And that’s just fine by him.
He has deliberately kept a low profile as he built up an imposing earthworks business from Sunraysia in recent years.
The quiet achiever started with a “couple of bits of machinery” in Mildura, where he teamed up with father John nearly three decades ago.
But today his earthworks business, the Garraway Group, has built up a machinery asset base that is worth “a substantial amount of money”, employs nearly 100 workers, and counts miner Iluka Resources among its clients.
Mr Garraway, born in Mildura before his family headed to Queensland when he was a toddler, didn’t waste any time in learning the earthworks ropes.
“I started driving bulldozers when I was 12 and started working in a coal mine at 16 in Queensland, so this built up my practical knowledge of things like building dams,” he said in a sit-down interview with Sunraysia Daily.
At 18, he took an “early retirement” payout after working for two years at the BHP-owned Moura mine.
“I got bored and they paid me out $4500. I was a rich man for my age,” he said with a laugh.
Mr Garraway then went to the University of Newcastle to study for a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
After graduation, he moved back to Queensland, where he worked for a company called ConocoPhillips, one of the world’s largest exploration companies.
He built wells and well pads for fracking on the first coal-seam gas project in Australia.
In the early 1990s, his father coaxed him to back to Mildura where, at the age of 25, he agreed to drive a grader for three months – and “I’ve been here ever since”.
“In the early days, we only had a grader and dozer,” said Mr Garraway, who has been in charge of the business since the early 2000s.
“It’s up to 100 (machines) now – and that’s spread out across different states.”
The Garraway Group has mine exploration and rehabilitation projects running across the country, as well as building dams and other civil construction projects.
“It’s been 15 or so years now since the business really took off,” Mr Garraway said.
“Where it really did pick up was when I started doing work for mining companies.
“One of the most important was Iluka Resources (which specialises in mineral sands exploration), who I’ve been working for over the past 12 years.
“Iluka has actually been the mainstay of the business.
“In the last four years, we’ve expanded back into Queensland, doing both mining and mining rehabilitation work.
“The rehab work is at Clermont coal mine, where we hire out equipment.”
His company is also doing the mining and development for the QMAG mine near Rockhampton, which has just been taken over by a German company. It produces a range of magnesia products.
Locally, Mr Garraway has recently overseen the construction of a 400ML dam for Lower Murray Water at Thurla.
His current local project is for the Olam Carwarp farm, where “we’re building bunkers to place and dry their almonds on, getting them ready for processing”.
“They have in excess of 100,000 tonnes of almonds a year, so the Olam business is growing and has a lot more demands, and we’re helping create more space for them,” Mr Garraway said.
“We’re also doing some work in Horsham, doing some testing for future mine operations.
“There is a lot of small civil jobs around Mildura that we don’t partake in.
“We’ve had some very good long-term contracts where we haven’t needed to chase the smaller local work.”
The father of three says he is keen to wind back his day-to-day involvement in the business.
“I do reflect on the journey over the past 28 years here,” the 54-year-old said.
“Now, I tend to question, ‘What am I doing – and where does it end?’
“I really do think what the end game is for me now. It is very difficult, though, to work out what that exit strategy is.
“To exit out of a business that has grown to this level is extremely difficult.”
Nevertheless, Mr Garraway is proud of his success and offered this piece of advice for those wanting to start a business.
“If you’re going to go into business, go into business with something you know exceptionally well,” he said.
“Have a grounding in what your business is about. And if you’re knowledgeable about it, then you’ll be on the right track.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to take some good opportunities – and if you work hard, anything is possible.”
Sunraysia Daily revealed earlier this year that Mildura Regional Development was preparing a business case for a possible new surf park in the region.
It would be similar to Surf Lakes’ man-made inland lake near Yeppoon in Queensland, where waves up to 2.4 metres face height are created by a massive plunger.
“I’ve driven past that one near Yeppoon,” Mr Garraway said.
“I could potentially do the earthworks for it, but I’d have to look at what is specifically required mechanically.
“Obviously, it would require a lot of power generation. And this would form a big part of the job, creating the waves.
“As far as water storage capacity and making that happen, it’d be easily a six-month job.”
Surf Lakes’ first full-scale prototype of the 5 Waves technology is on an old beef cattle farm near Yeppoon. It is a research site and not yet open to the public.
The lake contains 80 million litres of water, costing $150,000 to fill.
The plunger, weighing about 1400 tonnes, is capable of producing 2000 waves per hour.
Asked whether this type of tourist attraction could be constructed in Sunraysia, Mr Garraway said: “I couldn’t see why this couldn’t be done here.
“I’d certainly be interested in playing some sort of role in it – but I just don’t know how many surfers there are around here,” he added with a laugh.
“In all seriousness, the main thing I’d be concerned about is the power generation that’s required.
“You’d need the same energy as what those waves produce, so it’d be a pretty tough gig.”
