"Construction is endemic; it is addictive. Once in the blood it is there forever. There is always that urge to create something which is of community significance, not only functionally effective but aesthetically pleasing." Sir John Holland, 2004. Melbourne, 21 July 2009 - From a £200 woolshed in rural Victoria to the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Melbourne’s Westgate Bridge and Canberra’s iconic Parliament House, Sir John Holland, who passed away on May 31 aged 94, has left an indelible mark on Australian engineering and construction.
Beginning with a workforce of seven and a two-room office in Melbourne, Sir John built one of the most respected organisations in the Australian construction industry. Sixty years on, the company employs almost 6,000 people and has work in hand of $5.2 billion. John Holland & Co Pty Ltd began trading on 16 May 1949, drawing heavily on the values instilled in Sir John during his service in the Second World War. Courage, initiative, fairness and leadership, along with a commitment to innovation in project delivery, became the central tenets of the business. The company emerged during one of the greatest periods of Australian development. In the post-war years, Australia was desperate for new city buildings, dams, roads, ports, factories, mines and airports. It was the birth of the construction contracting industry in Australia, an environment in which Sir John would demonstrate his creativity and ingenuity as an engineer.
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“Sir John’s contribution to construction in Australia is well-known,” said John Hornibrook, Chairman of the Selection Panel for the Distinguished Constructor Award, which Sir John received in 2000. “He led a company that is renowned for the engineering excellence it brings to the demanding and complex projects that are its special field.” History of firsts John Holland & Co Pty Ltd won its first major civil engineering project in 1950: the construction of a water treatment and power station plant at Australian Paper Manufacturers in Fairfield, Victoria. The project was Australia’s first industrial glasshouse. Six years later, Sir John oversaw the design and construction of Sorell Causeway in Tasmania, the company’s inaugural interstate venture and Australia’s first major pre-stressed concrete bridge. In 1958 and 1959, the company began work on two landmark projects in Melbourne: Sidney Myer Music Bowl and the South-Eastern Freeway. The Bowl was the first major cable-supported structure of its type to be built in Australia and was opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies in February 1959. The South-Eastern Freeway was the first freeway ever built in Australia, and was completed three months ahead of schedule in mid-1961. The company sustained strong growth during this period, opening offices in every major Australian city and continuing to achieve excellence in project delivery. In 1962, the award-winning Captain Cook Bridge, linking Sans Souci and Taren Point over Georges River in Sydney, further advanced the application of pre-stressed concrete technology in sophisticated bridge construction. In the same year, the company, by then called John Holland Construction, won the tender to design, build and commission the Calcap Thermal Power Station against 13 mostly overseas firms. Jindabyne Pumping Station and the Talbingo Diversion Tunnel were next, both completed in 1968 as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Then in 1974, the company played a significant role in rebuilding Darwin after Cyclone Tracy and in 1975, Tasmanian Premier Sir Eric Reece called on Sir John to rebuild the Tasman Bridge in Hobart.
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Great contribution Sir John Holland retired as Chief Executive in 1975 and as Chairman in 1986. In addition to his company duties, he participated widely in community activities such as Outward Bound, Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Churchill Trust, The Queen’s Trust and The Stroke Research Foundation. He was a foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. In 1973 he was created Knight Bachelor and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering at Monash. He received the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal in 1974, The Kernot Medal in 1976 and the Consulting Engineers Advancement Society Medal in 1984. He became a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1988 and in 1991, was appointed Honorary Fellow of The Institution of Engineers Australia. In 2001, he received the Distinguished Constructors Award from the Queensland University of Technology and the Australian Constructors Association Award for Distinguished Service. Finally, he was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2004, a rarely awarded honour. “It may never be possible again for one person to so shape an entire profession and an industry in Australia in the way that Sir John has done in the engineering and construction industry over the past sixty years,“ said Dr John Zillman AO, former President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. “Not only did Sir John preside over many of Australia’s great engineering construction feats of the twentieth century, he also made an outstanding personal contribution to a vast array of important professional and community institutions.” “He will be sorely missed.”
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