Boral Quarries Wollert
The Boral Wollert Quarry was established in 1971 as a hard rock quarry. Together with its processing operations and concrete plant occupies approximately 178 hectares of Boral's land.
165 Findon Road
Epping VIC 3076
Australia
About Epping/Wollert Quarry
The Boral Wollert Quarry was established in 1971 as a hard rock quarry. Together with its processing operations and concrete plant it occupies approximately 178 hectares of Boral’s land holdings.
West of the quarry pit, Boral operates a quarry processing plant and concrete batching plant.
These aggregates provide the base material to produce concrete, asphalt and other items commonly used in building and construction applications.
The quarry's relatively close location in relation to the Melbourne CBD has allowed it to make a substantial contribution to the city's skyline over time.
The processing of stone and delivery of rock products to and from the site may occur between the hours of 6am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.
Today's operations employ 14 full time staff and supply work for up to 40 transport drivers.
About Epping/Wollert Concrete
Boral Wollert Concrete is one of 17 'batch' plants operated by the company across Melbourne.
The plant supplies an average of 400 cubic metres per day to commercial and residential sites around. This equates to around 100 loads via Boral's and contractor concrete 'agitators' (trucks).
The concrete plant has a staff of 25 operators and transport drivers. Raw materials for the plant are supplied by the Boral Wollert Quarry (hard rock) and Boral Bacchus Marsh Quarry (sand).
Planning & Approvals
Rules and regulations to which Boral's Wollert Operations are managed.
General operating approvals
The Boral Wollert Quarry was established in May 1971. The quarry was followed by the Concrete plant (2004).
The quarry's main approval is Extractive Industry Work Authority 102 (WA102), issued under the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990. This allows the operation of extractive activities at the site.
WA102 is supported by Planning Permit 704899, issued by City of Whittlesea, which provides planning permission to operate the quarry. This permit is itself a requirement of WA102.
The concrete plant, which sits adjacent to the quarry has been excised from the Quarry’s work authority (WA102) and operates under its own planning permit 707573 from the City of Whittlesea.
Resources & Products
The Boral Wollert Quarry is a 'hard rock' site from which aggregates are produced. These aggregates form the base of building and construction materials such as concrete and asphalt.
Resource
The Boral Wollert Quarry lies within the Morang Hills, described in geological terms as a Palaeozoic Inlier (area of older rock enclosed by younger rock) surrounded by basalt flows.
The Inlier consists of a Devonian Granodiorite with an outer aureole of metamorphosed Silurian sediments (hornfels).
Differential weathering resulted in these more resistant rocks forming the Morang Hills, meaning flows from the subsequent period of volcanism failed to cover these areas.
The quarry is located on the south western slopes of the most southerly of the Morang Hills and it is the metamorphosed hornfels and weathered hornfels that are quarried.
The hornfels forms part of a sequence of fine grained Silurian sediments comprised principally of mudstones, shales, siltstones and sandstones.
These sediments have been subjected to thermal metamorphism due to the intrusion of a large granodiorite pluton.
Wollert geological classification
- Rock type: Metamorphic
- Rock name: Hornfels
- Colour: Dark grey to blue
- Texture: Fine grained
- Hardness: Hard-Brittle
- Weathering: Slightly weathered - fresh
Operations
Boral's Wollert Operations play a key role in the ongoing growth, development and management of the wider Melbourne area.
To make this contribution, a wide variety of activities take place at both the Quarry and Concrete plant.
Boral Wollert Quarry
The main activities at the quarry include:
- Stripping - the removal of 'overburden' (soil, sub-soil and other material which sits on top of the hard rock resource);
- Drilling and blasting - use of controlled explosions to expose the hard rock for processing;
- Loading and hauling - transfer of rock to the processing plant;
- Crushing and screening - to produce the various grades of aggregate;
- Stockpiling, sales and transportation - storage and movement of products to market.
On-site maintenance on plant and equipment is also carried out as part of daily operations.
Boral Wollert Concrete
The concrete plant's primary activity is the production of pre-mix concrete for building and construction.
This production process also relies upon aggregates from the neighbouring quarry and sand from the Boral Bacchus Marsh Quarry. Cement from Boral's Waurn Ponds is the differing 'ingredient'.
The site houses several Boral Logistics 'agitators' (concrete trucks) for the delivery of product to customers.
Hours of operation
The Boral Wollert Quarry and Concrete Plant tend to operate between 6:0am to 6:00pm, Monday - Friday and 6:00am to 3:00pm Saturday, but has the flexibility to alter these hours according to customer need.
The two operations tend, however, to operate predominantly from Monday to Friday, and Saturday morning. Hours are determined by both customer demand and the permitted hours of work under the various planning approvals.
Transportation
The movement of materials is a critical part of Boral's business. As with many large organisations, the ability to transfer volumes of raw resources and finished products is essential to the company's success.
To meet its needs, Boral operates a significant fleet of heavy vehicles and is a customer of a range of haulage contractors across Australia.
Boral recognises the safety obligations accompanying the large scale use of heavy vehicles on public roads. The business tries to ensure the highest standards of driving and vehicle maintenance are obtained to meet this objective.
We encourage all members of the community to give us feedback if they observe behaviour or incidents not aligning with this goal. Specifics such as time, location, vehicle registration and colour help us to further investigate and take appropriate action.
For vehicles associated with the Boral Wollert Operations, you can send us your feedback via email
Our Environment
The Wollert Quarry satisfies its obligations under Work Authority 102 for environmental emissions. Quarries, by nature, generate dust, noise and heavy vehicle movements. Activities are monitored by Boral and mitigated to acceptable standards within prescribed approval limits.
Minimising resource use
There are a number of measures in place at the Boral Wollert Operations which are designed to ensure use of natural resources is kept to a minimum.
Water conservation - The quarry uses water from two on-site bores for production purposes. Mains water is only used for amenities. A Water Conservation Plan has been devised for the operation which has helped keep water usage very low - each tonne of aggregate produced requires only 0.04 litres of water use.
Dust emission management - active dust suppression measures concentrated on dust sources are in place at the quarry (as well as the other sites).
A water cart is in regular use on the site to keep dust emissions down on internal roads. Parts of the plant have sprays installed to also minimise dust escape.
Our Community
Positive relationships with the community are an important part of conducting our business activities.
On this page you will find information about initiatives involving our neighbours and other local stakeholders, as well as updates on what's happening at our sites.
Boral Wollert Quarry Environmental Review Committee (ERC)
To help facilitate ongoing communication with neighbours and other local stakeholders, the Boral Wollert Quarry operates an Environmental Review Committee (ERC).
The ERC meets regularly to examine the quarry's environmental performance. It provides a forum for issues to be raised and discussed in connection with the operations.
You can view the notes from meetings held during the past three years below.
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 30 October 2018
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 21 March 2018
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 29 November 2017
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 19 July 2017
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 4 April 2017
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 11 October 2016
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 14 June 2016
Boral Wollert Quarry ERC meeting - Minutes of 29 September 2015
Contact Us
We welcome your comments and feedback about any topic relating to the Boral Wollert Quarry. For general inquiries, please contact:
Andrew Rankin
Quarry Manager
Boral Wollert Quarry
Ph: (03) 9401 2066
Mobile: 0401 897 783
Em: andrew.rankin@boral.com.au