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Breaking ground with each venture, five brothers
built a business on strong foundations of trust,
hard work and ingenuity.
Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, a band of young brothers — Les, Cecil, Pat, Stan and Bert — rallied their determination and skills to register two companies that would become one very successful business.
Bluffing their way into early roadworks contracts, the brothers’ first defining jobs included road building and earthmoving at Burleigh and on the Kilkivan Range.
Image: Burleigh Hill roadworks, 1930s.
By 1942, World War II had engulfed the Pacific, and the American allies found themselves on Australian soil. They had to build camps and emergency airstrips but lacked the trained men to operate and service the equipment. It was suggested that they contact Les Thiess.
The Thiess way of doing things was essentially the American way; relying on quick, no-nonsense decisions and an ability to get things done fast. Allied Works Council and US Army engineers worked in close cooperation with Thiess and in a few months, they turned Eagle Farm into a major military airport.
The Thiess brothers used the late 1940s and early 1950s to cement their reputation as a group of men who would seemingly stop at nothing to get the job done. As their business activities spread across the nation, they used their excellent eye for good, practical people to recruit a number of trusted minds into the core team. Many who joined remained part and parcel of the company for decades.
Image: The Thiess team demonstrates the prowess of its earthmoving equipment, 1950s.
By the late 1960s, Thiess had become one of Australia’s largest public companies, with diverse, multi-million dollar interests across the country. Despite growing change in the scale of the business, contact between the brothers remained constant and close, no matter where they were — salvaging in New Guinea or strengthening ties in Japan, mining in Townsville or tunnelling on the Snowy, or spending time in suits in Sydney,
Perth or Brisbane.
As Thiess rose through the 1970s to become an international success story, the company found itself under the watchful eye of the business world. At this time, coal was the go-to resource, and diversification and expansion were high on the corporate agenda.
On the morning of 23 October, 1979, CSR made an aggressive play for the company, advertising an offer for 11 million shares at substantially higher than the market price. A bitter corporate battle ensued. Within weeks, major shareholders AMP and Shell had been wooed by CSR, and the conglomerate acquired a controlling share of the Thiess business. For once, Sir Les and his brothers had fought the good fight, but had not
emerged victorious.
Image: The takeover makes headlines, 1979.
After CSR acquired Thiess, many of its component parts were sold, including the contracting division. While this partly ended up back in Sir Les’ hands, a series of amicable transactions saw Thiess Contractors become wholly owned by Leighton Holdings in 1983. By this time, the instability and uncertainty of the previous years meant that Leighton had taken over a company heavy on heritage and spirit, but now light on financial clout. So with strong backing from Leighton’s senior executives, a new leadership team, and staff longing to return the business to its former glory, Thiess dug in for the long haul. A renewed focus on building ultimately returned the company to profit.
Image: The idyllic Hayman Island Resort was a key pillar of Thiess’ building strategy, 1983.
It’s people that make a culture. Growing and empowering a diverse workforce is a major objective at Thiess. These days, formalised learning programs and development opportunities for employees across Australia, Indonesia and India complement the company’s culture of knowledge and skill sharing. It is an important goal of this family-founded business, more than 16,000 strong, to create an environment of fairness and equity that draws on the unique skills and abilities of every employee, regardless of their age, gender, background or beliefs.
Image: Thiess’ enduring culture fosters respect and mateship at every level and extends to our projects wherever they are located.
“Trust, Innovation, Passion and Excellence — these are the values that embody our ‘Blue Blood’ heritage and underpin our enduring culture. It’s important that we celebrate our past as we deliver today and position ourselves for the future.”
— Managing Director Bruce Munro
“Don’t tell us what we can’t do. Tell us what we can do.”
— Les Thiess
In 1939, Queensland Main Roads Commissioner John Kemp called for a tunnel through an area of Heifer Creek Road between Gatton and Warwick. Demonstrating their ingenuity, the brothers decided it would be more efficient to carve a 104ft cutting — the deepest in Australia at the time.
While the figure of £28,000 that Thiess Bros. quoted was considered crazy by many, their tender was accepted. Using the latest earthmoving equipment available in the country, and working like men possessed, they achieved the seemingly impossible, completing the job in six months.
Image: The completed Heifer Creek cutting, 1940.
Thiess cut its teeth in tunnelling on the country’s first ‘mega-project’, the Snowy Hydro-electric Scheme. During the winter of 1959, Thiess broke world records when the crew tunnelled a spectacular 526 feet in a six-day week. Throughout the 2000s, the company took on more projects of huge scope and complexity, including Lane Cove Tunnel.
Image: Tunnelling then and now — Geehi Dam, 1960s and Lane Cove Tunnel, 2005.
Powering out of the GFC, Thiess was awarded a $4.8 billion contract for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of Brisbane’s Airport Link, in partnership with John Holland. It was Australia’s largest ever road infrastructure project.
Construction began with great enthusiasm on 6 November, 2008 and finished less than four years later in July, 2012. Although the project was fraught with financial difficulties, it remains an exceptional feat of engineering and a wonderful legacy to the tenacity and determination
of its team.
Image: Airport Link, 2012.
In a joint venture with Degrémont, Thiess embarked on the Victorian Desalination Project (VDP) in 2009, securing a contract to design, build, operate and maintain the largest reverse osmosis desalination plant in the Southern Hemisphere. As before, the multi-billion dollar mega-project called for Thiess’ full gamut
of expertise.
Once again, the company navigated a project beset with problems and combatted disasters both natural and financial to deliver the sophisticated engineering masterpiece. Today, VDP is one of the greenest desalination projects in the world, able to deliver up to 150 billion litres of drinking water per year.
Image: Victorian Desalination Plant, 2012.
Innovation has been a pillar of the company’s history for 80 years, as natural for the Thiess brothers as breathing. In decades gone by, innovations were often borne of necessity. In recent times, Thiess’ thinking has become more structured and proactive.
Renewing its focus on innovations in efficiency, safety and technology, Thiess is harnessing its most powerful resource — people. With the thoughts and ideas of more than 16,000 minds to draw on, it’s little wonder the company is at the forefront of the industry.
Image: Today, the innovation of founding brother Bert Thiess has been commemorated in a novel (but nonetheless fitting) way — the company intranet, also known as BERT.
From the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme to iconic projects like the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, Epping to Chatswood Rail Line, EastLink Project and Airport Link, Thiess continues to help build a nation.
In the late 1950s, no one in the company, or in fact the country, could be distracted from the most ambitious project the nation had ever seen. The magnitude and intricacy of the great hydro-electric and irrigation scheme in the Snowy Mountains had captured the Australian imagination, and only a handful of foreign companies had proved they were up to the task.
In 1958, Thiess became the first Australian contractor to win work on the nation’s biggest engineering masterpiece. Three consecutive contracts were completed over 25 years, concluding with the construction of the Talbingo Dam and Tumut 3 Power Station. By this time, Thiess had successfully carried out one-quarter of all contractual work on the scheme. It was not only a source of immense pride for the brothers, but a defining national achievement.
Image: Queen Elizabeth II visits the Geehi Tunnel site, 1963.
After successful dam building in Victoria in the 1950s, Les resolved that Thiess would build ‘one a year’ around the country. Today, the figure sits at 84, with dams dotted far beyond
Australia’s borders.
From the so-called ‘Beef Roads’ that were built through outback Australia to move cattle around the country for export, to roads linking new and developing towns that were springing up to service a growing population, Thiess forged an enviable early reputation as a remote-area builder. Today, the company is responsible for some of the largest metropolitan road networks in Australia.
Image: Thiess builds vital connections,
1960 — 2014.
As a new millennium approached, Australia became increasingly aware that the world’s spotlight would be shining Down Under. In preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Thiess construction crews built the Homebush Bay Exhibition Hall, followed by a raft of roads, amenities and landscaping. In 1998, the company commenced work on Sydney’s domestic airport in anticipation of the expected onslaught of visitors flocking to attend the Games.
It was game on for Thiess Environmental Services as well, with the division completing 90 per cent of all remediation works at the Homebush
Bay site.
Image: Sydney awaits the world at
Homebush Bay, 2000.
In 2012, Thiess mined more than 110 million tonnes of coal and iron ore and moved about 530 million cubic metres of overburden. The run continued in 2013, with the company proudly announcing its
Image: Thiess staff atop the Liebherr 9800, 2013.
In recent years, a strategic decision to focus on the LNG sector paid off with wins on the Chevron-operated Gorgon and Wheatstone projects in WA’s north-west, setting the company up for success. In Queensland, Thiess signed a landmark $1.8 billion contract with QGC for construction of 17 field compression stations and four central processing plants — a massive undertaking that will see the workforce peak at 2,600 people.
Image: Thiess has expanded its scope of work on the QCLNG project, 2013.
Thiess is one of the major contractors rolling out the high-profile National Broadband Network in Australia. The first NBN contracts were awarded to Silcar and Thiess Services in 2011 and construction began in June 2012.
The project was for design and construction; that is, to dig holes and lay cables for the country’s new, super-fast internet. Silcar’s responsibility was for the 1 million square kilometres that lie between Cairns, Dubbo and Sydney. In 2013 Thiess acquired Silcar, taking over full responsibility for the project.
While being very much Australian, Thiess has always played on the world stage.
The Peak Downs Scheme was one of Thiess’ major undertakings in the 1950s. It was a state enterprise with two very specific aims. The first, most immediate and urgent purpose was to grow grain and pig meat for export to Britain, while the second was to develop the agricultural potential of the Central Queensland highlands, where the pastoral industry was in decline.
For Thiess, who had won the contract to plough the first 30,000 acres from a total 90,000, it was a case of looking into their farming past to build up their future.
Image: Ploughing Peak Downs, 1948.
Over a number of years, Thiess launched efforts to explore, produce and export Queensland’s first coking coal to Japan. By the late 1960s, the Kianga-Moura coalfield, operated by the Thiess Peabody Mitsui joint venture, had become Japan’s biggest individual supplier. With that, the Queensland coal export industry was born.
Image: Thiess Peabody Mitsui Coal Pty Ltd, 1960s.
In 1972, Thiess formed an international division through the acquisition of 50 per cent of Petrosea, a company operating in South-East Asia with contracts in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
One of Thiess Petrosea’s first projects was the Sembawang dry dock in Singapore, built half on land, half on water. Today it remains one of the largest dry docks in the world.
Image: Sembawang dry dock, 1972.
Thiess completed the construction of the iconic tension membrane structures, as well as many of the pavilions for the World Expo ’88 in Brisbane. Work was also done to reclaim parts of the South Bank Parklands site from the Brisbane River.
Image: The iconic pastel “sails” were actually the largest single-membrane structure in the
world, 1988.
In 1988, Thiess made a decision to re-enter Indonesia, tendering for six opportunities and winning four. Strategic or otherwise, the return reaped almost instant rewards. In 1979, as the CSR takeover slowly wound down operations in the region, Thiess had been doing $6 million worth of business in Indonesia. In just one year of its return in 1988, that figure had increased to $175 million, then soared to $500 million by 1999, with
$5 million profit and no sign of letting up.
Thiess invested in the local community, establishing the long running Balikpapan Training and Development Centre in East Kalimantan. Today, the facility is one of the largest in Indonesia and graduates receive Australian
TAFE qualifications.
In 2008, Thiess ventured into India after the award of a contract to establish and operate the proposed Chitarpur Coal Mine. In 2010, Thiess secured the $5.5 billion Pakri Barwadih Coal Mining Project — the largest contract ever awarded in India to a foreign-owned company.
Image: Head of Thiess’ mining operations in India, Dr Raman Srikanth.
The Thiess brothers had a knack for realising an opportunity and pouncing on it.
In 1944, the combination of war and a weakened workforce found Australia in the midst of a crippling coal shortage. Trains were burning wood to keep themselves — and the country — moving.
The Coal Commission, created to administer and oversee the antagonistic industry, took immediate measures, turning to contractors with big earthmoving equipment to increase production through open-cut mining. Thiess Bros. was given a contract at Blair Athol in Central Queensland, and shortly after pursued a contract at Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley.
Image: Les Thiess surveying Muswellbrook open cut mine, 1940s.
A couple of years had passed since World War II ended, and the Federal Government had just announced that they’d be auctioning off war disposals equipment in Milne Bay, New Guinea. Boarding an aircraft with haste, Les saw enormous potential — not only in the bay, but in the jungle beyond.
The brothers spent years tracking back and forth, salvaging parts of transport vehicles, D8 bulldozers and even metal from bombed bridges, converting this scrap into both profits and potential.
Image: Inspection of a derelict tank in
New Guinea, 1950s.
Since the mid 1950s, the Toyota Motor Company had been looking to establish an Australian market for its Land Cruiser. Thiess already had several at work on the Snowy and they were performing well. They were competitively priced at $2,730 and Les figured they would be ideal for Queensland, particularly the rugged north-west. In early 1959, he called a meeting of directors and executives of Thiess Holdings to put the proposition to them, but here, he found himself at odds with his advisers.
Refusing to be hemmed in by restrictions, Les declared he would buy what he wanted and finance it himself, putting up $40,000 to bring 25 of these ‘workhorses’ to Australia to sell. Before 1959 was finished, interest exceeded even Les’ expectations. In the second half of the 1960s, Thiess Toyota sales grew to more than $200 million gross each year and Toyota, of course, went on to become a powerhouse of Australian motoring.
Image: Thiess Toyota became a big business throughout the 1960s.
As the company rebuilt in the 80s, Thiess had yet another opportunity to demonstrate its capacity for sophisticated engineering when it completed the country’s first immersed tube road tunnel under Sydney Harbour in 1988/89. The days of ripping and stripping land in underpopulated areas were well and truly consigned to history with the successful completion of this job.
Image: Construction of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, 1988.
By the late 1980s, another diversified Thiess business had grown wings. Thiess Environmental Services was formed in 1987 to include waste and remediation services. The roots of this business actually go back to 1984, when the company was still in the depths of its financial troubles. At that time, Thiess won a seven-year waste management and landfill contract with the Brisbane City Council as well as its first remediation contract at the Northern Territory’s Rum Jungle uranium mine.
Image: Thiess pioneered one-man waste trucks with the first side loader grab arms, 1980s.
As Thiess re-entered the Australian mining market in the 1990s, the decision was made to differentiate the company from other contractors. Martin Albrecht and his team led the way with this
new thinking.
Thiess and the Hunter Valley Coal Corporation initiated a new kind of commercial partnership to mine at Mount Owen. Thiess remains a key player in the mine’s operations to this day.
Image: Strengthening mining with partnerships.
Acting with integrity isn’t new at Thiess. Its history is dotted with initiatives that have left behind positive legacies for generations to come. In recent times, the company implemented a successful corporate social responsibility framework called Care. Since its introduction, company-wide giving has increased to
more than $2 million.
The brothers’ passion, perseverance and sixth sense for machinery leaves a lasting legacy. To think — it was a single tractor that set the wheels of a company in motion.
In the late 1930s, Les had recently heard of a sharp, vertical-bladed earthmoving attachment for the D4, available in the United States and known there as a ‘bulldozer’. He asked Waugh & Josephson, Brisbane’s major farm machinery importers, to have one brought out but this
As Thiess’ mining reach broadened through the 1940s, it became apparent that transport would soon become an issue. In 1947, the business invested in the first of its many planes — an Avro Anson.
The brothers ran a competition to name this rather unconventional purchase. ‘Progress’ was the winner, suggested by a Russian woman
in the office.
“It was ideal, the hallmark of the whole operation,” said Bill Thomson, their expert panelbeater. “There was just no room in the Thiess vocabulary for ‘it can’t be done.’”
Image: A company spreads its wings, 1950s.
From those very first dozers, the Thiess fleet has never stopped growing. Says former EGM of Plant Bruce Kenny, “It had a replacement value of around $2 billion in the mid-2000s and more than 2,000 people were responsible for the maintenance and development of that fleet. Parts alone cost $350 million every year. A single truck tyre could cost around $35,000. These days we use around 500 million litres of fuel each year, too, so you can see how important it is for us to maintain great relationships with suppliers.”
Image: Draglines then and now, 1950s and 2010s.
There are many good examples of how equipment has been improved, as MD Bruce Munro explains. “We always need to get slicker in our core areas and technology can help that. These days, we are experimenting with driverless trucks that are operated remotely. Even in the last 10 years we’ve moved from 200 tonne trucks to 400 tonnes, and 45 tonne buckets to 75 tonnes. We have to keep not just moving with the times; we have to be leading the change.”
For Airport Link, Thiess dug Australia’s longest road tunnels using two of the largest tunnel boring machines ever to operate in Australia. Currently, Caterpillar, Liebherr and others work with Thiess to create common solutions to problems that suit both suppliers and clients, and it’s that attitude towards sharing success that has kept the partnerships strong.
Image: Today’s tunnel boring machines.
Bert Thiess, crowned “King of the Tractors” by his brothers in the 1930s, collected and restored many heritage models in his lifetime. They were kept in his home shed in Brisbane’s outer suburbs.
Image: The first Thiess earthmovers.
The Thiess brothers’ spirit remains an inspiration to a workforce of more than 16,000. Their legacy of ‘Blue Blood’ remains the driving force behind the Thiess of today.
With qualifications in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Engineering, Michael has 24 years’ experience across a range of disciplines, including mining, civil engineering, contaminated land remediation, telecommunications and utilities. Career highlights include securing and overseeing multi-billion dollar mining services contracts in Australia, establishing the Leighton Asia mining business in Mongolia, restructuring and growing Thiess’ Services business into a $1 billion
His broader contribution to the industry includes serving as a board member of the Sustainable Minerals Institute and the Queensland Resources Council, and as a Director of the International RiverFoundation.
Ric graduated with honours in Civil Engineering from Adelaide University in 1975 and has worked at Thiess for more than 12 years commencing as the General Manager Western Australia.
Ric has been instrumental in growing the WA business unit, with a concerted effort that focused initially on developing opportunities from the iron ore sector and more recently the LNG market. Ric chairs the LNG Coordination Group within Thiess to ensure a singular effort is applied to relationships across all aspects of the LNG sector. Ric was appointed to his current role in 2010 and is a strong advocate of taking Thiess to the next level of project delivery beyond the current construct only capability.
Andrew has led some of Australia’s largest and most complex infrastructure projects during an impressive engineering career spanning almost 40 years. He first joined Thiess in 1981, after commencing his career with Hochtief in Germany where he was introduced to the world of mechanised tunnelling. Building his specialist expertise in Australia on water storage and underground projects, Andrew re-joined Hochtief in 1990 to deliver numerous major international infrastructure projects including the Lesotho Highland Water Scheme — the largest ever water project spanning Lesotho and South Africa. Returning to Thiess in 1993, Andrew’s leadership at the front-end of major tunnel project tenders has introduced world’s best practice to Australia and placed him at the forefront of developing emerging tunnelling technologies.
Ralph has been with Thiess for more than 31 years. As a highly respected and experienced civil engineer and senior construction manager, he has been instrumental in the delivery of a broad range of heavy civil and infrastructure projects including most recently the site preparation for the massive QCLNG project in Queensland’s Surat Basin.
His roles with Thiess have taken him from Karratha in Western Australia, to Darwin in the Northern Territory, to Mackay and Brisbane in Queensland. Committed to ‘zero harm’ on every project, he has overseen successful delivery of earthworks, concrete, marine and infrastructure projects under hard dollar, risk adjusted maximum price, cost reimbursable performance incentive and alliance contracts.
Jeff has been with Thiess for more than 40 years. Starting as a plant clerk in the Brisbane workshop at Archerfield in 1972, he has gone on to play a key role in the development of the construction and mining fleet that has underpinned the company’s impressive growth.
Jeff played an important role rebuilding the fleet in the late 1980s, following a period of company takeovers that left it seriously depleted. In 2008 he was appointed Fleet and Logistics Manager for the Australian Mining business where he helped to secure a competitive edge for Thiess in a booming resources market. Currently overseeing the sale of excess mining and construction fleet nationally, Jeff is grateful for a long career that has enabled him to work with the biggest and best equipment in the country.
Nikki’s career with Thiess spans more than 20 years. As a CPA Australia qualified professional, she brings to her leadership role a balanced blend of strategic thinking and business acumen, and an extensive understanding of strategy and business planning, financial analysis, business systems and project management.
In her current role, Nikki is accountable for facilitating the responsible growth of the Services business and overseeing the framework for strategy and business development planning.
Douglas has more than 21 years’ diverse experience in the mining industry and has obtained an IEDP, B. Eng (Mining), NHD (Mech).
Originally from South Africa, Douglas began his career with Goldfields where he gained a strong understanding across the spectrum of underground mining and ultra-deep gold mining operations. In 2005, he immigrated to Australia with the support of Thiess and worked as Project Manager at various Thiess-operated mine sites including Collinsville and Tarong, before being appointed Executive Manager Mining.
After a year-long hiatus, Doug returned to Thiess in 2012 to take on the role of General Manager Mining. His responsibility involves operations in Queensland and New South Wales. In this role he is responsible for the management and strategic direction of a portfolio valued at more than $1 billion.
Glenn graduated with 1st class honours in Civil Engineering from Melbourne University and joined Thiess in 2003.
With 23 years in the construction industry, Glenn has held major roles across a number of landmark projects across Australia including Melbourne City Link, Regional Fast Rail, TrackStar Alliance and Airport Link. He brings a successful track record of winning work and delivering outstanding outcomes across a range of industries under various forms of contract including Design and Construct, Alliance and Relationship based, throughout Australia.
Since 2010, Glenn has undertaken the General Manager Rail role within Thiess’ highly successful construction business and has a passion for building strong teams and delivering outstanding outcomes for Thiess and for our clients.
Graduating with honours in Civil Engineering Bob has more than 30 years of contracting experience. He has a strong background in the project management of civil engineering and construction projects. His career has spanned a broad range of projects from roads, bridges, underground works, dams and mine infrastructure, including coal handling plants to large-scale industrialised housing.
Since joining Thiess in 1995, Bob has played an integral role in the growth of the company’s Australian Mining business. His involvement in providing support to our ongoing projects has covered all aspects of open-cut coal mining and processing operations. He continues to work closely with project staff across all operations to achieve successful business outcomes.
Obtaining a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Queensland University of Technology in 1987, Andrew has more than 25 years’ experience in leading and managing large infrastructure projects, including alliance and hard dollar D&Cs. Many of these projects have been complex transport infrastructure projects with tight budgets and timeframes, including the largest infrastructure project in Australia — Airport Link in Brisbane which was completed in 2012.
Andrew joined Thiess in 1993 and is currently the Operations Manager of the $650m Moreton Bay Rail project. Prior to that, he was Southern Construction Director on Airport Link and in recent years was Alliance Manager for the Boggo Road Busway and Project Manager for the Inner Northern Busway Section 3, also in Brisbane.
Allan Cooper is a 50-year veteran of the construction industry. His first project for Thiess was the Bypass Road around Blowering Dam on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Scheme in 1962. Since then, he has worked on four dams, three major infrastructure projects and 15 highway projects including the Hume Highway, Buladelah Bypass and Karuah Bypass on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.
Starting as a general labourer when he was 17, he has progressed through the ranks from leading hand, to foreman, to highly regarded project superintendent — a role he played on the Hunter Expressway Alliance, where he was responsible for the workforce, and all plant and construction activities on site.
Don’s career with Thiess spanned more than 35 years. He first joined Thiess Holdings Ltd in the late 1970s, taking on the company’s first in-house taxation role. He followed Sir Les Thiess to Thiess Watkins following the CSR takeover in the 1980s, but returned to Thiess Pty Ltd in 1985.
Don was instrumental in guiding the company to profit, playing a pivotal role in the finance, administration, governance, growth and success of the Thiess Group of companies and reinstating the business in the top echelons of the construction, mining and services sectors. He resigned in 2011, having become the unofficial guardian of Thiess’ history.
Jason is a Civil Engineer with more than 24 years experience in the contracting industry working in the resource, civil infrastructure and building sectors in Australia and overseas. He joined Thiess in 1999 as a Site Engineer and has held numerous positions across the business.
He was appointed General Manager, Queensland in 2011 where he is responsible for all aspects of the construction business including strategy, business development, tendering and project delivery. Jason has been instrumental in the development of Thiess’ rail capability and achieving outstanding safety results across the entire Queensland construction business.
Keith joined Thiess almost 45 years ago and in 2010 was appointed Transport Manager, having held a variety of roles within the company. He started his career as a truck driver in 1969 and went on to work as a low loader driver for almost 20 years on projects across Queensland, the Northern Territory and delivering plant and equipment throughout Australia.
Keith was part of the team that delivered the railway and water pipeline to the South Blackwater coal mine and also worked on similar projects at Peak Downs and Greenvale. It was on the Greenvale Line project that Keith’s colleague Stan Coster penned the Three Rivers Hotel which was later made famous by country singer Slim Dusty.
Mark joined Thiess in 1999 as Group Counsel and was appointed Executive General Manager, Strategy and Development in 2008, responsible for Thiess’ investment and PPP Sponsor activities.
Mark has led Thiess’ key development initiatives and provision of cross-functional project development, project finance and business strategy expertise. He has overseen the acquisition of Silcar, establishment of manufacturing business SmartReo, development of the Victorian Desalination Project and sale of Thiess Services Waste Management Business and interest in Burton Coal Mine.
Steve is a civil engineer with more than 24 years’ experience delivering major infrastructure construction projects. He started work for Thiess in 2002 and developed and implemented a business plan that lead to the creation of a dedicated Tunnelling Division within the business.
In 2012 Steve was appointed General Manager Tunnelling and is responsible for leading and managing Thiess’ national Tunnelling Business Unit. Throughout his career he has worked on the country’s biggest tunnelling projects including the Lane Cove Tunnel and the Brisbane Airport Link Project.
Ridwan was appointed Executive Manager Business Services in Indonesia in 2012 and is responsible for leading six departments including supply chain, survey and technology, technical services, quality assurance and environment, information and communication technology, and Balikpapan support facilities.
Throughout his 18 year career at Thiess, Ridwan has taken on a variety of roles including System Engineer on a major road construction project in Brisbane and Project Services Manager at the Sangatta Coal Mine in East Kalimantan Indonesia. He holds a bachelor degree in civil engineering, as well as a Master of Engineering Science in Project Management from the University of New South Wales.
Peter started as an Estimating Engineer in the Sydney office with Thiess Brothers in 1981. During his thirty-three year career at Thiess, he has worked in a variety of roles from Project Engineer to Civil Manager, across a range projects. Throughout the past 10 years he has worked as Project Director on several major projects.
As Project Director, Peter is responsible for all aspects of project delivery and is accountable for ensuring that a project meets its objectives. As the Alliance Project Director on the award winning Hunter Expressway Alliance, he managed a large and diverse project team, delivering quality outcomes on what is arguably New South Wales’ largest and most complex road infrastructure project.
Sue started work for Thiess in 1996 and is currently the Executive Assistant supporting Executive General Manager Projects Gordon Ralph and General Manager Tunnelling Steve Wille. Sue has made a significant contribution to the business throughout the past 18 years and has delivered numerous functions, seminars and social events. These include annual staff parties, Thiess anniversary celebrations and the business’ involvement in the annual City2Surf Fun Run.
Sue started her career with Thiess as Site Secretary at the Prince of Wales Hospital before taking on the role of NSW/ACT Building Division Secretary where she supported the entire team including the Building and Construction Managers. Sue was appointed Executive Assistant in 2010.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to develop my career with Thiess, a company that has always valued its people. From the very beginning, I understood what it meant to be a ‘blue blood’. It was and remains today about adopting a ‘can do’ attitude and striving together as one team to achieve a common goal.
I started as a civil engineering graduate on the Sugarloaf Dam project in Victoria in the 1980s. Wet behind the ears, I had no idea of the epic journey I was embarking on. Back then, there was no Melbourne office and our project was overseen from Sydney. We didn’t have personal computers and nearly all our work was paper based and produced manually. Most of my time was spent in the field alongside the superintendent and work crews, something we are now trying to bring back via use of mobile devices. Even though we had a small team, we delivered a first class dam facility – something Thiess is renowned for throughout the industry.
Since then, I have enjoyed many wonderful experiences across numerous projects. I’ve lived in nearly all states in Australia and had stints overseas in Indonesia and South America. Along the way I’ve seen a lot of change in the construction industry. The business has grown enormously, taking on mega-projects and assembling very large teams to deliver them at a rapid pace. From my humble beginnings at Sugarloaf, to more recently on the Airport Link project, I still find that what matters most are the people, their passion, integrity and ability to work together as a team.
I have been fortunate to be able to take my family with me on this journey. Together we have all benefited from living and working in a variety of places. Everywhere we have travelled, the Thiess spirit comes to the fore with families coming together to support each other. I fondly remember our time in Muswellbrook where there was a strong culture of togetherness, on and off the job.
Looking back, I didn’t need to go anywhere other than Thiess to gain experience on a diversity of civil projects, to work in many different remote, regional and urban locations, or to have the opportunity to advance into project management and other functional support roles. There has always been a new challenge to embrace or a new frontier to conquer. I’ve enjoyed being able to impart my knowledge to others through Thiess-sponsored community endeavours, such as Engineering Link, learning development programs within Thiess and mentoring. For me, all of this has helped define who I am and been a vital and treasured part of my life’s journey.
I look back now at my career at Thiess with great pride. I relish the opportunities I have had and the friends I have made, and am proud to be part of the Thiess team and its heritage.
I started with Thiess in 1975 and over that time have seen many changes. Back then, the Thiess brothers were still a very big part of the company and they would often turn up on site to check on things.
The Dartmouth Dam project in Victoria was the beginning of my long association with Thiess. Having just finished high school, I started work as a plant clerk before moving on to the position of timekeeper. There was a main frame computer in the main office but no PC. Most data was handwritten and copies made using carbon paper. The wages payroll was all handwritten using the Kalamazoo system which had carbon paper and tear off strips that were inserted inside the pay packets along with the cash.
In those days there were still reminders of some of the old equipment that had been salvaged from the South Pacific at the end of World War II, including some ex-US Army 6x6 Studebaker trucks. From there my travels started. I worked on dam projects in Victoria and Queensland, meeting my wife of 31 years on the Wivenhoe Dam project near Brisbane.
It was then on to near Collinsville in Central Queensland where Thiess built a weir across the Bowen River. It was here that I met Roger Trundle, the Bowen River Weir Project Manager, who later went on to become the Managing Director of Thiess. Many lifelong friendships were established along the way and good times were had working in remote locations.
After some years of travelling around the country working on various projects such as Hayman Island in the Whitsundays, I moved back to Brisbane where I worked at the pay office. One of the duties was to deliver the pay packets to the sites around Brisbane, being chaperoned by a policeman.
My yearning for site work took over and I worked around Queensland on many projects including the Mt Leyshon Gold Mine, Lindeman Island and the Collinsville Coal Mine. The mine was Thiess' first foray back into coal mining in Australia since the days of the Thiess brothers and the start of Thiess becoming one of the largest coal mining contractors in the world.
I would go on to work at the Moura Coal Mine, the Gateway Motorway Extension project at Eight Mile Plains, a weir job near Bundaberg and back to Brisbane for the widening of the Pacific Motorway near Oxenford. Once that job finished, I worked at the Burton Coal Mine in Central Queensland, flying home once a month.
After working on the Comalco Alumina Refinery project in Gladstone, I returned to the Thiess Queensland office before working on the Boggo Road Busway Project at Woolloongabba and the Northern Busway section of the massive Airport Link Project.
A brief stint in the Queensland office looking after a small job for Queensland Rail at the Toowoomba Range led to a position at the Caval Ridge Project near Moranbah – my last job with the company. It’s been a great journey that has fulfilled an ambition to see Australia and created enduring friendships with a few workmates along the way.
Working long hours for long periods and being away from family and friends can be lonely and demanding in our industries. Bonds and special friendships help, and it’s these friendships and memories that are certainly cherished.
