Sir Leslie Charles Thiess

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(8 April 1909 – 25 November 1992) was a construction and mining industry entrepreneur, based in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. He was one of the founders of Thiess Bros, which later became

Thiess Pty Ltd Thiess Pty Ltd is an international mining services company based in Brisbane, Australia. Established in the 1930s as Horn & Thiess, the company later became Thiess Bros and Thiess Contractors before being bought by Leighton Holdings in 1983 to b ...

. With a humble background, and one of eleven children, Thiess founded a contracting firm in 1933, in partnership with Henry Horn. Under his leadership, the company became a major contractor in Queensland and, when Horn retired in 1939, the firm became Thiess Bros. It prospered from a succession of military engineering contracts during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and Thiess and his four brothers formed Thiess Holdings in 1950. The firm was floated on the Sydney and Brisbane stock exchanges in 1958. In 1968, Thiess was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) and, in 1971, he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

. After a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

by CSR in 1979, Thiess lost control of his company but, with assistance from two major backers, he bought back the construction division, continuing to develop coal mines and work on major Queensland government contracts, as well as being granted the licence for a casino in

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

. In the 1980s, it was alleged on television that he had delivered a hangar to the property of Queensland premier Sir

Joh Bjelke-Petersen Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005) was an Australian politician and farmer who served as premier of Queensland between 1968 and 1987, for almost 20 years, as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the C ...

, and had done private civil engineering works for Bjelke-Petersen that were written off as "Queensland Government Projects". Thiess sued Channel 9 for defamation, and won a minimal $55,050 in damages, but the jury found many of the allegations to be true. Thiess's appeal to the High Court was dismissed, with costs. It was clear that he had increasingly made use of his closeness to politicians and officials to obtain contracts, sometimes using inducements. In 1999, he received posthumously the Distinguished Constructor Award from the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiess, Leslie 1909 births 1992 deaths Australian civil engineers Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Australian Knights Bachelor Australian company founders Mining company founders Australian mining businesspeople