Helping Montrose quarry support new infrastructure

A streamlined approvals process is helping deliver a continued supply of rock for some of Melbourne’s key infrastructure projects.

A streamlined approvals process is helping deliver a continued supply of rock for some of Melbourne’s key infrastructure projects.

Demand is at an all-time high for quarry materials driven by the construction of homes, schools, hospitals and transport infrastructure across the state. Victoria’s quarry sector delivered record annual production of 72 million tonnes of rock, sand and gravel in 2023.

Boral Montrose is a key supplier for the new Boral Batching Plant at Bulleen, which will produce more than 650,000m3 of concrete for North East Link. This is the equivalent of 260 Olympic-sized swimming pools full of concrete. The Bulleen facility will support the major structural concrete pours over North East Link’s Watsonia, Lower Plenty, Manningham and Bulleen sites.

The nearby Lilydale Line level crossing removals being delivered through the Level Crossing Removal Project are also using large quantities of hard rock and concrete. Boral concrete is being used across the Dublin Road, Ringwood East level crossing removal project, including in the foundations for the new Ringwood East Station. Concrete from the Montrose quarry is being used for capping beams and to build the new section of Dublin Road passing over the rail trench.

Earlier this year the Resources Victoria Approvals Coordination (RVAC) unit helped extend the Montrose quarry’s Work Authority via a streamlined process after it faced supply issues due to sustained high demand. RVAC’s intervention boosted the available resources from the quarry by 7 million tonnes, enough for about 8 years of production.

RVAC is helping reduce approval times and make more raw materials available by case-managing quarry applications. It is on-track to deliver over 100 million tonnes of additional quarry resources this financial year.