ABOUT US
FAMILY-RUN BUSINESS COMMITTED AND RELIABLE
Southern Mountain Helicopters
The team at SGE Helicopters are excited to announce a new chapter in the evolution of their locally based aerial agricultural company and have recently rebranded the company to Southern Mountain Helicopters. Over the past 6 years, Chief Pilot and Company Director Stuart Hall, and his team have worked hard to establish their name within the aerial agricultural industry, specialising in all things aerial agriculture. The company have, and continue to provide a trusted and reliable service to their ever-growing client base in the North East and Southern areas of Victoria and NSW.
Why the name change?
Southern Mountain Helicopters is based in the Upper Indigo Valley in Victoria and as the name suggests, we have chosen to rebrand to Southern Mountain Helicopters to reflect our home base and family origins. We feel the name captures our primary areas of operation in rural Victoria and NSW and our home here on the border. The change represents our company’s commitment to growth, innovation, and industry excellence along with the continuous delivery of high-quality aviation services within our region and beyond.
Why Southern Mountain Helicopters?
Originally when the company was established in 2017, the name Southern Mountain Helicopters was not available. Earlier this year, it became available, so we decided to move on it and rebrand. While this rebrand will be an evolution for the company, it is not a transformation. The name change to Southern Mountain Helicopters will continue to expand the capabilities of the company within the aerial agriculture industry and captures a dynamic future vision moving forward. As Southern Mountain Helicopters, we will continue to provide an even more comprehensive range of application solutions for landowners and our clients in ag.
What is next for Southern Mountain Helicopters?
Southern Mountain Helicopters is locally owned and operated specialising in the application of agricultural sprays and liquid fertilisers along with and the application of granular products providing services to farmers and other agricultural businesses. Stu’s decorated career in aviation has seen him operate aircraft both nationally and internationally with more than 17 years of combined experience in the specialised field of aerial agriculture. Although spraying and aerial application is the company’s core business, Stu also has extensive experience in fire fighting and precision long line operations which he acquired working for the Rural Fire Service, NSW and in Papua New Guinea earlier in his career. Southern Mountain Helicopters operate a Bell 206 Longranger aircraft, inspected regularly and operated with the highest precision, while still providing efficient and cost-effective application solutions for their customers. This incredibly effective machine is not only superior for its heavy lifting capabilities, it offers extensive power, safety and reliability supporting a dynamic and unique operation in aerial agriculture.
Chief Pilot
Stuart Hall, the Chief Pilot and Managing Director of Southern Mountain Helicopters has held a commercial helicopter license for over 18 years. While accruing almost 8000 flight hours, 10 years alone have been in aerial agriculture throughout Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.
To further compliment Stu's skills, he was previously employed for 7 years over in the mountainous terrain of Papua New Guinea flying in some of the harshest conditions in the world and has extensive experience in a number of other areas including:
- Survey flights
- Animal control (baiting and culling)
- Precision lifting utilising 300ft lines used to construct communication towers and heli-portable drill rigs at high altitude
- Firefighting operations including bombing, air attack and mapping flights.
Stu is one of the most experienced and well respected pilots in the country when it comes to air work and utility flying. Stu has a passion for agriculture and farming which has inspired the operation of Southern Mountain Helicopters.
Ground Support
Our professional ground crew provide onsite support for all aerial operations including:
- On-site mixing and provisioning of chemicals.
- On-site refuelling for faster service at lower cost.
- Our load truck is Dangerous Goods Certified.
- Our ground crew are qualified with Chemical Accreditation, Chemcert and Dangerous Goods Certified.
- Real-time meteorological systems are attached to the truck to reduce the risk of drift and allow us to document weather conditions.
Infrastructure and other support
Southern Mountain Helicopters are currently based in Barnawartha in North East Victoria and have remote bases across New South Wales and other parts of Victoria including Corryong, Cudgewa, Yea, Euroa, Geelong, Camperdown, Omeo and Tumut. Southern Mountain Helicopters currently employ highly trained ground crew. We operate Isuzu 4x4 trucks as support vehicles We also have our own portable re-fuelling systems. Southern Mountain Helicopters provide all consumables for the operation of all aircraft and ground machinery along with mobile refuelling if required.
Safety Management
Southern Mountain Helicopter's mission continues to focus on all aspects of operational safety, minimising environmental impacts and the delivery of an efficient and cost-effective aerial application service. With the company’s recent certification in internationally recognised standards of operations (ISO) 9001 Quality, 45001 Occupational Health and Safety and 14001 Environment, the team are heavily invested in maintaining the highest level of safety both in the office and on the field moving into the future. Having a management systems coordinator lead the safety and compliance aspects of the company has made it much easier to implement the systems on ground and during operation. Stu and his offsider, Ag Pilot in training and Loader/Mixer, recognise the importance of compliance and its relevance in the industry. In such a heavily regulated industry, we appreciate having the management systems structure behind us so Stu can focus on day to day operations.
What is ISO 9001?
As your organisation grows, you need a management system that grows with it, and helps toensure continual improvement and customer satisfaction along the way. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to this, which is why an ISO 9001 Quality Management System can help your organisation scale in-line with the quality management principles, while you meet customer expectations.
When implemented, ISO 9001 is a strategic set of framework that assists business performance improvement and provides a sound basis for consistently delivering products and services that meet stakeholder’s requirements. It’s an international standard aimed at consolidating the quality of your products and services, while constantly addressing potential risks in your supply chain, for example, while capitalising on areas of improvement. ISO 9001 quality systems can accelerate your business performance in-line with the best of industry standards, providing top management with the tools and decision-making framework they need to consistently meet customer expectations.
What is ISO 14001?
The family of ISO 14000 standards are related to environmental management. The Environmental Management System standard, ISO 14001:2015, when implemented, is a strategic activity that helps manage environmental aspects, fulfil compliance obligations, and address risks and opportunities throughout your operations. It’s an effective environmental management standard that asks you to identify areas in which you can minimise your environmental impact and address these to spark a cycle of continuous improvement in the context of your environmental objectives. This will improve environmental problem areas, risks and even identify potential avenues of opportunity in your organisation.
As a part of the ISO 14000 family of standards, ISO 14001 can easily be integrated with other management system standards, most commonly ISO 9001, to ensure that you’re delivering quality products and services that take into account a range of environmental aspects.
What is ISO 45001?
The 45001 Standard is a relatively new standard, released in March 2018, and has been compiled with a high level structure that governs the monitoring of work related injuries and advocates for internal and external policies that result in improved safety and OH&S performance. ISO 45001 replaced the outgoing OHSAS 18001 – Occupational Health and Safety System. It’s one of the leading international standards for workplace health and safety around the globe. This standard outlines the safety management systems requirements for your organization to develop. It shows interested parties and stakeholders your organization is committed to the safety of workers and providing a safe work environment. It is an important sign of your business’ capability to reduce costs through preventing workplace injury and illness, and requires top management to display evidence of your attempt to mitigate OH&S risks.,
GPS Tabula Systems
Southern Mountain Helicopters Helicopters utilise the latest and most innovative GPS Tabula Mapping systems available to aeronautical operations. Tabula software brings the highest level of usability and functionality to the aerial agriculture industry. Tabula utilises guidance patterns which allow us to track our precise position and the ground we have covered which is then provided to the client. Southern Mountain Helicopters continue to implement the best products available giving us the competitive advantage.
Our Mission
Stuart and the team at Southern Mountain Helicopters share a common commitment to the agricultural industry. When it comes to safety, customer service and quality control, Southern Mountain Helicopters strive to deliver 100% customer satisfaction every time.
Southern Mountain Helicopters invest in state of the art application equipment and software, optimising precision and effectiveness and reducing product waste. We understand the seasonal nature of the agricultural sector and demonstrate versatility and adaptability depending on conditions and customer requirements.
We understand that the use of pesticides such as insecticides and herbicides are imperative to obtain the required crop production levels needed and are unavoidable in most environments.
Southern Mountain Helicopters recognise the importance of quality control and place high value on reducing our environmental impact. Our team is dedicated to reducing our environmental foot print and opt to utilise biodegradable and environmentally friendly substances where at all possible both in the office and in the field .