Building momentum: A 2024 year in review
Despite a changing industry landscape, Millar Merrigan have navigated 2024 with resilience and a continued commitment to delivering exceptional results. We took a moment to highlight our key achievements and celebrate a year of growth, innovation and impactful community contributions.
Finished some journeys and started even more
In 2024, we saw the creation of 915 new projects and the completion of 806 existing projects. This involved 130 permit applications lodged, 151 planning permits received.
Additionally, we saw 150 certified applications for subdivisions, 161 statements of compliance (SOCs), making 1018 new individual lots.
Breaking ground and breaking barriers: Project spotlights
2024 saw us begin, continue, complete and fight for some great projects that we’re proud to be a part of.
Dunbar Road: Achieving the vision
This medium-density housing development of 50 dwellings in Traralgon is aimed at providing affordable housing opportunities for Housing Victoria in line with Latrobe City Council’s Latrobe Social and Affordable Housing Strategy. It’s a testament to how Millar Merrigan’s multiple disciplines can collaborate to achieve a positive development outcome, with our planning, engineering, building design and landscaping teams involved to create a well-rounded and sustainable housing solution.
Despite facing council refusal, Millar Merrigan successfully appealed this decision at VCAT and the development ultimately received approval. Thanks to our level of collaboration and dedication to the project, we were able to put together an incredibly detailed argument at VCAT, ultimately helping this project succeed.
Key permit conditions imposed by council were also successfully challenged and overturned, allowing the project to move forward and providing precedence that may be useful for other projects in the future.
We are proud to have been able to work so effectively and put together a coordinated effort across our disciplines to deliver impactful and community-focused developments. Affordable housing is an important part of addressing the current housing shortage. This decision represents a win for the YIMBY (yes-in-my-back-yard) movement.
Traralgon North Development Plan: A decade-long commitment
The Traralgon North Development Plan area in 2017
The development made in this area up until February 2024
For over a decade, Millar Merrigan has had an instrumental part in delivering the Traralgon North Development Plan and shaping the future of Traralgon. Our involvement in three key estates – The Rise, Silverwood Estate and Franklin North – has been a testament to our commitment to delivering exceptional outcomes.
This project began 12 years ago and we were involved from the onset. During this time, our team has been at the forefront of this transformative project, delivering almost an entire development front. With the major signalised intersection to open soon, connecting Marshalls Road to Traralgon-Maffra Road, the project will soon be complete.
Jack Tatterson, project manager at Millar Merrigan, has been involved in this project since he started with us in 2017. He has had a major role in this project, specifically delivery of the catchment sewer pump station and four stages of residential development this year!
We’re proud to have contributed to the creation of a thriving community in Traralgon. The recent opening of a retail hub within The Rise estate, including a Coles and an early childcare centre, marks a significant milestone and highlights our commitment to building vibrant neighbourhoods.
As we turn our attention the Baldwin Road Development Plan, we look forward to continuing our partnership with our valued clients and delivering another successful project.
Kilmore outfall sewerage: Building for the future
Through 2024, our engineering and project delivery teams have been working on the design and construction supervision of a 4km long outfall sewer that shall service the Kilmore South East Development Plan area. We’ve been working on this in partnership with, and on behalf of, Goulburn Valley Water and private developers.
This project addresses a significant infrastructure gap, extending and duplicating the existing sewerage network to support the growing community. We’ve overcome challenges such as complex cultural heritage management plans and have been involved in the acquisition of easements within private property, facilitated alongside Goulburn Valley Water.
The completion of this outfall sewer will unlock Kilmore South East Development Plan’s potential, enabling the development of thousands of new residential lots as well as resolving capacity issues for the existing catchment. We’re excited to see this project reach completion in mid to late 2025 and look forward to its positive impact on the community.
Yarra Valley Grammar: Creating considered student spaces
It’s been great having our Landscape Architecture team work alongside Yarra Valley Grammar again this year, seeing the finish of their Junior Primary Playspace!
This rewarding project has created an accessible and enjoyable space to invigorate and engage students in different ways which help develop gross motor skills and foster creativity.
We’re looking forward to continuing our work with the school, working on several multi-year projects including a performing arts building, various outdoor student spaces, and redevelopment of their sporting fields and infrastructure.
The Y Community School: Empowering disengaged young people
The Y (previously known as the YMCA) Community School is an example of the empowerment that alternative education can provide. This innovative school is designed to cater to young people aged 15 and over who have struggled to engage with mainstream education.
We were involved in this project through critical problem solving, allowing the project to go ahead after they’d been told it wasn’t feasible in it’s current location.
Our team was then able to obtain all necessary permits to design an appropriate educational space through repurposing an existing community centre gym facility.
Some images of the Y Community Centre gym, before it was converted into the community school
Various images of the Y Community School as it was being constructed, sourced from The Y Whittlesea post
Celebrating our people
Our team has continued to develop, seeing 11 new faces walk through our doors in 2024 – including the return of two senior staff!
Adding into the wider Millar Merrigan family, we’ve seen the addition of 2 new marital partners and celebrated their weddings and said hello to 5 new babies!
Milestone services and final hurrahs
This year, we celebrated many work anniversaries, including 6 five-years, 4 ten-years, 2 twenty-years, one thirty-years and one thirty-five-years!
These major milestone services saw us celebrating the careers of Lisa McMorris, Lyn Van Der Zwart, Simon Merrigan and Sean Ryan who have all enjoyed long and rewarding careers at Millar Merrigan over the decades of service.
2024 also saw us saying bittersweet farewells to 3 employees, sending them off into a happy retirement – thank you to Louise Murphy, Phil Sewell and Greg O’Neill for your amazing work at Millar Merrigan over your 22, 12 and 6 years of service respectively!
Whether we’re celebrating our team coming, staying or going, our staff will always remain a part of the Millar Merrigan family.
Paving the way for the future: Investing in our team
We’ve seen our staff improve their professional development and we couldn’t be more proud of their expertise and initiative.
3 of our staff achieved their Registered Building Practitioner (RBP) qualification, helping us provide clients with faster project delivery by bridging the gap between design and construction. Congratulations to Kerollos Rofael, Curtis Owens and Aaron Smith!
We also saw the registration of one more of our engineers, Xavier Calgaro, highlighting not only his commitment to professional development, but his exceptional civil engineering skills.
Building our team up from the inside out
Land Development Exploration Program
2024 saw us hold a relaunch of our ‘mentor program’, now known as the ‘Land Development Exploration Program!’ This program supported 13 employees through a full-year schedule, having a deep dive into each of Millar Merrigan’s disciplines each month.
From hands-on experiences and interactive workshops to one-on-one mentoring from a dedicated ‘expert’ at Millar Merrigan, the involved employees were set up for success to become well-rounded contributors, enriching both their individual growth and our company’s collective expertise.
Engineering Design Professional Training Program
We continued our commitment to developing our engineering design team through a comprehensive program. This program has focused on enhancing the knowledge and skills of our team in various areas of engineering design, aligning with current industry trends, standards and regulations.
Our team benefitted from the expertise of both internal and external professionals. Internal speakers from diverse disciplines within Millar Merrigan shared their knowledge, while external experts from Iplex and QMAX provided valuable insights into industry best practices.
Continuing our development in 2025
We look forward to running the Land Development Exploration Program again in 2025, with a new group of ‘explorers’ taking on the deep dive at Millar Merrigan!
We will also see the Leadership Program return for the third time in the new year. This program aims to encourage leaders to reflect on their leadership qualities and understand their team members’ working styles through various profiling tools. Additionally, leaders will participate in practical training and workshops designed to enhance their skills.
Growing our service offerings
In 2024, we have been excited to continue expanding our service offerings to clients.
We’ve added working drawings in-house to our building design team who work closely with our structural engineers to ensure all architectural and structural elements of projects are precisely detailed. This allows for better coordination and efficiency, facilitating smoother project execution which aids the overall quality and timeliness of project delivery.
Our engineering design team has also expanded their service offerings, obtaining their VicTrack accreditation! This allows us to conduct third-party compliance assessments for proposed infrastructure within VicTrack land, ensuring that all projects meet the necessary standards and regulations.
Our commitment to expanding our services ensures we can provide seamless and comprehensive services in-house, saving clients time through our streamlined processes.
Leading by example: Industry expertise in asset recording
Our asset recording team continued to act as the industry leaders in their field, with our very own in-house expert Shane Sewell being invited to facilitate during the 2024 National A-SPEC Online Forum Series!
Shane facilitated the R-SPEC Forum, sharing learnings from his over 2 decades of expertise to educate and inform viewers on best practices for asset recording.
Beyond the blueprint: Giving back to the community
We know the importance of providing support – not just to our staff, but to the wider communities in which we live and work.
Through 2024, we’ve sponsored various organisations or clubs, many of which our team members are personally involved with; Bayswater Cricket Club, Warranwood Cricket Club, Flemington Bowling Club, Maroondah Adult Riding Club, Mad Dog & The Boys hockey team, Variety Bush Bash and the Yarrawonga Boat Spectacular & Fair. We’ve also donated to Cancer Council of Victoria, Variety – The Children’s Charity and The Dining Room Mission.
Our staff also participated once again in Movember, with some of our men using their faces as billboards to start a conversation and help raise funds for research in men’s health. Our team did a great job raising over our $500 goal for this getting to $1060 funds raised!
A toast to success and looking ahead
As we say goodbye to 2024, a year filled with new and old connections, plenty of new challenges and opportunities and some major changes to our industry, Millar Merrigan is delighted to reflect on the lives we’ve been able to improve as we continue our mission to inspire better living.
We wish everyone a very happy holiday period and we can’t wait to jump into the new year with you by our side!
If you’re interested in working with Millar Merrigan on a project in the coming year, or want to join our team, get in touch.