Arranged by SAE-A’s Stephen Haughey, 10 participants undertook a tour of the Volvo and Mack Truck facility at Wacol, Brisbane on July 1, 2025.

The tour was scheduled to last approximately 1.5 hours, although this was extended and the in-depth tour of the facility extended to almost 2.5 hours.

The Volvo and Mack truck assembly and manufacturing facility is world class and has been given autonomy from the Volvo and Mack parent operations in Sweden and the USA respectively to allow a level of innovation and autonomy in designing trucks specifically to suit the harsh Australian conditions.

Whilst tour participants were not allowed to take photographs inside the manufacturing and assembly facility, they were allowed to discuss many aspects of the actual process with the Chief Engineer – Cab and Chassis, Greg Findlater, who accompanied the SAE-A cohort on the tour and provided answers and insight into various aspects of the facility.

Following the tour some of the participants from various Queensland Universities were able to spend some time with the Chief Engineer, discussing various projects, which was most insightful.

Haughey said the tour was well received and he is looking forward to undertaking a similar tour in the future 

“I would like to thank the staff at both the SAE-A and Volvo Group Australia Pty Ltd for allowing us to participate in this tour,” he said.

Attendees included: Fabian Alistair – InterSafe, Sanya Arora – University of Queensland, Magnus Blums – University of Queensland, David Ckarke – Kynoch Kustoms, Tylar Conzolo – Prohelion, Stephen Haughey – SAE-A, Stuart Kaiser – Kaiser Automotive, Jake Oliver – QUT, Dave Ritson – Ritson Engineering, and Anh Tran – University of Queensland.