Founder George Baird, with the support of his wife Shaneen Baird, established George’s Front End Loader Hire in 1994 with 2 loaders that he had purchased from another business man.  Part of the work the loaders were doing was rail work.   This was back in the day when footy shorts were part of the standard rail worker uniform. George had no experience operating Front End Loaders but took it upon himself to learn on the job.  Quite a few of the QR bosses we work with today will tell stories of working with George in the early days. They say he was one of the worst operators.  He went on to build a successful business with a fleet of approximately 20 machines and established major customers in the Rail, Recycling and general Materials handling sectors in SEQ.

2009 saw the end of an era, with the sudden passing of George. However, the desire to keep the business family run and to honour George’s legacy saw his son and daughter, Cameron Baird and Kelly Cooke take over the reins. In 2011, Cameron and Kelly established George’s Loader Hire Pty Ltd. Just as they did, the 2011 floods arrived to test the new Directors with premises at Willawong being completely inundated – with water to the window sills in the office.

From solid foundations, Cameron and Kelly have grown the business to become one of the leading plant and equipment suppliers to Queensland Rail in SEQ.  The GLH operators are highly skilled with their equipment and attachments built for purpose at the workshop in Willawong.

The GLH vision is to lead the Rail and Construction industries through Innovation, safety, skilled operators and technicians and to serve at multiple levels of the supply chain. The business has diversified to include earthmoving tyre fitting and specialist hi-rail equipment.