Garford Pty Ltd, Wangara, WA

Garford Pty Ltd was founded in 1988 by Neville Hedrick, the inventor of the now widely accepted proven modified geometry cable bolt. Thanks to the success of this design, Garford Pty Ltd has experienced constant rapid growth over the last two decades, becoming one of Australia`s leading suppliers of Ground Support Products. Continued expansion has seen Garford upsize headquarters three times whilst still remaining a locally owned Western Australian Company. Cable Bolt Background Cable Bolts have been used extensively in underground mines since the early 1970's. A comprehensive review of cable bolt performance in the early 1980's indentified that load transfer between plain strand and grout was often ineffective and resulted in extensive rock mass failures. At that time, Birdcage strand was developed to improve the load transfer and was introduced into both Underground and Open pit Mines. There was a marked improvement in overall performance of cable bolt reinforcement due to the increase in effectiveness of load transfer. However, the method of manufacture of Birdcage strand was inefficient and in the late 1980's Neville Hedrick (Garford Pty Ltd) invented an automated method to produce Garford Bulbs in strand. In the two decades since that time, Garford Bulb has been manufactured and used economically and effectively for Ground Support Applications Worldwide.