Sir Leslie, Cecil, Pat, Bert & Stan ThiessPrint Page

Thiess Park commemorates Sir Leslie Thiess, his brothers Cecil, Pat, Bert and Stan, and their respective wives who were the founders of the Thiess Company, which became a major engineering and resource management company in Australia.

Thiess was founded as Horn & Thiess in 1933 by Henry Horn and Leslie Theiss with headquarters in Toowoomba. Initially the business focused on road-building and earth moving but subsequently expanded into dam construction, open cut mining and other forms of civil engineering. After other members of the Thiess family bought Horn out, it was renamed Thiess Bros.

The Thiess brothers, Les, Bert, Stan, Pat and Cecil, were both innovators and early adopters of machinery technology. This brought them substantial contracts during World War Two, laying the foundation for a successful business. The major turning point in its history occurred when the Australian company was awarded a major works contract on the Snowy Mountains’ project. From that moment, it grew and evolved into a major engineering company.

Its contribution to the construction of dams, highways and bridges in Queensland is unprecedented and these successes have been repeated throughout Australia. It is said, sincerely, that if a highway was constructed around the coastline of Australia, it would go close to matching the road works undertaken by Thiess during its history.

The entrepreneurship of the brothers, Sir Leslie in particular, led to the pioneering of open cut coalmining, the Australia-Japan coal trade and the Australian distribution of Toyota vehicles, amongst others.

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