With Matthew Engelbrecht’s father Joe being a driller in South Africa and Zimbabwe for 40 years, Matt has grown up within the drilling industry and developed a real passion for drilling. By the age of 14, Matt could operate an Ingersoll Rand TH60 drill rig and drill a bore from start to finish. He holds many years of drilling experience both from the knowledge passed on to him by his father and from what he learned whilst running his own business.
After completing an apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic in Zimbabwe in 1992, Matt registered a company, Matts Enterprises P/L and began carrying out repairs on bore pumps. Not long after this he purchased his first drilling rig, a 1957 Steyns cable tool rig and the business quickly expanded to incorporate all facets of bore drilling, rehabilitation and pump installation.
At its peak, Matts Enterprises P/L was running 2 air drilling rigs, 1 cable tool rig, 2 pump installation/repair crews and employed a staff of 18. Although relatively small, Matts Enterprises P/L was regarded as one of the best in the industry with its personal service and customer satisfaction attitude.
In December 1999, Matt closed the business down due to very unfavorable economic conditions in Zimbabwe and moved to Australia in February 2000, where he has worked as a mechanic, a drill & blast operator and as a miner in Ballarat before entering the drilling industry in Australia in 2008 with the launch of Redback Drilling which then became Matthew & Sons Drilling Services Pty Ltd in July 2013.
Matt has been drilling in Melbourne and around Victoria, in South Australia and is now based in northern New South Wales, servicing the New England and southern Queensland border areas.
