LUCINDALE might be best known as the host of the annual South East Field days, but this tiny town is starting to develop a reputation for something else: engineering.
Situated west of Naracoorte with a population of just 300 people, Lucindale is the unlikely home of not one but three engineering firms, which somehow manage to survive without stepping on each others' toes.
Zacher Engineering is the oldest, which owner Ashley Wilkin bought in 1987.
For most of the time, the firm was the only one of its kind in Lucindale, until nine years ago when Lucindale Engineering came onto the scene, followed by Over Engineering.
Ashley does not know why so many engineering firms call Lucindale home but says they do not cut into each other's business too much as each company has niche products to focus on.
Zacher Engineering does everything from hydraulic hoses and fittings to roller chains and pipe clamps while Lucindale Engineering concentrates on raised dog kennels and Over Engineering tends to concentrate a bit more on vehicular work, such as ute trays and off-road buggy frames.
Ashley says the businesses can afford to specialise because they sell not just to the region but across Australia.
"Certainly we're reasonably proud to have Zacher Engineering products in every state in Australia, and I expect that Lucindale Engineering dog kennels are being shipped off to most parts of the country - they keep making them at a regular rate," he said.
All three businesses agree that there is no particular competitive advantage to conducting engineering work at Lucindale and say the region's biggest field day event certainly has its benefits, given it typically draws 26,000 punters a year: 80 times more people than Lucindale's population.
Lucindale Engineering's Paul Ewer says his dog house manufacturing work started gaining momentum only through the SE Field Days.
* Full report in Stock Journal, July 24, 2014 issue.
