Built for the ground others can't reach.
Slope stabilisation, specialist grouting and geotechnical investigation, delivered by our own engineers, drillers and rope access technicians on terrain too steep, too remote or too sensitive for conventional plant.
One specialist contractor. Three capabilities.
Pointe Engineering is a specialist geotechnical contractor. We stabilise slopes, grout ground and water, and drill investigations with our own crews and our own plant, on live road corridors, national park slopes, coastal escarpments, mine sites and pumped hydro schemes.
Founded in 2016 and Australian owned and operated, we have grown from a small drilling and grouting crew to a team of more than 100 staff, a large portion of them IRATA certified. In house engineering, chartered and RPEQ support and a full ISO certified management system mean no critical path is split across subcontractors, which keeps schedule risk and quality firmly in our control.
We operate as part of a group with OnSpec DAQ, a specialist in instrumentation, telemetry and downhole data systems, under the shared backing of Altor. That adds real time monitoring and long term data to everything we drill, grout and stabilise, as one integrated team rather than four contractors.
- State road authorities, local government, rail and utility owners
- Head contractors, alliances, ECI and D&C contractors
- Pumped hydro developers, owner's engineers and designers
- Hydro, water and energy utilities
- Iron ore, coal and metalliferous mines, closure and rehabilitation teams
- Mine subsidence advisory bodies and dam owners
Slope Stabilisation
Soil nails, rock anchors, shotcrete, mesh, rockfall and debris flow barriers, micropiles and drainage.
Queensland and New South Wales → CAPABILITY TWOSpecialist Grouting
Hydraulic barriers, curtain and cover grouting, mine void backfill and subsidence remediation.
Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia → CAPABILITY THREEGeotechnical Investigation
Wireline core drilling to 600 m, in situ testing, downhole logging and instrumentation.
Pumped hydro and major infrastructure →Slope Stabilisation
Soil nails, rock anchors, shotcrete, mesh, rockfall barriers, micropiles and drainage, delivered by our own crews on steep, remote and difficult access ground across Queensland and New South Wales.
The full stabilisation sequence, end to end.
From scaling and access rigging, through drilling and grouting, to facing, drainage and barrier systems. Our purpose built plant is chosen for tight, steep and remote access, and our crews are used to running 24 hour operations under traffic management so that roads reopen sooner.
Scaling and rock removal
Rope access scaling, hazardous rock removal and face preparation ahead of stabilisation works.
Soil nails and self drilling anchors
Excavator mounted, skid and hand held drilling of nails and SDA systems in soil, colluvium and weathered rock.
Rock bolts and passive dowels
Rock anchorages, dowels and tie backs with grouting, sheathing, head detailing and acceptance testing.
Shotcrete and fibrecrete
Reinforced and fibre reinforced shotcrete facings, binding layers, formed elements and stone pitching.
High tensile mesh and drapery
TECCO and light steel mesh over seeded erosion mats, spike plated and pre tensioned to the nail grid.
Rockfall and debris flow barriers
Catch fences, attenuators and debris flow barriers including rope anchors and micropile foundations.
Micropiles
Cased and uncased micropiles for wall footings, barrier posts and toe stabilisation, 150 to 300 mm.
Drainage
Sub horizontal drains, strip drains and weep holes to relieve pore pressure behind facings and walls.
Gabion, rock and heritage works
Gabion and rock mattress walls, revetments and drystone facings where heritage values must be protected.
Day crews prepare.
Night crews produce.
On road corridor programs we run a rolling 24 hour model. Rope access technicians use daylight to scale, rig, hang mesh and fix steel without closing lanes. Night crews take the closures for excavator mounted drilling and shotcrete under lights. The result is more metres per shift and fewer nights of disruption for the road user.
- Multiple concurrent work fronts, sequenced by rig reach, air line reach and material logistics
- Hold points, ITPs, drill and grout logs, UCS and acceptance testing managed in house
- Works staged so slope stability is maintained at every step
- Weekly drone capture for progress, as built records and client reporting
Day shift
Night shift
Day crews prepare. Rope access technicians scale, rig, hang mesh and fix steel in daylight, with the lanes still open to traffic.
Night crews produce. Closures are taken for excavator mounted drilling and shotcrete under lights, so the road reopens by morning.
Mt Spec Road landslip program
More than 20 upslope and downslope failure sites inside a World Heritage rainforest corridor. Soil nail walls, passive rock anchorages, TECCO mesh, fibrecrete, gabion toe walls, micropile founded debris flow barriers and heritage wall protection, delivered on a 24 hour roster under full traffic management.
Port Macquarie Hastings slope remediation package
Nineteen active slip sites stabilised in one program: drilling, soil nails, grouting, mesh and micropiles at the toe of shotcrete walls, protecting roads and residential property from recurring flood damage.
Clareville Beach escarpment stabilisation
Rock bolts, slope retention mesh and a reinforced concrete retaining wall above a public beach, built under tight environmental controls.
Bellingen embankment restorations
Six embankment sites: vertical micropiles for shotcrete wall beam footings, drilled and grouted inside live road corridors.
Kidston pumped hydro catch fence foundations
Micropiles, FRP slab and a 68 m catch fence within a hydro catchment pit, plus scaling of the surrounding faces.
Specialist Grouting
Hydraulic barriers, curtain and cover grouting, mine void backfill and subsidence remediation, delivered by our own drilling and grouting crews for mining, energy and infrastructure clients across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.
Stop the water. Stabilise the ground.
Grouting has been part of Pointe since 2016. Today the grouting team is led by specialists with more than a decade of hydraulic barrier, curtain grouting and mine backfill delivery, supported by hydrogeologists, geologists and in house engineering from feasibility through to verification.
Hydraulic barriers and cut off walls
Cement soil bentonite cut off walls in alluvial materials, combined with curtain grouting where the barrier meets bedrock.
Permeation and curtain grouting
Cementitious curtain grouting of bedrock formations, including channel iron deposits, for groundwater management and containment.
Cover grouting
Pre excavation cover grouting ahead of declines, shafts and tunnels to reduce inflow, dewatering and water disposal.
Mine void backfill
Cementitious backfill of historical and active mine workings from surface, batched and placed on site to a specified strength.
Pre driven recovery roads
Backfill and consolidation grouting programs to support longwall recovery and pre driven roadways.
Mine subsidence remediation
Grout curtains and discrete fracture sealing to restore water holding capacity in subsidence affected creeks, pools and rockbars.
Closure and bulk backfill
Bulk backfilling using site won materials such as crusher dust and tailings to reduce closure liabilities and cost.
Feasibility, trials and design support
Feasibility studies, means and methods trials, equipment specification, quantities, productivities and high level cost estimates.
Verification and monitoring
Lugeon testing, closure criteria, retention tests, piezometers and real time pressure and flow logging with factual reporting.
Feasibility first.
Then the pumps.
Grouting only pays off when the ground, the target and the success criteria are understood before the first hole is drilled. We start with the hydrogeology and the client's real objective, whether that is a dry decline, a smaller dewatering fleet, a pool that holds water or a void that needs to be filled. Then we size the program to that objective and prove it as we go.
- Staged construction: widen first, then deepen, so the work is never bigger than it needs to be
- Split spaced primaries, secondaries and tertiaries with closure criteria agreed with the client
- Real time pressure and flow logging on every hole, with limits set to prevent hydraulic jacking
- Environmental controls, water quality monitoring and rehabilitation built into every methodology
Feasibility and concept
Desktop review of hydrogeology, subsidence and site data, hydraulic conductivity profiling, target zone definition and a concept methodology with high level cost and program.
Trial and specification
Means and methods trial, mix selection, equipment specification, quantities, productivities and detailed design support so the full program is priced on measured data.
Execution and verification
Drilling, batching and injection by our own crews, Lugeon and retention testing, monitoring, and a factual report with plans, sections and injection records at handover.
Less water. Less pumping. More ore.
Dewatering is a cost that never ends. A passive hydraulic barrier cuts the inflow you have to manage, for the life of the mine. We design and deliver cut off walls, curtain grouting and cover grouting as a single solution, matched to the ground the water is moving through.
| Cut off wall | Curtain grouting | Cover grouting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground | Alluvium, sands, gravels and weathered materials | Fractured bedrock, channel iron deposits, rock beneath a wall toe | Rock and aquifers ahead of a decline, shaft or tunnel face |
| Purpose | Continuous low permeability barrier to cut off lateral groundwater flow | Reduce hydraulic conductivity of the rock mass to a target Lugeon value | Reduce inflow, dewatering volumes and water disposal during excavation |
| Material | Cement soil bentonite engineered backfill | Cementitious grouts selected for fracture aperture and groundwater chemistry | Cementitious grouts injected in stages from the face |
| Method | Excavated or mixed in place panels with QA on slurry and backfill | Split spaced primary to tertiary holes with pressure and take closure criteria | Fan of holes drilled and grouted in stage lengths, tertiaries for verification |
| Verification | Permeability testing of backfill, piezometer response | Lugeon testing in check holes, grout take reduction across passes | Lugeon testing of tertiary holes, inflow measurement on excavation |
Paired with OnSpec DAQ: horizontal and directional drilling, downhole instrumentation and telemetry. Together we intercept groundwater with horizontal bores, characterise it with packer and flow testing, seal it with a barrier and monitor the result for the life of the mine.
Fill the void. Fix the creek.
From surface drilled backfill of old workings to grout curtains under a sandstone rockbar, we take on the grouting problems that sit between mining and the community, and we do it with the environment in the methodology, not as an afterthought.
- Mine void backfill — boreholes on a grid over the workings, grout batched on site and placed by tremie from the lowest void to the highest
- Site won materials — mix trials substituting crusher dust, flyash or tailings, with UCS testing before production
- Subsidence remediation — staged grout curtains and discrete fracture sealing at controlling rockbars
- Low impact access — man portable pneumatic rigs carried up to 2 km from vehicle access, no hydrocarbons at the hole
Construction data
Grout takes, pressures and water returns recorded on every hole, with take reduction across split spaced passes as the early sign of closure.
Lugeon testing
Hydraulic conductivity measured before, during and after grouting, targeting an order of magnitude change against the untreated rock.
Retention and flow tests
Pool retention testing and controlled flow observation to confirm a remediated watercourse holds water as it did before mining.
Monitoring and reporting
Piezometers and water level loggers read through construction and beyond, with a factual report issued within two weeks of completion.
Closure cost reduction
Bulk backfilling that turns a waste stream into an engineered fill, reducing long term liabilities for mine closure and land reuse.
Pre driven recovery roads
Backfill and consolidation grouting to support longwall recovery, delivered around live mining schedules.
WA iron ore hydraulic barrier
Key members of our grouting team executed a large hydraulic barrier for a major iron ore producer, combining a cut off wall with curtain grouting. The same team delivered the means and methods trial, feasibility study and detailed design for the works.
Georges River subsidence remediation
Polyurethane grout curtains and discrete fracture sealing across subsidence affected pools and rockbars, with Lugeon testing, pool retention tests and daily water quality monitoring.
Redbank and Myrtle Creek remediation
Multi year program of pool and rockbar grouting using man portable rigs carried up to 2 km from vehicle access, restoring water holding capacity above active longwall workings.
Oak Dam cover grouting assessment
Grouting assessment and field trial design for permeation grouting of hypersaline aquifers ahead of a decline, staged in split spaced primaries, secondaries and tertiaries with Lugeon verification.
Snowy 2.0 drilling and grouting
Investigation drilling, rock bolting and grouting inside Kosciuszko National Park for Australia's largest pumped hydro scheme, delivered under strict environmental controls.
Pre driven recovery roads
Grouting programs for pre driven recovery roads that support longwall change outs, cutting change out time and cost for underground coal operations.
Geotechnical Investigation
Wireline core drilling, in situ testing, downhole logging and instrumentation, delivered by our own crews on the steep, remote and environmentally sensitive ground where pumped hydro schemes are built.
Drilling where the trucks can't go.
We deliver investigation drilling, in situ testing and instrumentation with our own geologists, drillers and rope access technicians. Our first major investigation contract was on Snowy 2.0 in 2018, and pumped hydro has been part of our work ever since.
Wireline core drilling
NMLC, HQ3 and PQ3 diamond coring to 600 m with wireline core recovery, orientation and photographic core logging.
Man portable drilling
Modular pneumatic and hydraulic rigs carried or winched up to 2 km from laydown, with no access track required.
Rope access and steep face drilling
IRATA rope access crews drilling and coring from scaffold, skid and cliff bolted platforms on slopes to 80 degrees.
Underground and adit drilling
Frame mounted and rock face bolted rigs for adits, tunnels and existing hydro infrastructure, including overhead coring.
Barge and waterway access
Drilling from moored barges and pontoons for reservoir margins, intake and tailrace sites and river crossings.
Hydraulic packer testing
Single and straddle packer systems for in situ permeability, Lugeon and hydraulic conductivity testing in rock and soil.
Downhole logging
Optical and acoustic televiewer, geophysical logging and downhole camera surveys of structure, defects and inflows.
In situ testing
SPT, CPT and CPTu, seismic cone, flat dilatometer and electrical vane shear testing for soils, colluvium and tailings.
Instrumentation and monitoring
Vibrating wire piezometers, inclinometers and telemetry supplied, installed and read through OnSpec DAQ.
Plan the access.
Then drill.
Pumped hydro investigations live or die on access. Borehole collars sit on ridgelines, in gorges and along reservoir rims where a single haul road can cost more than the drilling. We start with the site drawings and terrain, put engineers and drillers on the ground together, then build a methodology around laydown locations, carry distances, rig selection and concurrent work fronts before a rig is mobilised.
- Collaborative ECI approach from concept validation through methodology, program and pricing
- Rig selection matched to each collar: carry in, skid, track or rope access
- Environmental controls, water catchment and heritage compliance planned before mobilisation
- Drone capture, InReach and Starlink for progress reporting and remote communications
Concept and feasibility validation
Desktop review of client drawings and mapping, methodology concept, workshop on constraints and a site walkover with stakeholders to validate assumptions.
Methodology, program and pricing
Laydown numbers and locations, equipment selection, staging, crews and concurrent work fronts. Assumptions, risks, budget estimate and program defined.
Award, pre planning and mobilisation
Productivity targets agreed, delivery team and rigs assigned, HSEQ documentation submitted and crews inducted before the first collar is set.
Four rigs. One access problem solved.
Our AccessPro system pairs man portable TerraLite rigs for shallow holes anywhere a person can walk with modular TerraMax rigs that bring wireline coring to 600 m into terrain a truck rig will never reach. Every rig breaks down into modules sized for an RTV, ATV, helicopter sling or a crew on foot.
Drag or hover the chart to read a depth — or use the arrow keys
| TerraLite SD 50 | TerraMax SR 100 | TerraMax SR 200 | TerraMax TR 600 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max HQ depth | 20 m | 100 m | 200 m | 600 m |
| Max NQ depth | 35 m | 200 m | 500 m | 900 m |
| Max overpull | 900 kgf | 3,050 kgf | 6,100 kgf | 30,000 kgf |
| Core recovery | Drill pipe | Winch | Winch | Winch |
| Max inclination | 80 degrees | 75 degrees | 75 degrees | 30 degrees |
| Power | Pneumatic, powerpack | Hydraulic, powerpack | Hydraulic, powerpack | Hydraulic, onboard |
| Deployment | Modular, carry in | Modular, skid | Modular, skid | Track, self propelled |
| Mud pump | External | External | External | Onboard |
| Rig weight | 100 kg (25 kg modules) | 500 kg | 500 kg | 2,000 kg |
| Modules | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Rope access, scaffold and 8 to 23 t excavator mounted configurations are also available for SD 50 and EX121 rigs. Support fleet: Kubota RTV with winch, Bobcat S70 skid steer, bunded power and mud modules, barge and pontoon access.
Access modes
- Carry in — modules on foot or RTV along paths 1 m to 1.6 m wide, auxiliary modules within 200 m of the collar
- Steep and rope access — rigs winched or rope rigged onto scaffold or cliff bolted platforms, drilling to 80 degrees
- Underground — frame mounted or rock face bolted in adits and tunnels, including overhead coring in roofs
- Barge — moored barge operations on reservoirs and rivers where the only access is by water
Testing and logging
- Hydraulic packer testing, single and straddle, for permeability in rock and soil
- Optical and acoustic televiewer for fractures, joints, bedding and defects
- Slimhole geophysical logging: caliper, full waveform sonic, resistivity, gamma and density
- CPT, CPTu and SCPTu for stratigraphy, strength, Vp and Vs and liquefaction assessment
- DMT, electrical vane shear and SPT with rig specific calibration on request
- Downhole camera, photographic core logging, orientation and secure transport to the laboratory
Hydrogeological testing
- Inflow testing — low permeability bores with open and close cycles and transmissibility mapping
- Air assisted flow testing — high permeability bores, surface productivity index and live formation fluid sampling
- Injection fall off testing — hydraulic conductivity, preferential flow paths and grouting program design
- Diagnostic fracture injection — minimum in situ stress and fracture closure behaviour for pressure tunnel and cavern design
Snowy 2.0 investigation drilling
Investigation drilling, rock bolting and grouting inside the Kosciuszko National Park for Australia's largest pumped hydro scheme. Our first major investigation contract, won in 2018, and delivered under strict environmental controls.
Oven Mountain pumped hydro
Geotechnical and hydrogeological investigation drilling and testing across the upper and lower reservoir sites, plus early works access and stabilisation, for the 15 percent design and Stage 2 investigation.
Mt Rawdon pumped hydro study
Difficult access investigation drilling supporting the geotechnical study for a pumped hydro scheme in a former open cut mine.
Corin Forest gondola investigation
Man portable drilling on steep forested terrain for the foundations of an alpine gondola, with rigs carried in and no access tracks cut.
Wynyard tunnel coring
Coring from inside a live underground rail environment with frame mounted rigs and tight shutdown windows.
Bootawa Dam
Our first construction contract in 2017 and the start of a decade of drilling, grouting and investigation work on dams and water assets.
Every team member is trained across multiple roles.
That is what lets a small crew keep a remote rig turning. Our programs are led by a stable core of supervisors who have worked together across successive contracts, backed by chartered and RPEQ engineering support.
People
- 100+ staff: engineers, geologists, hydrogeologists, supervisors, drillers, nozzlemen, steel fixers, offsiders and rope access technicians
- A large portion of the workforce IRATA certified, with Level 3 technicians leading every rope access shift
- Chartered and RPEQ engineering support for methodology, access design, temporary works and QA
- Grouting specialists with more than a decade of hydraulic barrier, curtain grouting and mine backfill delivery
- Crews trained across drilling, testing and rigging for flexibility on remote sites
Plant
- Excavator mounted drill rigs (TEI, Ripamonti, MRA) on 14 to 30 t carriers, plus skid mounted and hand held rope access drills
- TerraLite SD 50 man portable rigs, EX121 excavator mounted rigs, TerraMax SR 100 and SR 200 skid rigs and the TR 600 track crawler to 600 m HQ
- Grout plants, twin bowl and colloidal mixers and pumps rated to specification pressures, with mechanical and hydraulic packers
- Shotcrete and concrete pumps, EWPs to 80 ft, long reach excavators, Kubota RTV and Bobcat S70
- Packer, wireline logging, televiewer and CPT tooling, barge and pontoon access, InReach and Starlink on every remote deployment
Safety and quality
- Zero lost time injuries across the past three years
- Integrated management system certified to ISO 45001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
- Every team member holds stop work authority, with a site specific ERP tested before work starts
- Proven compliance in water catchments, national parks and heritage zones, with daily water quality monitoring and agreed stop work triggers
- Full QA packs, as builts, injection records and factual reports at handover
Road authorities, miners, utilities and tier one contractors.
Tell us about the ground, and we will tell you how we would reach it.
Whether it is a single landslip repair, a feasibility question on a hydraulic barrier or a full reference design investigation, we can scope, price and mobilise quickly. References, case studies, rig specifications and personnel qualifications are available on request.
Brisbane QLD 4000
ABN 34 613 639 740
pointeengineering.com