Hines won its awards for two different projects, they being the Warrumbungle National Park Visitor Centre and the Wolgan Valley Campus - Cranbrook School. 

One of the awards Hines received, earned for the visitor centre, was the MBA Commercial Builder of the Year for the Western Region. 

It was an exciting achievement, David Hines said, as his company was up against varied builders that worked on projects in the region. 

The company also won the Commercial Projects ($3 million to $5 million) and Best Use of Stone awards for the visitor centre, while it picked up Commercial Projects ($5 million to $10 million) and Best Use of Timber awards for the Cranbrook School project.

Hines also won an Excellence in Construction award for Student Accommodation (up to $7.5 million).  

READ MORE: Hines Constructions commended for building innovative facility

Hines has won five MBA state awards for various projects since 2012, but to obtain six MBA awards in the one year was quite a feat that reinforced the company’s growth since starting in 1994. 

“It meant a lot to us, to be recognised in our own backyard, and then to obviously win multiple awards for multiple jobs was very satisfying and a result of all our hard work,” Mr Hines said.

He said that both the projects that garnered MBA recognition were unique. 

Wolgan Valley Campus - Cranbrook School

The Cranbrook School project required Hines to build an approximately two-kilometre long road into the site, which had to occur before more construction could start, and supply the services to the site. 

Following that, student accommodation, a hall, commercial kitchen and camping pads had to be built.

“The scale of the project was really considerable and extensive,” Mr Hines said. 

The purpose of the campus is to help students learn in a natural environment, using a facility that is almost entirely self-sustaining.

This was a ‘design and construct’ job, meaning that Hines also contributed to the final design of the campus, working closely with the architect to meet their vision. 

Hines spent approximately 10 months on site, completing the project largely within the anticipated timeline. 

As Hines’ construction manager Paddy Barber explained, the project was not without its challenges.

“We had to construct the road all the way in before we could do anything; we had to build our road to give us access to get out plant and equipment in to build these dwellings,” he said. 

“It was unusual in that it was a pretty remote site; we had no telephone coverage, no internet coverage, so we were pretty isolated, and we had no power to build the thing, so everything was run off generators.

“We had to consider fire because it was in a bushfire zone, so we had a water cart available in case there was any issues.

“Working in a remote location, we had to turn up with everything we needed – planning was key on this job. To get to the hardware was a 30 minute drive to Lithgow, which was a limited source, so we had to have everything we needed.

“It’s not like working in town, where you forget something and you can go and get it.”

Warrumbungle National Park Visitor Centre

The visitor centre, which is also up for an architectural award, is said to have a “striking” design. 

It includes around $1 million worth of masonry work, so it was sympathetic to its national park setting.

“It was an enjoyable project to work on, a very interesting one, particularly with the stone work because we brought that in from Gosford Quarry,” Mr Barber said.

“Then it was tipped out of trucks and all had to be dressed manually. Every block of stone was dressed by hand and then positioned like a jigsaw without a picture.

“All we had was an overall impression of what they wanted, but we had to match the stone adjacent to each other.”  

The visitor centre was also designed and built with one of the highest resistance levels for bushfires, as the original visitor centre had burned down. 

Hines spent around 10 months on this project.