Australia’s home building industry is mourning the loss of one of its greats this week, with the passing of West Australian builder Len Buckeridge.
Rising from humble beginnings, the self-made industry leader successfully built the Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC) from the ground up to become the largest home builder in the nation, topping the HIA Housing 100 in 2012-13 with 3,400 commencements. The company today employs over 4,000 people.
BGC owes much of its success to the vision of Len Buckeridge in creating a vertically integrated group that manufactured the building products that went into these dwellings.
BGC has also been responsible for a number of Perth’s iconic buildings, including the recently completed state-of-the-art concert and sports venue, the Perth Arena.
Len Buckeridge was renowned for his forthright approach to addressing bureaucratic and industrial hurdles, or delivering housing to the community, regularly standing up for the industry in the face of adversity.
He also found the time to serve the industry as a councillor in the HIA Western Australia Division from 1985 to 1991 and was also a member of the HIA National Home Building Council.
The achievements of Len Buckeridge and his commitment to the broader housing industry were recognised with the HIA Sir Phillip Lynch Award for outstanding service to Australian housing in 1993, and the HIA Ron Sears Citation for excellence in the WA Housing Industry in 2004.
The Housing Industry Association extends its sincere condolences to the Buckeridge family on their loss.
