Legacy built on evolution and endurance

From humble beginnings to a force in Western Australia's heavy industry, B&J Catalano's story is one of grit, growth, and machinery that helped turn ambition into impact.

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Biaggio Catalano may be 91 years of age, but he doesn't look it.

Known to everyone as simply Bill, the sprightly businessman — the force behind civil contracting, mining services, and transport firm B&J Catalano — still keeps an active hand in the way the company is run, and speaks with an eloquence and alertness that belie his age.

We caught up with Bill as he spoke to us about the history of the business, and how it grew into the force it is today; and along with it, why it has always depended on a particular brand of machinery.

When Bill and his brother Joe arrived in the Bunbury region in the 1950s — joining older brother Sam, who was in the region transporting milk — the South West was a different place. Roads were rough gravel tracks, farmland was undeveloped, and the infrastructure that modern Western Australians take for granted didn't exist.

The Catalano brothers came from a hardworking migrant family. Their early years were shaped by days in a market garden and wood yard, where physical labour and mechanical improvisation were part of everyday life. Those formative experiences would define their approach to business: practical, hands-on, forward-moving.

In 1962, Bill and Joe struck out on their own. Their first steps were modest — hauling gravel, transporting milk, and taking on small land-clearing jobs. Several years later youngest brother Michael joined the company and together they started Catalano Grading Company, which he played a major part in. Government incentives aimed at boosting agricultural productivity triggered a wave of land development across the region. Farmers were encouraged to clear land, fertiliser was subsidised, and suddenly there was more work than two determined brothers could handle.

Bill said land clearing in those early days was as tough as it was transformative.