History

The Turner family's experience, expertise and skills have been built on many generations of involvement in the building industry.

From their humble beginnings in 1800s Victoria to their solid family-run Queensland business of today, the Turner family has much to be proud of.

The Turner family’s first foray into building began when managing director Robert Turner’s great, great, great grandfather, Charles Turner, sailed to Australia from England in the 1850s. Determined to have a successful and prosperous life in a new country, he set up a building business in Melbourne. One of Charles' projects was the Hawthorne Town Hall, pictured, built in the 1860s. If you walk around Melbourne in 2007, you will come across many fine examples of the Turner family’s earlier works.

The Turner family moved to Queensland in 1903 where Thomas Perry Turner, the founder of T.P. Turner Pty. Ltd, served his country in World War Two. He then decided to start working in the building industry which laid the foundation for the successful present day business. After a couple of years working in a partnership, Tom Senior decided he would go out on his own. In 1948, he commenced working as a sole trader and set up his business in the Ipswich area.

During the busy post-war years, Ipswich recovered and grew in population and industry. Immigrants moved to the area and reconstruction took place. Industry boomed with the development of new collieries, manufacturing plants for butter, meat, tobacco and timber and the local coal mines were pumping out massive volumes of coal for the state.

With this amazing growth in the area, Tom's business flourished and grew at phenomenal rate. In 1957, he registered the company as T.P. Turner Pty. Ltd. T.P. Turner went on to build the Congregational and Lutheran Churches, a new building for the Ipswich Girls Grammar School and major renovations to a number of buildings in the Ipswich area, establishing the company as one of integrity and excellent workmanship.

Thomas's son T.H. (Tom) Turner took over as managing director in 1976 and continued in the role until he handed over the reins to his son, Robert, in 2004. Robert Turner, the current managing director, is proud of his family’s ties in the local area and the hand T.P. Turner has had in building Queensland.

The Commercial and Industrial Building and Civil Concrete Construction sections of T.P. Turner evolved during the heady period of growth in the 50s and 60s. These two divisions were responsible for building several local churches, concrete chimney stacks, water reservoirs and the original Bundamba Sewerage Treatment Works.

Over the last 60 years, T.P. Turner has built and maintained a reputation for quality workmanship at the right price.

T.P. Turner’s success and customer loyalty comes from an attitude that no job is too big or too small. T.P. Turner will repair a door after a break in and has the skills to manage diverse multi-million dollar project such as office blocks, shops, churches, schools, medical facilities, architect designed homes, Olympic-sized swimming pools or water treatment plants.