Australian Crane Veteran Ron Downie has Passed Away

Vertikal.net announced the sad news that Australian crane veteran Ron Downie has died. He passed away on Thursday November 18th.

According to Vertikal, Downie played a significant role at Linmac in the 1980s and 1990s when the company built tractor and articulated cranes, initially in partnership with BHP/Chamberlain.

He founded the crane manufacturer Ronco in 1994 and began building his own cranes, including the five tonne R5000 articulated crane which he built for Alcoa, followed by the six tonne R6000 which won an Australian design award.

He also ran a crane service business in Maddington and worked with David Potter to get the first XCMG cranes AS 1418 certified, and was appointed as the service agent for Western Australia.

He sold the Ronco business to his colleague and general manager Rob Smith in 2011, today the company is still going strong and distributes a wide range of cranes and excavators. It was appointed as the Sany crane distributor in 2019 and also handles Tidd and HYVA cranes as well as Scheuerle trailers.

Click here to read the full article, including tributes from friends and colleagues.