Celebrating 50 years of Ashburner Francis
Today our Managing Director Brian Kenny, together with Directors Lara Harris, Toby Murdoch, Graham Heaslip, Wayne Benson and Paul McKenna are full of gratitude for the tenacious trio that founded Ashburner Francis. Andy Francis and Harry Ashburner, alongside Cliff Farmer took that leap of faith in Brisbane back in 1976.
“Creating a business from scratch takes courage, expertise and energy,” Brian Kenny says. “Andy, Harry and Cliff all had that in spades. It’s a legacy we’re humbled to build upon.”
Rewind to the seventies and Andy, Harry and Cliff quickly gathered loyal clients from within architecture offices, Government entities, and development/property management organisations. By the eighties, as the office grew, they welcomed the firm’s first female employee — a draftsperson by the name of Anna Dymalla.
Reflecting on the origins of Ashburner Francis’ workplace culture, current Director Lara Harris applauds the firm’s early emphasis on equity. “I’ve always felt welcome in this workplace, and it’s obvious Ashburner Francis has a long history of recruiting for merit over gender,” Lara says.
Embracing ‘new’ technology
The first fax machines and mobiles began to appear at Ashburner Francis HQ in the eighties. Personal Computers too were taking up residence on the desks of our engineers. Then in the nineties, the ‘world wide web’ was launched.
Around that time, Ashburner Francis became an early adopter of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to help expedite the design and documentation process for clients. Toby Murdoch, who now heads up the Brisbane office alongside Lara Harris, says being future-focused is firmly embedded in the firm’s DNA.
“We’re certainly carrying on that tradition of embracing new technologies and staying in step with emerging AI tools,” Toby says.
Overcoming challenges
Surviving the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 and navigating the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic were among Ashburner Francis’ greatest challenges to date. “Disruptions to the design and delivery of building services were industry-wide, of course,” Brian Kenny says. “But we’re extremely proud of the way we continued to support our clients, collaborators and colleagues through this long period of instability.”
Looking ahead
Today, our clients have access to mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and energy services
— enabling Ashburner Francis to provide them with fully integrated design solutions.
Our team continues to grow, and in recent years we’ve welcomed an increasing number of graduates and early-career engineers.
In the coming months, we’ll be hosting 50th anniversary celebrations in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Townsville and Darwin. Watch this space for more details.
Meanwhile, for a deeper dive into Ashburner Francis’ history click here.