From building prestige golf courses to futureproofing the capital’s water and sewer mains, and being crowned Wellington-Wairarapa’s best excavator operator, Corey Olson’s career has taken him around New Zealand and given him the skills to start his own successful civil-contracting company.

The Featherston local has been in the industry for 16 years and was working on a fencing and drainage project at Lake Ferry when we caught up with him earlier this month.

While many in the industry got their start as labourers or working in traffic control, he jokes that his journey began at a café in Upper Hutt, where he struck up a conversation with a group of road maintenance workers and learned of a job at Royal Wellington Golf Club.

“I went down, had a talk with the club – they gave me a shot and I stuck at it.”

After cutting his teeth at Royal Wellington Golf Club he moved on to work at Wellington’s Boulcott’s Farm Heritage Golf Club and soon found himself travelling the country, developing Papakura Golf Course and using his excavator talents to build a private golf course in Queenstown from scratch.

Corey says the scenic Queenstown golf course is his favourite project, where he handled everything from bulk earthworks and drainage trenches to irrigation systems and finishing touches including laying topsoil, sand, grass seed, and fertiliser.

There’s a lot of artistry involved in creating golf courses that people don’t realise, he says.

“You turn a plain, flat paddock into a nicely manicured golf course.”

After four-and-a-half years crafting golf courses, Corey started a family and came home to Wellington, working with his father-in-law on retaining wall and piling projects, before putting his skills to use maintaining crucial civil-infrastructure assets in the capital.

In 2023, he decided to found his own company, aiming to provide a one-stop-shop for landscaping and outdoor-building excavator services in the Wairarapa region – doing quality work at a reasonable price for people and organisations in his community.

The idea for Black Axe Contracting was brewed up over a beer in a pub chatting with a mate who said he needed some work done, Corey says.

“I realised with my skills I could meet that need and, after roping a few other mates in to help create my website, I was away.”

Two years into its operation, the business has already become well-known in the Wairarapa.

“We’ve hit the ground running this year and it’s all going nicely. We’ve got a reputation around town now – people ring us.”

Corey’s reputation as a top-level excavator operator is well deserved, after winning the Civil Contractors New Zealand CablePrice Wellington Wairarapa Regional Excavator Operator Competition in February for the second time in three years.

While representing his region at the subsequent Civil Contractors New Zealand CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition in March was “definitely quite cool and something to brag about,” Corey is modest about his achievement.

“I’m just the best that showed up on the day really, I know a lot of other operators in my area that could outdo me – they just didn’t compete this time round.”

Reflecting on what contributes to his success, Corey points to the variety of experience he’s had, as well as his eye for detail and ‘give it a go’ attitude, that has driven him to push the boundaries of what he can achieve in an excavator.

“It all comes down to 16 years of experience in different areas of digger operating.”

For career seekers looking to enter the civil infrastructure industry, he says starting with the basics is important.

“Learn how to use a shovel, understand how machines work, start from the ground up and build a foundation of skills. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.”

Corey’s story proves that initiative, hard work and a willingness to try new things can help build a rewarding career where you have control over what projects you take on and where and when you works.

“Building up a diverse set of civil skills and being more universal has helped put me in the position I am now. I’m focussed on the lifestyle I’ve created and having a job I like doing.”