We travel to Port Moresby, Lae and elsewhere in Papua New Guinea for commercial building owners, hotel operators, resources sector clients and government property teams. There is very little independent lift advice available in country, which is exactly why it is worth having. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, and we take no commission from anyone who does.
We travel to Papua New GuineaWe travel to Port Moresby, Lae and elsewhere in PNG for client work. We will always tell you who is attending and from where before you engage us.
What we do for Papua New Guinea 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 Papua New Guinea
Almost no local specialist capacity
Lift technicians and components arrive from Australia or Asia. That single fact reshapes everything else: a response time stated in hours is meaningless, a part that takes two days in Brisbane can take weeks, and a maintenance agreement copied from an Australian template describes a service that cannot be delivered. What matters instead is what is held on site, who bears travel and freight, and what actually happens when a lift stops.
Power supply
Generator supply and voltage fluctuation are ordinary operating conditions in much of the country, and lift drives and control boards tolerate them poorly. Where component failure rates look inexplicable, supply quality is usually worth examining before anything else.
Heat, humidity and salt
Coastal tropical conditions are among the hardest environments for lift equipment anywhere. Corrosion progresses quickly in shafts, pits and rooftop plant, and control electronics run permanently near the top of their rated range.
Procurement that has to stand up
A significant share of building work is government or donor funded, which brings probity and audit requirements. Independent scope documentation and independent verification of completed work are frequently a condition of funding rather than an optional extra.
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 institutional 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
Do you actually attend site in PNG?
Yes, for client work. Access, security and scheduling all need planning, and we will be realistic with you about timing and cost before you engage us.
Is it realistic to maintain lifts properly in PNG?
Yes, but only with an agreement written for the actual conditions. Spares held in country, a genuine escalation path and clarity on who bears travel and freight matter far more than a response time nobody can meet.
Our lift has been out of service for weeks waiting on a part. Could that have been avoided?
Frequently, yes — with an appropriate spares holding and a contract that obliges it. That is decided when the agreement is written, not when the lift stops.
Do you work on donor-funded or government projects?
Yes. Independent technical review, scope documentation and verification of completed work are all part of what we provide, and documentation that survives audit is part of the brief.
Only one contractor will quote us. What can you do?
Test the scope and the price against what the work should reasonably involve, and make sure the agreement obliges what the building actually needs. A single supplier is not the same as no leverage.
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, Newcastle, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Pacific Islands — and elsewhere on request. See where we work.