I’m proud of the strategic, innovative and collaborative thinking in our industry and I look forward to seeing how our members will continue to grow Canberra.
A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT, GRACIE FERREIRA
Resilience is the Key to Achieving Longevity in The Construction Industry In my role as President of Master Builders ACT, I have had the privilege of meeting and hearing from many members who have been in the industry for decades. There was one key theme that their company histories all shared: resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from stressful or challenging experiences, and we have all had plenty of that over the last two years.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from stressful or challenging experiences, and we have all had plenty of that over the last two years.
When we look back at the many challenges Canberra has faced over its relatively short existence, we can see that after each one we have come back stronger and better than before, and I believe this time will be no different. We can bounce back not to where we were prior to the fires and the pandemic but hopefully to a better and more sustainable position. I don’t want to diminish the suffering that was caused by both events but we have been given an opportunity to learn from the past and now we are more prepared for what can happen in the future. Thanks to improvements in technology and building materials, where
houses were destroyed by fire, we can now build houses that are more sustainable, environmentally friendly and fire resistant. When we could no longer meet in person because of the pandemic many of us learned new skills and became very familiar with new technologies. With every adversity comes an opportunity, now more than ever we need our industry organisations to work together with Government and the wider community to develop and rethink ways of doing things better. I think back to the devastating bushfires of 2003 and the hit it took on the Canberra community. We lost our beautiful forests and the lungs of the city. But then came a few visionaries who were bold in thought and together with the ACT Government they delivered what I believe to be one of our city’s most impressive landmarks, again collaboration and vision delivered a monument to resilience, the National Arboretum. Some of our 2020/21 milestone members have had a hand in delivering projects related to the arboretum. As President of Master Builders ACT, I want to make sure all of our members live up to our name – we are called Master Builders for a reason. All Canberrans that build with one of our members are engaging a professional who is committed to abiding by a code of conduct. Our members who are celebrating milestones this year, are members who have showed excellence in their conduct and delivery over many years of membership. I’m proud of the strategic, innovative and collaborative thinking in our industry and I look forward to seeing how our members will continue to grow Canberra.
MASTER BUILDERS ASSOCIATION NEWS EDITION 3 2021
5
