Nobelius Land Surveyors Celebrates it’s 25^th + 1 year anniversary.

In August we belatedly celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the beginning of Nobelius Land Surveyors.

As with everything this past few years, our original celebrations were scuppered by the pandemic, but this made the celebration all that bit more special when we were finally able to come together again.

The event was held at the Deep Creek Golf Club in Pakenham, a place that is special to our founding director Rob, as he has been president there for 14 years.

The business officially started on July 1st 1996 after Rob had been made redundant from the Gas and Fuel Corporation.  They started off small with just Chris & Rob, working weekends to make ends meet.

On the night heartfelt speeches were read by Rob, Ben and Tim. 

Rob said “As in all new business’s things were tight early on but we plugged through it.  My wife Chris was my initial “Jigger man” and after a rough start she was very good in the end. (There is another story in that one)

We employed Tim Dole only because he barracked for St Kilda and drove a VC Valiant (same as my old car).  He lasted about 10 years, went walk about, and has now returned to the fold. Great to see him back.”

“My philosophy was to keep it simple, provide good sound professional service, listen to the client and be approachable.  In doing so I wanted to stay small, up to 6 employees.

This worked for a few years but the went out the window as the client base and workloads increased.”

Fast forward a few years and by 2013 Nobelius was a well known and established family business with 12 employees.  Ben, Rob’s son was only 28 at the time and working for the family business, having qualified as a land surveyor at university (where he met Tim, the assistant director).

It was at this stage that Rob had a major health scare and Ben took over the directing of the company, a few years earlier than Rob had hoped but Ben seemed to take it all in his stride.

Rob said, “Ben picked up (I thought it was 5 or 6 years early) but he adapted and this can be seen by how the Company has flourished and the awards we have won.

The 2019 Casey Cardinia Business Awards – Winner Business & Professional Services and the 2021 National Surveying Consultancy Excellence Awards – Highly Commended Medium Consultancy Category”.

All amazing achievements for a small family ran business. 

On the celebration night, Ben was next to speak, with his memories of the early days of the business. 

“Whilst I was there, against my will in the earliest days, I had no real idea of what was happening financially or even what was normal in a start-up business.

But what I witnessed was a LOT of hard work. Some might call it determination, others insanity but for me at the time it was normal.

Peta (Ben’s sister) and I didn’t get a lot of time with Dad as kids, so Peta took an interest in footy and me with golf, footy and ultimately surveying!”

It is said in the business world that generation handovers are tricky, however this team took it all in their stride.

“Overnight I went from a recent Dad myself, Sienna being 5 weeks old, to running a business which 12 people relied on for their livelihood.

Lucky for everyone I’m pretty calm and self-assured about life’s big things (not so cool in an immediate crisis mind you!) and things managed to tick along with the heavy momentum Dad had built over the preceding 17 years.”

This is where our associate director Tim Walker came in.  Tim had joined Nobelius a couple of years before, and had become Licensed only a few months prior to Ben taking over. Together they slowly found their feet in taking the company onwards and upwards.

Ben finished his speech with a testimony to the hard work of both his parents, “Both have shown me firsthand that hard work pays off, and having you all here tonight is a true testament to that. The ultimate reward is to not only create a life worth living for yourself, but to provide that opportunity to others – family, friends and colleagues.” 

Next up was Tim, who wanted to let Ben, Chris & Rob know how grateful he was for where he is today,

“But the main reason I’m up here is to thank Rob, Chris and Benny. Outside of my immediate family, they’ve done more for me than anyone else. They’ve welcomed me into this business and made me feel like I’m part of their family; I’ll always consider them to be a part of mine.”

It was an emotional speech from Tim, which echoed many people’s thoughts in the room about just what it is like to be a part of the Nobelius family.

“The number of Company employees has risen from 3 in 1996 to 12 in 2013 to now 30 plus in 2022.

Chris & I are very proud of the Company and feel that it is still being run with the same principles that it started with, a strong Family based Company.  All staff are treated as family even though there are only 7 (Ben, Pete, Mitch, Luke, Harley, Kris and Harry) legitimate family members.  So well done to the team led by Ben & Tim.”  Rob 

The night was a hit for everyone involved, with a huge thanks going to Deep Creek Golf Club for hosting, and for the tasty platters, Robertson’s for the stunning cake and Magnet Me for the photography and keepsakes to take home for everyone.  Memories made on an evening celebrating a 25 (+1) year family business success story.  Here’s to the next 25 (+1!) to come!

Some facts about Nobelius Land Surveyors: 

From left to right, Ben (Managing Director) Rob (Founder/Director) Chris (Director) Tim (Associate Director)