QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The son of a German-speaking Lutheran missionary in central Australia, Martin Albrecht became one of the leaders of the Australian engineering and construction industries. His father, Pastor F W Albrecht, was born into a German family in Plawinice in Russian Poland in 1894. A conscientious objector, he was conscripted to serve in the medical corps of the German army in World War 1, interrupting his studies at the mission institute in Hermannsburg in Germany. After time at a Lutheran seminary in the USA to improve his English he married his German fiancée in Canada before sailing in 1925 to Sydney, whence he travelled overland to South Australia. He was ordained as a Lutheran pastor at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley before travelling to central Australia. It was the final stage of a long and circuitous route to the work which would occupy the rest of his life. In April 1926 he took up the role of Mission Superintendent at the Hermannsburg Aboriginal mission. After 25 years, he transferred to Alice Springs, from where he supervised the whole of the extensive Lutheran ministry to the Aboriginal people of central Australia. Martin was one of the five children of Wilhelm and Minna Albrecht. After a childhood in the remoteness of central Australia he received his secondary education at Immanuel College in Adelaide and Alice Springs High School before studying civil engineering at the South Australian Institute of Technology. After his first position with the Engineering and Water Supply Department in Adelaide he began work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme in 1965. The engineering firm Kaiser Engineers and Constructors was undertaking an expansion of the Gladstone Alumina Refinery and recruited Martin to the design team. Initially based in Sydney, it was his first work in Queensland where he was to make such a sterling contribution in future years. He then moved to Nabalco, also in Sydney, initially on the design of a major alumina refinery at Gove in the Northern Territory, and subsequently as the senior civil construction engineer on site. It was during this time that he met and subsequently married his wife Fran. In Gove, his duties included the supervision of the Leighton-Atkinson joint venture, with responsibility for the refinery, mine, town of Nhulunbuy, civil earthworks and drainage. In June 1970 he accepted a position with Leighton Contractors as project manager for the Ross River Dam construction near Townsville.This represented roughly the largest contract awarded to the company to that time and led to the successful establishment of an area office in Townsville, with up to 15 projects in north Queensland under construction. Martin Albrecht ac

In 1974 he accepted a promotion to NSW Manager of Civil Engineering based in Sydney. Among the projects for which he was responsible were the bulk earthworks for the Atkinson-Leighton joint venture construction of the Brotherson Docks Port Development in Botany Bay, Australia’s first bulk loading terminal. A long-cherished dream to live and work in North America became a reality in 1976 when he was offered and accepted a position with Guy Atkinson Construction, the company associated with both the Gove and Botany Bay projects in Australia. He spent the next eight years in North America, initially in Canada, where his youngest son Stephen was born, and subsequently in the USA. The opportunity to become Vice-President in 1984 was declined to return to Australia for family reasons. On his return, Martin took up the role of Northern Operations Manager with Thiess, and in 1985 was appointed as Managing Director. He held the position of Chief Executive of Thiess for the next 15 years until his retirement. At a time of economic decline for the company, he reversed its fortunes, bringing it once again to prosperity and overseeing its growth within Australia and in Southeast Asia in areas as diverse as construc tion, telecommunications, mining, engineering and environmental sustainability. He placed heavy emphasis on workplace health and safety issues, elevating them to leadership in best practice.

THIESS AUSTRALIA Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates

150

100

50

0

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92

93

949596979899 0 1 2

3

4 5

Thiess Contractors Target is Zero Accidents Subcontractor figures included from July 1998

Quarterly Perfomance

Group Target

The dramatic decline in workplace injury during Martin’s tenure at Theiss Contractors is dramatically illustrated by these graphs.

THIESS AUSTRALIA Lost Time Injury Severity Rates

1500

1000

500

0

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 949596979899 0 1 2 3

4 5

Thiess Contractors Target is Zero Days lost Quarterly Actual Compared To Target Subcontractor figures included from July 1998

Quarterly Performance

Group Target

260