OUR STORY
Like any small business, HARLEYWOOD started from necessity. Through trial and error, we have grown to one of the largest Australian Timber Slab suppliers. From humble beginnings to industry experts, this is our story.
In 2010, as a way to supplement a farm hand income, our experience with timber began by starting a small firewood business on the weekends. Every weekend Harley would cut and deliver a tonne of firewood. Sometimes doing 3 loads a day. In 2012 Harley met his now wife Sarah, and together they continued the part time firewood business, selling to return customers in the local area.
Sarah Dixon and a load of firewood. March, 2013.
Harley loading the brand new Lucas Mill onto his F-350 at the factory in Victoria, October 12, 2012.
In August 2011, Harley purchased the current Harleywood location, with a BIG project ahead of him to renovate the house. Whilst working his farm job and renovating the house, he bought his first load of cypress pine from the Gunnedah Sawmill, but was not impressed with the quality. He thought he could do better himself. So with about a week of debate and some advice from friends and family, he started researching portable sawmills. He came across the Lucas Mill online, watched a few videos, and jumped right in, deciding to purchase the 8-30 model with the swing blade, and also the slabbing attachment. In October 2012, we picked it up from the factory at Wooragee in Victoria.
First go at using the slabbing attachment - October 27, 2012.
Once we got back to Harley’s workplace in Gunnedah, we tested it out. We still have the first bit of tree that we cut.
Grace, our fearless supervisor, taking a quick break one of the first times we used the mill.
The mill was surprisingly easy to set up and use, and it wasn’t too long before we got the swing of things.
After using the mill set up in the one place, we took it to Baan Baa, and set it up to start cutting Cypress Pine for the house. That’s where the real work and learning began.
The beginnings of the floor. November 12, 2012
Initially, we were only going to replace what needed replacing, as every naive first time renovator does.
Soon we realised that it would nearly all have to be replaced.
Fun fact: There are only 2 original pieces of timber in the house!
We cut the timber as we needed, and replaced wall by wall.
While the house was taking (losing) shape, we had some inquiries from friends, family and drive by traffic, about the timber we were cutting and if it was for sale. After filling a few jobs, we realised that it could be a source of income whilst renovating the house.
Harley hand routing the floor boards for our house.
We grew and grew and in 2015, we did something that changed our trajectory forever. Harley stumbled across a timber auction on GraysOnline, liquidating a sawmill in Toowoomba after the owners had gone broke. There was a mass of product including Tongue and Groove Flooring, Fence Pailings and Tomato Stakes.
The Auction was ending the same afternoon he saw it, so he had to move fast. After a quick talk to family and friends, and a generous loan from his Sister, Harley bought approximately 200 lineal kilometers of flooring, 70,000 tomato stakes and 35,000 fence pailings, and 2 40ft containers and contents, sight unseen.
Nervous to say the least, we headed on the 5 hour drive to Toowoomba the very next day to see what we had gotten ourselves into.
The forklift out the front of the storage shed in Toowoomba, Flooring roof high all the way from back to front, side to side.
There was ALOT of stuff, and part of GraysOnline policy is that you have a very small window of time to move it off site.
How were we going to move it all? We required some extra hands so enlisted Harley’s brother, and also his best friend, borrowed a truck from a mate, bought a forklift and took out a 6 month lease on a storage shed around the corner from the old sawmill. For a week straight, we worked like dogs to get it all out in time, only leaving a few tomato stakes behind. The containers were moved home, and our plan was to sell as much as we could from the storage shed, and move the remaining product home, one ute and trailer load at a time.
Sarah and Grace ready to close the door on a mammoth 5 day effort.
If by this stage you are wondering why we just didn’t pay some truck drivers to move it, you clearly don’t understand the strange inner workings of Harley Dixon.
And so began a huge 6 month effort, moving the timber home, a load at a time. We sold fence palings and flooring to deliver on our way home to help cover fuel costs.
The time between then and now has been full of projects, lessons, wins and fails. We now have in stock a large selection of dimensional and slabbed timbers, 2 sawmills and the ability to do pretty much anything you could need. We do custom builds and large section timber orders that you can only get from a small business, and we do it well. Here’s to the next 7 years.