We do not keep a Newcastle office. We travel there from our Sydney office for owners corporations, building owners, facility managers and developers across Newcastle and the Hunter. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, and we take no commission from anyone who does.
We travel to NewcastleNewcastle is a straightforward trip from our Sydney office at Level 20, 201 Sussex Street. We will always tell you who is attending and from where before you engage us.
What we do for Newcastle buildings
The services owners and managers ask for most often are maintenance auditing, reviewing a contract or quotation before it is signed, and advice on whether to modernise or replace. The full range:
- Maintenance auditing and mandatory inspections
- Witness testing and commissioning
- Due diligence and capital planning
- Modernisation and full replacement
- Tendering and contract negotiation
- Project management
- Insurance claim management
- Peer review
- Feasibility studies
- Portfolio management
- WHS compliance
- Reporting
What we see in Newcastle and Hunter buildings
A city that has changed use
Newcastle’s CBD renewal over the past decade has converted a great deal of former commercial and industrial building stock into residential, hotel and student accommodation. Lifts carried through a conversion were specified for a different building serving different people at different times of day. Whether the retained equipment actually suits its new job is a question worth asking before it answers itself.
Constrained older cores
Much of the retained stock was built around equipment that is no longer manufactured. Modernisation is frequently a question of what will physically fit and function inside the existing shaft rather than what would be specified on a clean sheet, and establishing that envelope first prevents a great deal of wasted quoting.
Coastal and industrial exposure
Newcastle combines coastal salt with a working port and industrial atmosphere. Both accelerate corrosion in shafts, pits and rooftop plant, and the combination is harder on equipment than either alone.
The same framework as Sydney
Newcastle sits under the same New South Wales requirements as Sydney, so a manager holding property in both can be handled consistently. That is not true once a portfolio crosses a state border.
Sectors we work across
Residential and strata-titled towers, commercial office buildings, hotels and short-stay accommodation, retail centres, healthcare and aged care, education, government and local council property, and industrial facilities. The equipment differs, the commercial questions rarely do.
What independence actually means
Plenty of firms describe themselves as independent. It is worth being precise about what it means here, because the word is doing real work.
We do not sell lifts. We do not install them. We do not maintain them. We hold no agency, distributorship or referral arrangement with any manufacturer or maintenance contractor, and we take no commission, rebate or finder’s fee from anyone who does. There is no version of a recommendation from us that earns us money somewhere else.
That matters most at exactly the moments it is hardest to tell — when you are handed an upgrade proposal, when a contractor says a component is beyond repair, or when a maintenance agreement is put in front of you to sign. Our answer costs us nothing either way.
Who actually does the work
Advice is only as good as the person giving it, so it is worth knowing who is behind ours. Our team holds qualifications across both the electrical and mechanical sides of vertical transportation:
- Sidney Bastos — Managing Director. BBA and Licensed Electrical Contractor.
- Tony Berry — Director. Licensed Design Practitioner (DPVT).
- Stephen McIlroy — Mechanical Engineer, RPEQ.
- David Moors — Electrical Engineer.
- Hong Liang — Chartered Engineer, CEng FCIBSE.
- Nancy Li Liang — BEng, MBA.
You can see the full team and their backgrounds.
Accreditations and memberships
The Lift Consultancy is CM3 prequalified and Australian Owned Certified, and holds membership or accreditation with:
- Australian Elevator Association
- Lift Engineering Society of Australia
- Engineers Australia
- International Association of Elevator Engineers
- Smart Strata
- PICA Group Community Select
- Rapid Global
Common questions from Newcastle owners and managers
Do you actually attend Newcastle, or is it handled from Sydney remotely?
We attend. It is a straightforward trip from our Sydney office and site attendance is part of essentially everything we do.
Our building was converted from commercial to residential. Does that matter for the lifts?
It can matter a great deal. The traffic pattern changes, the compliance position can change, and equipment specified for an office may not suit a residential building. Establishing what the lifts are now required to do is the first step.
We hold property in Sydney and Newcastle. Can you handle the portfolio?
Yes, and consistently — both sit under the same New South Wales requirements.
Can you help with a defect claim?
Yes. Assessing lift equipment inside a defect or insurance claim is core work, and being independent of both the builder and the maintenance contractor is the point of engaging us.
How quickly can you attend?
It depends on what has happened. Tell us on the phone and we will give you a straight answer rather than an optimistic one.
Are you connected to any lift company?
No. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, we hold no supplier arrangement, and we take no commission from anyone who does.
Choosing a consultant
If you are weighing up more than one firm, we have written a plain guide to what to look for and what to ask — including the questions that separate genuine independence from the word on a website. It applies whoever you end up engaging, including if that is not us.
How to choose a lift consultant
Talk to us
Tell us what is happening with your lifts and we will point you at the right consultant. There is no charge for the initial conversation, and if you do not need us we will say so.
(07) 5509 0100 · admin@theliftc.com · Contact us
Our officesGold Coast · Sydney · Melbourne · Canberra · Perth · Auckland
We also travel toBrisbane, Sunshine Coast, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands — and elsewhere on request. See where we work.