History

The Woollam name has been linked with construction in Australia since 1883 when English migrant, Thomas Woollam, established a small building and joinery business in Brisbane. From 1888, as the partnership Woollam and Norman, the company expanded its activities west and north. Significant projects included the Bank of New South Wales in Rockhampton and the Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane. In 1904, Thomas's son, Arthur, returned from the Boer War and took over the business.

Over the next two decades the company's activities included Queensland Government contracts to build workers' dwellings, and commercial projects such as the Logan Hotel and Albert Hotel. Arthur's son, Thomas, succeeded him in 1926 and the name T F Woollam appeared on the company letterhead in 1927. It remained there for the next 80 years.

Branching out

The company opened a temporary office Rockhampton office in 1942 to handle Defence contract during World War Two. (The founder's great-grandson Keith joined the RAAF and flew Lancaster bombers. His aircraft was shot down over Germany, though he returned to join the company after the war.)  

A permanent Rockhampton office re-established in 1963 after Woollams won Queensland Railway contracts. Among the hundreds of commercial, industrial, educational and public projects the office has managed, the best known is undoubtedly The Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre at Longreach.

The Mackay office was opened in 1958 after Woollams won the contract to build premises for the CBC bank. The company had been active in the northern part of the state since the 1930s, when it built the Post Office in Proserpine. Our Mackay office has managed over 300 contracts, among which have been the Canegrowers' Executive Building, the Mackay Entertainment Centre, and the Dalrymple Bay Coal Loading Facility, for which Woollams employed up to 150 people.

We opened our Ballina office in 2003. Woollams had completed a number of projects in northern New South Wales since the early-1980s. After being awarded the Maranoa Nursing Home project at Alstonville, we took the decision to establish a permanent presence in this fast-growing region.

Growing with Australia The evolution of Woollams has parallelled the changing face of Australia. From a small family business started by an energetic and optimistic migrant, the company has created buildings for the times. Shearing sheds in the 'wool boom' era and coal export facilities in the 'minerals boom'. Workers cottages and corner stores during wars and depressions. Major centres for commerce, leisure and the arts that define a community's identity and display its confidence in the future. National standards, locally focused Headquartered in Brisbane, where Thomas Woollam undertook his first project in the late-1800s, the company has established deep roots in regional centres. Our company structure is designed to ensure that the Woollam quality standard is applied wherever we are working, and that service delivery is always personalised and prompt. Although Woollam Construction today is far more financially robust and technically sophisticated than its founder could have imagined, we believe the company's character still reflects its genesis when reputation was 'bankable', prudence was a virtue, and an individual's word was considered binding. Known to generations in the industry as 'Woollams', the company simplified its name in 2007 to Woollam Constructions.