Brody Leemhuis is the fifth generation of his family to pickup the tools, the fourth in Australia. His great, great grandfathers were both in construction in Holland. At 19, Brody has just completed his carpentry apprenticeship through the MBA. His father Darrell, grandfather Peter and great-grandfather Alex couldn’t be prouder.
“Family is everything to us,” says Peter, who at 16 joined his father in A & P Leemhuis Builders, the firm Alex started in 1956.
Peter is frank about his start in building. “I had thought I might be an architect but I was not the best behaved kid in school. One day we had to have a meeting with the principal who told my parents ‘if he does anything else wrong, he’s out’. Dad just said to him ‘well, he’s not coming back’. I was on site the next day.”
Alex, now 96 and “Opa” to the whole Leemhuis clan, migrated to Australia after World War II from Holland where he’d completed compulsory national service and studied building full-time at tech before finishing practical training in Indonesia. At the end of the training he chose coming to Australia over a return to war-ravaged Europe, arriving in Canberra to a city growing rapidly with the burgeoning public service. He first worked in a nursery which allowed him to save up to buy his own tools so he could then go and work for AVJennings, erecting imported weatherboard buildings at Harman. Over time he did smalljobs on the side and eventually there was enough work coming in to set up onhis own. One of the first houses he built in Ainslie still stands today.
“There was a lot of building and plenty of jobs,” Alex says.
Alex and Peter worked together for more than thirty years.“We never had a fight. We just got on with it,” says Peter.
Darrell, Peter’s son, followed a similar path. “From a youngage, I just wanted to go to work with Dad. I never wanted to do anything else,” says. Like his father before him, Darrell left school at 16 and steppedstraight onto a building site.
And, he’s learnt a thing or two in the intervening decades. Hisguiding philosophy as the company’s leader now is painted on the boardroomwall: “If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never the goal.”
Each Leemhuis generation has added their own layer to thebusiness. Peter and Alex built their reputation initially through additions andalterations, then full builds, often on a handshake and with repeat clients. Thecompany moved into the commercial sector in the 1980s, then with Darrell at thehelm expanded its reach while keeping the business grounded in relationshipsand trust. Now Brody is at the start of his own journey. He’s already talkingabout doing a ‘Cert 4’ and building his own home (and maybe a few more afterthat), to learn the whole process from the ground up.
The family has seen the industry change.
“There are more rules, more paperwork and safety is frontand centre in a way it wasn’t in our time,” Peter says. But the values of hardwork, honesty and pride in a job well done right have not shifted.
Through it all, the Master Builders Association has been a constant. From apprenticeships to advice, from networking to training, theLeemhuis family have relied on the MBA as a partner in their journey. “The MBA’s been part of the story. It’s given us support, a voice and a community. It’s always been there for builders like us.”
More than seven decades after Alex first put down roots in Canberra, A & P Leemhuis is poised to celebrate its 70thanniversary and its work is quietly woven into the city’s streets and suburbs.
“It’s been a great journey,” Peter says. “And we’re still going.”
Words to live and build by:
Alex Leemhuis: “Like what you do, and you’ll be good at it.”
Peter Leemhuis: “Family is everything.”
Darrell Leemhuis: “If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never the goal.”
Brody Leemhuis: “Don’t do a half job: do it properly the first time.”
A & P Leemhuis are a proud Centenary Legacy Partner of Master Builders ACT.
