O’Reilly’s reaches new heights with Mountain Villas construction

Hutchinson Builders have taken out the top award for professional excellence in Queensland at the Australian Institute of Building awards, for meeting the unique construction challenge of building O’Reilly’s new luxury Mountain Villas in an isolated location, on a steep hillside, surrounded by World Heritage listed rainforest.

Whilst Hutchinson’s are no strangers to award winning difficult projects on unusual sites, the two year development of O’Reilly’s 48 eco-villas was well worthy of recognition for the complexity of the undertaking, not to mention the end result.

From the sensitivity of disturbing as little of the lush landscape as possible, to the logistics of bringing all materials up a winding mountain road, Hutchinson’s executed environmentally friendly construction that has seamlessly blended the finished product into the pristine surrounds - as though the villas have been simply
perched like tree-houses amongst the forest.

The Australian Institute of Building (AIB) Awards recognise professional excellence, best practice building techniques, innovation to overcome difficulties, good management, and the quality standard of the built product.

Hutchinson Builder’s Barry Butterworth, who has been employed with Hutchinson’s for 47 years, said with the award for the O’Reilly’s Mountain Bowers project gave particular acknowledgement to the degree of difficulty in working in such a sensitive environment, and to design and logistics innovations such as cutting down the size of materials for transportation.

“It is rewarding to receive this recognition in the residential projects category with a value of between $10-$50million, which is always a hotly contested category,” Mr Butterworth said.

“Some of the villas were particularly challenging to build as they stand up to 8 metres off the ground, and we also faced some fairly difficult weather challenges with rain and the resulting mud on a sloping site.”

Having established a relationship with Hutchinson Builders on previous building and upgrade projects, O’Reilly’s had strong faith in the company’s ability to execute the villas project, while they worked together to develop a comprehensive Construction Environmental Management Plan to ensure the highest in building standards throughout the project.

Vegetation clearing and earthworks were minimised to protect site stability. Stormwater treatment and sediment and erosion control objectives were incorporated in site management, while high standards of waste management were also employed.

Eco-sensitive construction meant minimising site movements of heavy machinery and they chose a staged approach to reduce the amount of scaffolding and equipment that had to be set up.

Up to 90 workers were required during the peak building period, with some accommodated onsite and others brought up daily in troop carriers.

Hutchinson’s very experienced site manager Len White was up to the job - after 34 years with the company he’d already faced some large and unusual construction challenges, including building a giant $2.5 million refrigerated ‘shed’ made of rammed earth walls to cover an archaeological dig site containing more than 3,000 dinosaur footprints!

O’Reilly’s Managing Director Shane O’Reilly is delighted in the quality of the $34 million development and pleased the unique nature and standard of the project has been recognised, along with the professionalism of the Hutchinson Builders as principal contractor.

“We are extremely pleased with the quality of workmanship and believe the villas have been finished to the highest standards delivering a premium product that is also environmentally friendly,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“Appreciating the luxury of spacious and comfortable accommodation owners and guests can be secure in knowing that the environment has not been sacrificed to create their creature comforts, and this award provides further acknowledgement of this outstanding achievement.“

The development significantly expands the ecotourism appeal of the Gold Coast region, offering stylishly appointed self-contained accommodation that captures the same priceless views that first captivated the original O’Reilly mountain pioneers all those years ago.

Opened in late 2007, the two and three bedroom villas are ideal for families, groups of friends and couples travelling together, and have already proved a huge hit with travel wholesalers and visitors who’ve previously enjoyed O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat.

Designed to subtly resemble birds perched high amidst the trees and built from natural and lightweight materials, the villas offer stunning mountain and rainforest vistas and each feature an outdoor spa on an expansive timber deck, a gas fireplace, contemporary kitchen, air-conditioning, ensuited bedrooms and undercover parking.

O’Reilly’s is located a scenic two hour drive from Brisbane and 90 minutes from the Gold Coast.

Having previously won AIB awards for other unique projects such as a laboratory and research station on Herron Island and Wrotham Park Lodge outback resort, Hutchinson Builders will now be entered into the national category for the Mountain Villas project, to be held in Adelaide in late September 2008.

A limited number of investment opportunities remain within the O’Reilly’s Mountain Villas project. For further information contact Jane O’Reilly on 0417 606 863.

ENDS.

Further information on the O'Reilly's Mountain Villas.

MEDIA:
For further information on this press release, please contact: 
Amanda Tidmarsh
Phone: 07 5502 4900
Fax: 07 5502 0988
E-mail: amanda@oreillys.com.au
Or
Kathy Bourke
Phone: 07 5539 9883
Mobile: 0419 757 622
E-mail: kathy@articulatecommunications.com.au