b'2015 International expansionFleetCo Thiess started on piecemeal, small-scale jobs around the Darling Downs. Within a few Thiess launches Australias most diverseyears, the brothers were running jobs in Brisbane, then New South Wales and Victoria. mining equipment hire company. The Snowy Scheme opened the companys eyes to a world of possibility, and they didnt look back. In 1961, the business completed its first job on foreign soil, building a tunnel and shaft for NZ Hydro. Commercial partnerships were starting to form in Japan, Into the Americas and in the 1960s coal was sold there in huge quantities. In 1970, construction of a mine Antofagasta Minerals awards Thiess aon Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea began, and soon after the companys long $137-million services agreement overassociation with Indonesia was initiated.four years for the Encuentro OxidesThe companys presence in Indonesia began in the 1970s, in partnership with Petrosea. open-pit copper mine in Chile. In the years following CSRs takeover of Thiess in 1980, that presence dwindled but didnt quite die. When Martin Albrecht (then CEO) and his executive team were looking for expansion in the late 1980s, it was back to Indonesia that they cast their gaze. They tendered for six projects under the Thiess name and won four of them in Kalimantan. The operation grew steadily in that fertile ground.Despite the initial success in Indonesia, by the mid-2010s things were not so rosy for PT Thiess Indonesia. It took a period of re-engagement with the locals for trust to returnalong with profitability. Today, Indonesian operations have seven projects that earn the company close to $1 billion in revenue each year and employ 50006000 people.But its not just in Indonesia that Thiess has spread its wings. Some 25 per centof revenue and approximately half of its staff are outside Australia. We initiated a strategy of diversification in 2015, Michael Wright explains. We wanted to expand away from just coal, and also to expand geographically. In 2015, we went into copper in Chile, then the next year into oil sands in Canada. It wasnt the success wed hoped for, but it taught us some good lessons as we looked to keep growing. Next came an African adventure in Botswana (from 2016), then much-welcomed extensions to Indonesian contracts in East Kalimantan (2017), then the Satui, Senakin and Wahana coal mines. Matt Henderson managed the joint-venture contract at the diamond You get to work on the biggest and best equipment in the country. Why would you leave? Jeff Sweetnam, long-serving employee106'