Weathering the storm
THE lifelong service of a Townsville builder to the industry, including a passion for improving the resilience of structures to cyclones, has been recognised by Master Builders.
John Galloway was made a life member of Master Builders Queensland at the recent North Queensland Housing and Construction Awards.
Master Builders regional manager Melissa Coulter said the award was made to people who had demonstrated exceptional service to the industry.
“We were very pleased to be able to award John with this accolade, as he has continually given to the industry and has immense passion for it,” Ms Coulter said.
Mr Galloway has been a prominent builder in North Queensland for many years, having held board positions on the North Queensland committee, State Council and Queensland Building Services Authority, and is the current chairman of the James Cook University Cyclone Testing Station.
He first came to Townsville as a building cadet with John Holland in the 1970s to work on the development of the Townsville Civic Theatre.
He operated builder Galloway and Lando in Townsville for more than 20 years and more recently has worked as a construction manager on developments including the Townsville cruise ship terminal and Townsville Marine Precinct.
Mr Galloway said he realised early he was a “warm weather person” and, while studying in Melbourne and seeing on TV the damage inflicted by Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, developed an interest in building in the tropics.
“I remember looking at the destruction on television and thinking, my God, we can put a man on the moon but we can’t build houses to withstand cyclones. That sparked my interest,” he said.
Mr Galloway said with improvements in construction, houses built after the 1980s had been shown to be more resilient to cyclones.
But he said water egress through openings in buildings remained a big issue.
“Once water gets in that can cause a lot of damage. That’s something the cyclone testing station is focusing on,” Mr Galloway said. far