QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Thiess Brothers

“THIESS’ THESIS” They started young, those Drayton Boys, The brothers Thiess, who made a noise. Across the length and breadth they did. They made their mark, and they made a quid.

The projects they came thick and fast. Some bid quite thin and quite a task. Geehi, Tumut, off to Tooma, taking all the men from Cooma. Snowy, Dartmouth, Greenvale too, and others they were in the stew. Talbingo Dam and Tumut Three, turbines, pumps all meant to be. The last one on the Snowy Scheme, and for Thiess to be a dream. Scrapers, dozers, pushing dirt, some, they almost lost their shirt. Drilling, shooting, ripping rock, lifting tonnes the Mantowoc, Caterpillar, Euclid and Komatsu, Toyotas, Hinos and Diahatsu. Driving piles the NCK, marina locks at Cullen Bay. Massive walls at Burrinjuck, carting concrete in a truck. Girders, slabs, they’re sentimental, some they just do incremental. Building bridges – Parramatta, sinking shafts at Upper Yarra. Teemburra Dam and Tonumbarry Weir, So many names that test the ear. The lastest Cat in many places, the sniff of diesel in our faces. They’ll dig your coal as has been told, or crush your ore and give you gold. Cutting benches and access roads, Ernest Henry’s copper lode. Planning mines near Balikpapan: ‘In-flight kitchens’ have to happen. Logan, Hayman, Daylesville slot, resorts and mines and jobs quite hot. Scraping, scratching in the rough, Maralinga’s red-hot stuff. A classic at South Walker Creek: you ought to go and take a peek. Partners, ventures or TQM, the champions of the safety men. Safety boots and hard hats too, and multi-skills for all to do. And many still have fond regard, for early days, they worked quite hard. There’s plenty who would give their teeth, To join the team and start with Thiess. And so the stories still are told, around they go, they’re now quite bold. They cut their teeth on projects then, and brag, and build it once again. From Heifer Creek to Manton’s Ridge, and way down south, King River Bridge. They built so many structures high, and paved the way with CMI. Lake George and Bulahdelah Deviation, Gateway roads and power stations. The Myambat Stores, explosives there, Prince of Wales, and ambulatory care. Mt Owen Coal and Burton too, the 996 and trucks will do. Overburden drilled and shot, down to coal to load and trot. To Preparation Plant and sort, to waiting trains and off to Port. So knuckle down, there’s more to do, jobs to bid and big ones too. Get ready, set, they’re off and running; we are quite smart and we are quite cunning. There’s nothing that we have not done, and no place where we have not run. The action’s now at Homebush Bay, ‘jacking’ domes and roads OK. Ready for the rings and flames, Sydney’s Year 2000 Games. So these contractors have to rate, among the best to innovate. They’ve got the team and all the gear, for any project they have no fear. But now they stop, and pause, reflect, on all those jobs and tough projects. Those Brothers Thiess, they did not flinch, for challenge, to them became a cinch. In face of troubles, to stress relieve, each one got down, rolled up his sleeves. Tunnels and dams, roads, revetments, Piers and piles, and bridge abutments,

Bert Thiess honoured with the Order of Australia by Governor General Quentin Bryce ac cvo and (below) with a classic Caterpillar. Images courtesy of Thiess family collection

Leslie Thiess had a vision for Queensland’s coal resources and started to develop the Moura-Kianga, Blackwater South and Winchester coal mines and exported the first coking coal to Japan. Later other coal mines followed, including the 30m-high

coalface seam of the Blair Athol mine at Callide. Les saw also potential in tourism and undertook development of the Gold Coast’s first canal estate, followed by high-rise construction. Central Queensland has undergone a startling transformation since the 1960s with the growth of Gladstone and numerous mining towns in the Bowen Basin. Thiess Brothers’ initiatives sparked off many of these changes, ending the purely agricultural image of Queensland. By the late 1970 Thiess Brothers had become a successful diversified business with a huge presence in the civil engineering, mining and the energy sectors. But the brothers’ decision to take the business public 20 years earlier had a vulnerable downside. In 1979 CSR with Shell started hostile takeover proceedings against Thiess Holdings that ended in a compulsory acquisition of non-accepting shareholders in January 1980. Subsequently CSR sold off many of the component parts that had made up Thiess Holdings, one of which was the construction arm of Thiess Brothers. For his achievements, and in particular for starting the mining of Queensland coal for export to Japan, Leslie was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 1971. He was also awarded the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese Government, a rare honour for a foreigner and a mark of the regard for Sir Leslie as the founding father of their burgeoning trading relationship with Australia. References: Text and images compiled from Joan Priest’s third edition of The Thiess Story and the book Imagine our Future: Thiess 75 Years published by Thiess Pty Ltd

– by Bill Day, former Senior Design Engineer; penned 2 July 1997

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