For nearly 100 years, Stevenson has played a major role in developing New Zealand’s roading and infrastructure. We are a major player in the country’s construction industry, supplying aggregates and a very wide range of concrete-based building products. We have strong roots in land-based businesses including mining and quarry management, agriculture and property. We are a trusted provider of engineering and related services among the industries we work in.

Don Bodley
Machine Operator, Lochinver Station

Don Bodley jokingly describes himself as a ‘general dogsbody’, but officially he is the machine operator at Stevenson’s Lochinver Station, where he has worked for 28 years.

‘My main focus is on the machinery side of the business. I look after the farm roads and anything else that needs doing with the infrastructure and in the agricultural area,’ says Don.

Most of his time is spent operating a six-tonne digger. It’s his favourite machine. ‘I’ve used it for years. I work between a digger and a grader, and sometimes a motor scraper. It’s not unusual for me to have three machines idling at once and to run from one to the other to get a job done. I might need one for only five minutes.’

This job is only the second Don has had in his life. He worked on his family’s farm in southern Hawkes Bay when he left school, until eventually he bought his own farm. He farmed both properties as one. When his father retired they sold both farms and Don decided to take the first farm job he could find that was outside Hawkes Bay.

Don has lived at Lochinver the entire time he has worked there. When he first arrived he lived in the single men’s quarters and moved into a house on the property when he married. His wife Patsy drives the local school bus, mows the lawns around the Lochinver office and cleans the Stevenson homestead.

‘When I first started here around 1977, the land was still being broken in. I started driving tractors and progressed onto roading machinery. We were crushing scrub. There were areas still unfenced when I arrived.’ he says.

He normally works a 52-hour week, longer if it’s required. He discusses his work priorities with Lochinver’s General Manager Brian Gibson. ‘What needs to be done stands out, so there’s not usually much debate about it.’