life. 

Merger in 2009. 

In late 2009, Mabey Hire, Murrayplant and Mabey Support Systems came together to form Mabey Hire Services, based out of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. From here, the Mabey family of companies began to grow both through acquisition and organically.

This is where the company we know today began to stretch out in to multiple different sectors, services and engineering projects.

During the next few years, the company evolved into The Mabey Group, and began to move into other areas of the world, including the USA.

A Land Downunder...

The Mabey Group acquired APlant Hire speciality shoring business in early 2013, and the Australian arm of the group was born with it's entry into the Pacific Specialist Shoring market.

Known as Mabey Hire Pty Ltd (Aust) and Mabey Hire Ltd (NZ), the company launched its leasing operations from three existing warehouses in Australia and one in New Zealand, providing the construction and engineering industry with a unique range of rental and resell equipment; including aluminum shoring boxes and safety handrails, steel road-plates, bridging, sheet piling and hydraulic supports.

The Shape of Things to Come...

In September 2019 the Mabey Group sold its Australia and New Zealand business through a management buyout, and the rest is history!

Since then Mabey Australia and Mabey New Zealand have gone from strength to strength, utilising all the experience and unique workmanship brought into the business. The growth has been phenomenal, and Mabey Australia and Mabey New Zealand now also diversify into both Hire and Sales of the specialist equipment, as well as highly regarded engineering project teams all over Oceania.

As we move into the future, there are many new ventures in the pipeline, expansions, and huge infrastructure projects on the way. Trust Mabey Australia and Mabey New Zealand with your temporary roadworks, shoring, engineering and project management requirements.