Straight after high school, I started in construction in BC, Canada which led to a four-year carpentry apprenticeship. I worked on a lot of residential and custom houses, start to finish, where I gained experience in framing and every aspect of carpentry.

In 2016, I came to Australia and started on Durbach Block Jaggers’ House Taurus under Bellevarde’s site manager Lewis Townsend. John Fielding must have liked what he saw of my carpentry because he asked me to stay with Bellevarde. I soon learned the Bellevarde way of doing things. Rather than the short-term fastest or the cheapest way, the Bellevarde way is to find what’s going to work the best and last the longest. Our architects and clients have high expectations on the level of customising and we go out of our way to achieve things beyond that level.

There’s a huge amount of knowledge within the company so we all know there’s always somebody to bounce ideas off. I’ve been lucky enough to work on some excellent projects with other highly experienced site managers like Ben Lea and Jak Gannon. It’s also been great to pick up a lot from Scott Waller about concreting and formwork, on how to form concrete that’s both beautiful and strong. Everybody in the team just wants to do things the best possible way.

I look forward to challenges of managing a job from start to finish and gaining greater insight into the structural process. In my years with Bellevarde I’ve realised I like focussing on the details—anything from assisting in design of a custom drain tray to more aesthetic things like hardware fabrication and joinery items. Another bonus of being part of the Bellevarde team is that we get to collaborate with some of the most talented tradespeople. I enjoy developing those relationships in ways that allow them to do their finest work.

I think Bellevarde will continue to focus on what we’re good at—getting things right from the start. As my career progresses, I would like to spend some of my time training the younger builders on how to do things well and at a good pace. Having a solid team of apprentices, carpenters, and skilled workers coming up through the company will ensure our strength for a long time to come.