QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

In 1999, an office was established in Lima, Peru as a first step towards obtaining major new business in South America. Thiess management always insisted that Thiess values be endorsed and practised in the overseas operations, just as they were at home. Thiess initiated a number of training and skills recognition programs, often in joint ventures with educational institutions and other training bodies. Many were aimed at developing and recognising skills in the traditionally neglected industry sector of labourers and operators and have included the establishment of permanent training centres in South East Queensland, and Balikpapan in Indonesia.Managing Director Martin Albrecht, having grown up in an Aboriginal community himself, had a strong commitment to the fair treatment and, in particular, the training of indigenous Australians. A Memorandum of Understanding was established between Thiess and the federal Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA), which focused on employment and development of Indigenous Australians. As well, specific schemes – training programs and assistance in establishing standalone partner companies – were undertaken with various Aboriginal groups on Thiess projects as a means of providing them with meaningful employment while continuing to respect their cultural values. In 1999, Thiess committed a $500,000 donation to enable the Brisbane City Council to establish an award for excellence in international best practice in river restoration and management. The ‘River Prize’ is the world’s only cash prize for recognising excellence in river management and encouraging organisations and community groups to look at developing solutions to bring rivers and river systems back to natural, healthy standards. This environmental and community emphasis under Martin Albrecht’s stewardship has been maintained by successive managing directors Rodger Trundle and David Saxelby, with Thiess continuing to set new standards in the important areas of safety, training, quality assurance, the environment and the community. A new head office complex opened in 1999 on the former Expo’88 site on Brisbane’s South Bank, scene of the eye-catching tents design a decade earlier. Successful completion of this innovative contract at that time had restored the Thiess ‘can do’ attitude and culture to embrace innovation. In 2000 the name Thiess Contractors Pty Ltd was shortened to Thiess Pty Ltd; similarly, Thiess Environmental Services became simply Thiess Services, better reflecting the wide spectrum of Thiess’ almost $2 billion operation.

Further strong growth came with the so-called ‘PPP era’ – very large Public and Privately funded infrastructure Projects. Multi-million and -billion dollar undertakings, some of them joint ventures, included: the Regional Fast Rail Project in Victoria and the East Link Motorway in Melbourne; the Epping to Chatswood Underground Rail Link, and the Lane Cove Tunnel Project (both in Sydney); as well as contracts for Victoria’s desalination plant and the Trackstar Alliance program, in partnership with Aurecon and Aecom, for Queensland Rail.

Trackstar Alliance projects featuring Thiess include (above) the 2009-completed $324m Robina–Varsity Lakes rail extension on the Gold Coast, and (below) the in-progress $475m Richlands to Springfield extension in Brisbane’s booming southern suburbs.

More recently, Australia’s largest infrastructure projects to date, the $4.8 billion AirportlinkM7 in Brisbane and $2.25 billion M80 Ring Road Upgrade in Melbourne, are amongst the pantheon with which the name ‘Thiess’ is associated.. By its 75th anniversary in 2009, commentators were writing of the return of the ‘glory days’ of Thiess, its star once again in the ascendant as it had been on the completion of its quarter-share of the mammoth Snowy Mountains Scheme decades before. The Thiess of today is inevitably a much different business to that started by five brothers 75 years ago, but the spirit of ‘can-do’ and their attitude towards innovation which they left behind is as alive within the company once again as it was in its earliest days. 253