Having started out with a single bulldozer in 1976, Gary Rooney has created a formidable conglomerate from his Waimate base.
His business now employs more than 300 people and specialises in earthmoving, irrigation, pipe and cable laying, transportation and dairy farming.
Known as a hands-on manager, Rooney funded and built the $115 million Rangitata South scheme which was completed in 2014 and irrigates 13,000ha of land on the South Canterbury plains.
His latest venture is the much larger Hurunui Water Project, a $230 million scheme that will irrigate up to 21,000ha in North Canterbury.
Rooney Group has already lent $2.4m to the scheme and has signed up to carry out construction of the storage lake surrounded by a 24 metre high embankment and associated works.
The project missed out on government funding after the Coalition scrapped irrigation investment in new schemes, although it has received earlier funding from Crown Irrigation Investments for feasibility studies.
The group has a large pipeline of work having developed a unique “turn-key” solution to irrigation scheme construction.
Rooney also has a growing portfolio of dairy farms, with four high country stations used by his Kiwi Safaris hunting business. He charges up to $17,450 for a 'Four of the Best' package – guests are invited to shoot a red stag, fallow buck, chamois and tahr in a seven-day “hunting extravaganza.”
Speaking of shooting, Gary’s daughter Natalie took home a silver medal in the trap shooting final at the Rio Olympics.
Rooney encourages regeneration of natural fauna on his farms and Rooney Earthworks has pioneered the development of a rock fish screen that is designed to stop salmon smolt from being sucked into irrigation schemes.