By Neil Montagnana-Wallace

The Hyphens just came back from a family holiday to Thredbo in the NSW high country. The Wallace part of the Montagnana-Wallaces has been going there for decades – summer, winter, snow or shine – and it seems it’s become the happy place for the whole family.

This time, my oldest boy’s girlfriend and my younger son’s mate came with us, and although they were both new to the experience, I did my best to keep cool and refrain from too many of the ‘did you knows?’ I’m inclined towards. But by the time the Alpine Way took us past Khancoban, and the shiny white pipes and power lines of what used to be called the Snowy Mountains Scheme (now Snowy Hydro) came into view, I couldn’t help myself.

‘It’s part of a massive hydroelectricity and irrigation project through these mountains. They started building soon after World War II – it’s an engineering marvel of the world and had huge social impact because it kickstarted immigration from around Europe.’ Pause for affect, then: ‘We’ve done some work for Thiess, who were the only Australian contractor on the project and ended up building about 2 per cent of the whole thing.’

‘They introduced Toyota to Australia because of the Snowy Scheme as well,’ Val added. ‘Les Thiess brought thirteen out from Japan to try them out – twelve for use and one for spares. They performed so well that for decades, Toyotas were sold in Australia by Thiess-Toyota.’

Then I might’ve taken it too far for the teenagers, enthusing that ‘they basically opened minerals trade with Japan when they started selling coal there soon after the war. They’ve also built major roads and bridges, and it was all started by a bunch of brothers with a tractor inland from Brisbane.’

Maybe playing it cool isn’t my thing.

Then, on my first visit back to Hyphen HQ in 2026, there sat two sample copies of the 90th book we produced for that very same Thiess. It’s bright, it’s big, and it’s full of amazing stories from amazing people, some of whom also took amazing pictures. It has impact, just like the company it honours. As the author, a wave of pride washed over me, and not just because it’s always cool to see something you’ve worked on come to life. I was proud of how the Hyphen team represented those words and stories and pictures, and triple-proud because it’s the third book I’ve written for Thiess and the fourth that our company has produced for them.

It all began with their 75th anniversary project, which was a collection of stand-alone interviews that together painted a picture of the company. For the 80th, we produced a large-scale, deeply researched coffee table book that celebrated the Thiess legacy. We then built on that to produce the 90th book, celebrating international expansion and company refinement over the last decade. And in between all that, we helped Thiess celebrate the success of their Royal North Shore Hospital redevelopment project.

With all that in mind, I reckon Val and I DID play it pretty cool our fresh young high-country visitors – there’s just so much to say about Thiess!