Bruce Munro
Bruce Munro Despite ongoing challenges and signs the construction sector may be slowing as Australia transitions away from the capitalintensive phase of the mining boom, activity remains at historically high levels, according to Thiess Managing Director, Bruce Munro. I think it’s very timely, when we look at new governments, that we bring infrastructure right back to the forefront of our agenda. When I think about the construction industry and how it’s evolved over the years, there’s something very Australian about what we do and the journey our industry has taken. We talk about can-do culture in this country, and that’s very much a part of what construction is about – taking on challenging environments and turning them into what we call landmark legacies for the country, and for the communities in which we live. When we talk about landmark legacies and projects, I always hark back to the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, which is even more appropriate at the moment, because this scheme was built over a 25-year period between 1949 and 1974. This was a nation-building project – I think the first of its kind in this country. Thiess played a vital role – we ended up constructing almost 25 per cent of that project, whereas in the early days it was almost 42
futurebuilding
Volume 4 Number 1
entirely foreign contractors constructing it, as local contractors were deemed not to have the technology or capability. That’s an interesting scenario in itself – how quickly you learn what needs to be done in these projects. At the time, the cost was a huge $820 million – that’s roughly $6 billion in today’s terms. So this project that we all look back on is, in fact, relatively small in the scheme of things, when you compare it to what is being built around the country today – particularly some of the infrastructure projects and the big investments being made in our resources sector. The Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme set construction records and was completed on time and on budget, and that in itself also sets it apart from many projects. The project included 1600 kilometres of roads and tracks in quite a harsh environment, seven townships, more than 100 camps, construction of 16 major dams, and seven hydroelectric power stations generating almost 4000 megawatts of renewable
