Wallis Drilling Opens New Chapter in Hazelmere With Eye on Future

9 June, 2026

Sixty-one years on, a West Australian drilling company that builds its own rigs has just opened a facility designed for the next sixty.

This article covers the official opening of Wallis Drilling's new Hazelmere head office and manufacturing base for the new Australasian Drilling, and it was a genuine moment, past, present and future in one room. Wallis started in 1965 with Marty and Jamie Wallis drilling uranium at Rum Jungle, and today runs around 50 rigs across multiple methods with a workforce of about 350. What makes Wallis different is that they design and build their own drill fleet, a capability that has underpinned their competitive position for decades.

The new facility doubles down on it, including a $6 million investment in advanced machining and manufacturing. Executive chairman Mark Crumby framed sovereign capability as the heart of it: with global supply chains disrupted in recent years, having local manufacturing of high-value capital equipment is increasingly valued by governments and the private sector alike. There is a decarbonisation angle too. Wallis has designed and manufactured its first fully electric reverse circulation drill for the iron ore sector, exactly the kind of practical innovation the industry needs as clients sharpen their emissions expectations.

But the part that stuck was the people. Bringing maintenance, manufacturing, operations, HSE and field teams under one roof for the first time, MD Grant Wallis says improvements are already showing after just a few months. Both Grant and executive director Graeme Wallis kept returning to the same point: six decades of success driven by staff, customers and suppliers.

Graeme spoke of the pride in watching people who started as green offsiders or apprentice mechanics grow into trusted leaders. And a personal note. Graeme paid tribute to his brother Jamie Wallis, who passed away just over a year ago and who pioneered the dual-tube Aircore system that transformed mineral sands drilling. His legacy, Graeme said, will live on in the company. The original Delta 1 drill on display in reception said the rest.

A genuine WA success story, and a reminder that the best drilling businesses are built on people as much as iron. Congratulations to the entire Wallis Drilling team

Read the full article in the Australasian Drilling Magazine