Dean Weston
Last weekend, while enjoying the sunshine, working in the yard, I let my mind wander to some of the incredible developments I’ve had the pleasure to work on during my career in fire services and safety, which has spanned several decades.
It was great to take a trip down memory lane, as it’s all too easy to get lost in the day-to-day of running a business and forget about the projects that helped to shape you and get you to where you are today.
For me, that’s director of Progress Fire Co., a company I started seven years ago.
Here are five of my all-time favourite projects.
The redevelopment of the heritage-listed People’s Palace Backpackers in Brisbane was my first ever project in the fire services industry. I was straight out of school when I landed a job as a cadet fire safety system designer and was presented with iconic People’s Palace as my first job. It was an interesting project to cut my teeth on.
I’d been working in design when I got a tap on the shoulder from my boss who thought I was ready for a bigger challenge, so offered me the opportunity to take on a junior project management role on the Suncorp Stadium redevelopment. I couldn’t turn that down!
Working under an experienced project manager, I was physically onsite for the life of the project – I lived and breathed it. I loved being onsite and not only interacting with the project team, but also dealing with the other trades and services, and our client. It gave me a taste for the bigger picture, and I’m still proud that I got to play a small role in such a big redevelopment.
Woolworths Australia had decided to embrace the global model of “regional distribution centres”, and the third of these new facilities in Australia was earmarked for Larapinta, Brisbane. We were sent to Perth to spend time at their newest warehouse so we could learn from their experiences and bring those learnings back for the Brisbane project.
It was a huge development – and my first large scale industrial project. It was also one of the first warehouses to incorporate a high bay with automated racking systems, so we had to integrate our fire safety systems around this. Again, I was onsite for the entire project, which I enjoyed. I think this is where my love for industrial projects stemmed from.
Whenever I’m at the international terminal in Brisbane, I still feel a sense of pride about being involved in such an iconic expansion. This was an intricate project and a complex job, with the additional challenges of having our teams working both “airside” and “landside”, which added a layer of complexity thanks to security and customs and everything that comes with that. Again, onsite for the entirety of the project, I was responsible for delivering the fire safety services for both the terminal itself and the internal fit-out.
Freeman Central, a job Progress Fire Co. completed about 12 months ago, was a 60,000m2 speculative warehouse development with one of our favourite clients, McNab. Yes, it was a world-class industrial facility, but if I’m honest, there really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about the work itself. I enjoyed this project because of the positive site culture, something McNab is renowned for. With McNab senior leadership involved, you could see their DNA shine through onsite, every day. I really enjoyed working on this project.
https://www.mcnab.net.au/expertise/industrial/freeman-central-dexus
Whatever industry you’re in, I urge you to take some time to think about the projects, clients and experience that shaped your passion for what you do.
If you’d like to learn more about Progress Fire Co. and how we can assist your business, please reach out here.
By Dean Weston I’ve talked a lot about Progress Fire Co.’s new company values of late – agility, professionalism, gratitude, integrity, quality, collaboration, and reliability. These values represent who we are and what we stand for. They are at the heart of every decision the company makes and help to drive all choices made in […]
We recently created a new strategic plan for Progress Fire Co., and as part of this process, we reviewed and updated our vision statement.
I’ve always been a values-driven human. I believe that values are part of the moral code that guides our actions and defines who we are. They are what we consider important, the things that matter to our well-being and happiness.
