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Having migrated from Ireland in 2012 husband and wife team, Sally Ann and Andy McDonald have built McDonald Surveys into an internationally recognised Surveying, Engineering and Technology company.
A passion for constantly improving the service quality provided by the business has been at the core of a growth strategy executed over the past five years that has seen it lead the industry in innovation and new technology, providing significant benefits to clients and, in the words of one John Holland GM, “…consistently providing step-change improvements in overall project success”.
An investment in people and technology is at the core of McDonald Surveys growth. With a staff of over 30, including 20 rail engineering surveyors and four engineering surveyors, the business is engaged across the state of Western Australia, working for public and private enterprise on a number of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects.
In 2013, and led by Andy’s passion for improving rail technology, the business introduced an innovative rail surveying system, the Trimble Gedo suite, to the West Australian market. It invested significant time and effort in educating industry on the benefits of the solution, leading to being awarded some of the most difficult to deliver projects in the state and established McDonald Surveys as the go-to provider for rail engineering solutions that overcome complexities and challenges.
After a successful major rail project in 2016, a client-debrief highlighted the lack of an efficient solution in the major projects market for delivering dilapidation services. Sally Ann realised the internal process McDonald Surveys had been using to deliver dilapidation services could be automated, thus investing in a project to transfer this to a software solution. Further research and development led to the creation of Inspective™, a cloud-based, full-service dilapidation surveying and reporting software solution that has redefined how dilapidation services are performed.
Always recognising the work ethic of their Irish heritage, McDonald Surveys employs seven Irish staff, and have assisted four migrate to Australia since inception. Supporting all staff with further education opportunities has been critical to maintaining service quality, not just from a surveying perspective but also for the administration and business management staff who are critical to the continued success.
The business has continued to support Irish activities in Perth, including the St Patrick’s Day Parade, is a long-standing sponsor of the St Pat’s Fundraising Golf Day, and attends various events throughout the year. It has also recently commenced sponsorship of the Palmyra Rugby Club as many staff members are huge rugby fans.
Andy is a member of the SSSI, as are all the surveyors within the business. The businesses risk and safety systems are aligned to ISO 9001-2015, while always ensuring client requirements are at the forefront of the OH&S mindset on site.
With a fresh five-year plan McDonald Surveys is looking forward to flying the Irish flag as it expands operations and continues to excel in the Australian surveying and engineering markets.
