From a Gold Coast shed to the East Coast: how Dynamic grew

Dynamic Hydro Excavations was founded on the Gold Coast in 2003 by director Andy Smith, with two operators, two vacuum excavation trucks and a shed. The business started because contractors were struggling to locate and expose underground services without damaging them, and hydro excavation offered a better answer than a machine bucket.

Two decades on, the Gold Coast is still where head office sits, and the same problem still drives most of the work. What has changed is the scale and the geography.

Coverage from Wollongong to Cairns

The group now operates depots along the East Coast rather than servicing everything from one base. Current regions are Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Tweed Heads, the Gold Coast, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Hervey Bay, Townsville and Cairns, with two depots on the Gold Coast alongside head office.

That footprint matters for one reason: travel. Vacuum excavation plant is heavy and slow to move long distances. A depot in the region is what makes short-notice and after-hours work practical. Regions are listed in full on the locations page.

A year of growth

2026 has been a significant year. A new Gold Coast head office was acquired, the Newcastle depot was established to serve the Hunter region, additional trucks were delivered into the Sydney fleet, and coverage was extended south into Wollongong and the Illawarra. Mackay is being assessed for future growth.

One group, several specialisations

Alongside the excavation business, the Dynamic Group has brought in capabilities that sit naturally around it:

• LADS, Locate & Detection Specialists, acquired in 2026, providing underground service locating and detection
• Ozzie Skip Hire, which joined in late 2025, operating waste and skip bin services out of Coffs Harbour
• Dynamic Graphics, an in-house vinyl installation and fleet branding operation based on the Gold Coast
• Dynamic Charters, a marine charter business launched in early 2026

For clients, the practical benefit is a shorter chain. Locating, excavation, inspection and waste removal can be arranged through one group rather than coordinated across several suppliers, which removes handover gaps on sites where sequencing is tight.

More than 200 assets

The group now runs more than 200 assets, counting vehicles, trucks, plant, trailers and equipment. A fleet-wide rebrand programme is progressively bringing that fleet under one visual identity, handled in house by Dynamic Graphics.

Fleet composition has broadened well beyond the original two trucks. It now includes vacuum excavation trucks in several configurations, 10x4 trucks, hydro tankers, combination water recycling and drain cleaning units, CCTV inspection vehicles, 4x4 units for off-road access, excavators, bobcats and tippers. The current range is set out on the fleet page.

How the group is organised

Running depots across two states only works if decisions can be made locally. Each region has a manager responsible for the crews, the plant and the client relationships in that area, with the group providing scheduling, maintenance, compliance and administrative support behind them.

• Regional managers accountable for crews, plant and clients in their area
• Central scheduling, so units can be moved between regions as demand shifts
• In-house maintenance to keep availability high across a large asset base
• Consistent safety and reporting standards at every depot

That structure is what allows a national contractor to deal with one organisation across several states while a local council deals with someone based in their own region. It is covered in more detail in the regional managers behind Dynamic operations.

Working across the state border

A meaningful share of the work sits near the Queensland and New South Wales border, where the Tweed Heads and Gold Coast operations overlap. Crews and plant move between the two regularly, which gives clients on either side access to a larger pool of equipment than a single depot could hold.

Recognition and industry involvement

The business has been recognised locally with a Gold Coast Business Excellence Award. Accredited service locating capability sits within the group through LADS, and Dynamic Racing carries the brand into drag racing sponsorship. The safety and compliance page sets out which credentials are held and how they are verified before they are published.

What has not changed

The service mix has grown, but the core discipline has not moved: exposing and working around live underground services without damaging them. Everything else, including CCTV inspection, asset monitoring and service locating, developed out of that.

You can read more about the company on the about page, or request a project quote for upcoming works.