As the fallout from the financial stumble continued across northern building circles, the first of the Buildplan employees, perhaps up to 180, were given notice their jobs were gone.

Mr Wheeler indicated he still held hopes things could be put right and he was working to put the situation to rights. 

Meanwhile local industry observers were confident that while the administrators might be soaking up some of the payments owed to sub-contractors across the northern region and many faced the prospect of losing retention or contract payments, government building contracts would not be left idle for too long.

They echoed the sentiments of federal MP Tony Windsor who said government building projects like the Armidale courthouse would have to be finished, by someone.

In Armidale yesterday, Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts, while touring the new courthouse construction site, made the assurance that the government was in a position to continue the work, either under the administrator or with the builder.

“We will get this infrastructure up and running again,” Mr Roberts said.

While he acknowledged the works would be delayed, Mr Roberts said government contracts had a high level of protection.

And yesterday it appeared Mr Wheeler was offering some sort of the same solace to contractors, giving them the names of at least two big national contractors who might be enlisted to finish those jobs, and give local sub-contractors some work to offset what could be lost in the Buildplan financial problems.

Mr Wheeler told some industry partners and northern media he had something like 300 messages on his phone in the wake of the announcement that an administrator BRI Ferrier had been appointed Monday night.

One Tamworth contractor owed a substantial amount, Matt Halpin, yesterday told The Leader Bill Wheeler had rung him Tuesday morning before 8.30am.

“He said he was sorry for the situation we were in,” Mr Halpin said.

Other contractors said they’d been seeking for detail about where to go from here, including providing information to Health Infrastructure about their projects. 

Earlier, other media reported a statement posted on the company’s website late on Monday that said: “Recent strategies to restructure the company and secure additional funding have not been successful leading to a requirement to place the company into voluntary administration.”

Fairfax reported at least 180 jobs were at risk.

The company would be working closely with insolvency firm BRI Ferrier “to achieve the best outcome possible, ” the statement went on.

National Buildplan and Watpac Construction in November won a $65 million joint tender for the main works of the Port Macquarie Hospital upgrade on the NSW mid-north coast.

The troubled firm also won an $8 million contract for construction enabling works at Dubbo Base Hospital in central NSW and has operations in Queensland and Western Australia.

The union representing workers at National Buildplan sites, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), said the family-owned company still owed sub-contractors millions.

The CFMEU said one sub-contractor working for the company at Nepean Hospital was owed almost $500,000.

The union’s assistant state secretary, Rebel Hanlon, said the NSW government had failed to act on 44 recommendations made by the Collins inquiry in January, including a call for the mandatory establishment of construction trusts on all projects valued at $1 million or more.

Bruce Collins, QC, led a three-month probe into the industry after a string of high-profile construction firms collapsed and left suppliers and sub-contractors out of pocket to the tune of $1 billion.

Jobs, payments and projects in jeopardy

By Matt Nicholls, Armidale Express

ARMIDALE’S building and construction industry is reeling following the demise of National Buildplan, which went into voluntary administration on Monday.

More than 50 jobs will be lost in the city and hundreds across the country as the Armidale-based company was reported to owe tens of millions of dollars.

Major building projects are also in jeopardy, including the new Armidale courthouse, work at the hospital and at Freeman House, although there are moves to put in place contingency strategies for the jobs to be completed because they involve government investment.

After staying silent when the news broke on Monday, Buildplan director Bill Wheeler said yesterday that he would spend the coming days and weeks “putting things right”.

“I’m bitterly disappointed, not for me, but for all the employees and the subcontractors,” he said.

“I’m the sole director and for the past 25 years the company has enjoyed a lot of success, but maybe we got ahead of ourselves.

“We are now working closely with the receivers to make sure the employees get their entitlements – they are the number one priority.”

Mr Wheeler, who built the business into a national company from humble beginnings in Armidale over 20 years ago, said there was potentially light at the end of the tunnel.

“Basically we had some bad luck revolving around a couple of projects,” he said.

“One of them was in the Pilbara in Western Australia where we lost about $4 million because an innovative material failed.

“There were a couple of smaller projects in Sydney that also cost us a bit.”

Mr Wheeler said Buildplan was still owed money by the government at state and federal level and hoped that the company could survive.

“If we do manage to come out of this on the other side, we’ll definitely be scaling things back,” he said.

“We’ll go back to being a regional company and not a national one.”

Mr Wheeler and the administrator BRI Ferrier are currently working with employees and subcontractors to finish current projects.

“We’ve got about 137 projects in the pipeline and we’re talking to two construction companys to get those jobs complete,” he said.

“At the moment we’re trying to get our employees and subcontractors working with them so they can keep paying their own bills.”

Mr Wheeler said he was prepared to take his share of criticism.

“I can handle the weight of it,” he said.