My Account
12 January 1935 – 14 May 2018
The last original founder of Wharehine Contractors, Brian Dodd, was farewelled at a gathering at the Rodney College Hall on Saturday, May 19. More than 400 people paid their last respects to a man who was remembered for his integrity and honour, as well as being community-driven and a dedicated family man.
Born at Te Kopuru and raised on a dairy farm in Wharehine, Brian attended Wellsford District High School and then Northland College. He played rugby for Wellsford and had a lifetime love for boating. After leaving school, he worked on the family farm and as a hammer-hand for builder Neil Holm.
In 1955, Brian, Tom Sinclair and his son John formed Wharehine’s after winning the Rodney County Council contract to extract and supply aggregate from the Mt Breame quarry, at Port Albert; a contract that lasted for more than 30 years. They went on to acquire two more quarries, one in Whangaripo and the other in Omaha Valley Road. The company’s subsequent expansion into earthworks was financed when Brian sold his first car, a Mark 1 Zephyr, to buy a D4 bulldozer.
In 1959, he married Judith Boyer, a nurse from Tauranga who was soon introduced to the realities of life as a contractor’s wife. In 1960, Wharehine’s was contracted to make an earth dam in Tapora and Brian and his team lived in tents on-site for the duration of the job. Judy found herself employed as chief cook and bottlewasher. By all accounts, they were hard and long days, but set the foundations for the relationship Brian had with most of his staff – he didn’t ask anyone to do more than he was prepared to do himself.
In 1963, Brian, Judy and their three daughters Lynne, Rochelle and Helen (with Raewyn arriving in 1966), moved from Wharehine into Wellsford and, by then, Wharehine’s had bought land on State Highway 1 and built a depot. Neighbouring land was purchased and buildings erected as the company continued to grow.
Wharehine’s was involved in some major subdivisions on the Mahurangi Peninsula, the Snells sewerage ponds, Goodall Reserve, most of the Omaha north and south subdivisions, and the causeway, to name just a few. Their first large concrete contract was for the construction of the Warkworth Satellite Station, all done with bagged cement. The success of this job led to their involvement with the cement plant at Wellsford, and the subsequent plants at Matakana and Mangawhai. While it was rare to go outside of the area for work, Wharehine was involved in an industrial subdivision near Auckland Airport, a housing development in Waitakere and a school site in Pakuranga. It was noted that several families had worked for the company for two and tree generations, a testament to the type of ‘Boss’ Brian became to many of them.
The family moved to Snells Beach in 1979, before Brian and Judy finally settled in Manly in 2000. After retirement, the couple travelled extensively through Australia and New Zealand in their RV motorhome, and continued to enjoy boating expeditions in the Hauraki Gulf with their ever-expanding family of grandchildren and great grandchildren. Brian spent his last weeks at home being looked after by his ‘girls’.
