Building success with safety and performance

Much of the land around Wodonga has been developed by one company, which swears by the excellence of Volvo equipment to level its roads and prepare the estates.

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It's no exaggeration to say that much of the land around the Albury-Wodonga region along the NSW-Victoria border was developed by one company: Nordcon.

Indeed, looking at a map of the city of Wodonga today, it can be seen that the Nordcon group has built more than half of the new road infrastructure and major sewerage and drainage infrastructure created since 1974.

Such an achievement is a great testament to the determination of Nordcon founder Jorma (Norm) Pietila, who made the brave trek from Finland to Bonegilla in 1959 with little money and only a basic knowledge of English.

In his early years in Australia, he worked on the Ghan railway, based in Williams Creek, SA. In the 1960s, he moved to Melbourne with his family, which saw him working on many housing developments and commercial sites, building sewer mains and storm water drains and establishing his own business.

This included the early works at Tullamarine Airport and Doncaster Shopping Centre.

The big move to Wodonga came in 1974, when Norm moved his family to Wodonga, to take advantage of the work opportunities and decentralisation push by the then Whitlam Government.

Norm's business won contracts to work on many roads and infrastructure in Albury, Wodonga and surrounding areas for local councils and the Albury Wodonga Development Corporation.

In the mid 80s, Norm teamed up with another Finnish immigrant family, the Alatalo brothers, and this saw the start of a venture into land development.

Norm retired in the 90s and relinquished the reins to his eldest son Eric, who was already managing the family business, now rebranded as Nordcon Construction.

Eric has continued to evolve and grow the land development sector of the business and this has seen many long and enduring partnerships that have formed the Nordcon brand seen today.