50 Years - 50 Stories: John Blake

We began as Maxwell Contracting, a fabrication workshop started by Peter and John Maxwell at Tiger Street in West Ipswich in 1970. After the floods in 1973/4, we moved to our current location – where we have remained for the past 40+ years. A few years later, a Sydney-based company, Aquatec Engineering, the brainchild of Tom Lawson, merged with us to form Aquatec Maxcon. Decades later, MPA Engineering joined the fun and became part of the Aquatec Maxcon Group.

Coincidentally, this week we celebrated the 50th work anniversary of John Blake. "Blakey" began as a strapping young site tradesman and is still with us today as an Estimator and resident problem solver due to his wealth of knowledge gained from working for all the Councils, Water Authorities, Industrial Clients and Power Stations over the years. His stories range from using pay phones and reverse charge calls as a primary means of professional communication to newfangled fax-machines and brick mobile phones, a far cry from smart phones and virtual offices of today. A lot has changed in 50 years, and Blakey has seen us go from humble beginnings all the way through to the Company we are today.

Not many individuals work for the same Company for half a century! Congratulations to John for his loyalty and stamina!

Below: John Blake as a strapping young tradie on site (left) and as he appears around the office today (right) as our highly esteemed Estimator and General Problem Solver