Finmec Community & Family Day 2026 | Giving Back to Port Hedland

I get into trouble when I say this, but I am just a mechanic - technically.

When Jess and I started Finmec, I was a mechanic who ran a workshop.

The business has changed a bit but I’m still not much of a writer and I don’t do this often, but our Community and Family Day is one of the few things worth sitting down to write about.

Opening the Gates to the Community

We put this event on each year, we open the gates and let the whole town into the yard for the day.

Families, mates, customers, kids, anyone who wants to come.

We offer a free feed, a bunch of machines out on display and a chance to see what we actually get up to in here.

This year was a little ‘unusual’.

The week before I think we were all a bit nervous, it rained a couple of days out which, if you’re a Hedland local you know that it almost never happens up here.

Plenty of years we don’t see a single drop through May, bone dry, for the whole month. So (of course) the one week we’ve got the town coming to stand in our yard, the sky decides it’s time.

to rain, right on cue.

Months of nothing and it waits for us. That turned our yard into a pretty impressive mud pit and I spent a fair while wondering what we’d do if half of Hedland turned up knee-deep in it.

But that’s the Pilbara for you.

Our team got stuck in and sorted it, carting in tonnes of material and shovelling the lot to get on top of the mud. A couple of them jokingly threatened to resign on the spot, but they stuck it out and got the place ready. It was a massive effort and I was so impressed with what our legendary crew can do when we work together.

The machines were the big drawcard, especially for the kids. There’s something pretty cool about seeing little kids climbing up onto a 777 haul truck or standing next to a massive D10 dozer - that never gets old.

We had the dozer, the haul truck, the 988 loader, the Moxy and the grader out.

The mini excavator challenge had a queue 20 people deep all day. For a lot of the kids, that was the highlight (it was for a fair few of the older kids – dads and mum’s too).

The moments I keep coming back to was the Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting crew turning the hose on to wash down the tray of the dump truck, with a crowd of kids watching on and then the DFES Fire truck getting called out to an emergency and leaving mid event with lights and sirens on.

That’s the sort of thing you can’t plan and it’s the whole reason we put this event on.

The machines pull the crowd but it’s the people who make the day.

Every one of our crew gave up their time to put this on.

A lot of them had done a full day’s work before they even turned up to help set up.

Plenty were still here long after the last car left.

I’m proud of them.

Not for the effort, though there was plenty of that, but for how much they wanted to share what we do with the town they live in.

Jess and I have been part of this town for the better part of twenty years now, we actually turn twenty in 2027.

When you work in a place like Hedland, you work out pretty quickly that you don’t get to take from a community without putting something back.

It’s just us saying thanks and giving local families somewhere to come together for a day.

We couldn’t put it on without a lot of local help.

Thank you to:

• Candid Captures by AJ Downes – For capturing the day.
• Kollective Media – For the video and the coverage.
• Outback Beef – For the sausages that kept everyone fed.
• Moss Mechanical Services – For the mini excavator challenge.
• South Hedland Volunteer Fire & Rescue – For giving up their time and sharing what they do.
• Pilbara Regiment, Australian Army – For coming down and spending time with the local families.
• Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting – Port Hedland – For getting behind the day.
• Little Loves Face Painting – For keeping the young faces smiling.
• Brews N Scoops – For the coffee, the treats and a lot of happy customers.

Thank You, Port Hedland

After the gates shut and everything was packed down, the crew sat around for a bit and talked about the day. Who came, who we hadn’t seen in years, which kid spent the longest on the machines.

Mostly we just felt grateful.

For everyone who showed up, for a town that keeps backing local businesses like ours, for the chance to give a bit back.

So from Jess, me and the whole Finmec crew, thank you Hedland.

We’re already looking forward to next year.

That’s it, really.

Just a great day in the yard.