Combining experience, expertise with innovation, passion and advanced technologies, Breen Construction based in Central Otago and Southland, builds the assets that societies in New Zealand need to function, develop and thrive.
The Queenstown Post Office was a significant entry by Breens into the elevated world of Government infrastructure construction. It was built by the partnership of L.J. Breen and G. Brockett. Siblings C.F. and N.F. Breen worked on it as young men; Norman Breen’s starting pay was $6 p/hour.
Jim, Norman and Charlie Breen; Norman fought in the Middle East (North Africa and Italy including Monte Casino), Charlie in Fiji and the Solomons. Note Charlie’s sergeant’s stripes. This photo was probably taken on the occasion of Charlie’s wedding during a break home from the Pacific.
Leo Dougherty’s Gimmerburn house; note the mud-brick building common in Central Otago at that time. Note also the scaffolding arrangements. Leo Dougherty is at bottom fourth from left.
Gerard’s new primary school built by L. J. Breen prior to C. F. and N.F. Breen returning home from the Second Word War. Photo c.1948; John Breen is one of the wee fellows sitting at bottom left
Charlie Breen’s blueprint for Tom and Peg Cooney’s Dunstan Road residence built in Central Otago: iron roof, timber frame, wood floor and mud brick veneer.
Alexandra Centennial Pool; pool walls were ‘tilt-slab’ constructed on the pool floor – a ‘first’; they were lifted into place with a converted TEA Ferguson farm tractor. Charlie Breen did the building and J.D. Watt was the engineer.
Tiger Hill overbridge: placing falsework for the concrete deck. The concrete was weigh-batched on the site using Anderson one-bag concrete mixers and placed with the TEA.
Molyneux Park Stadium: Charlie Breen ran the project, Syd McEwan was the foreman and John Breen was the quantity surveyor: wall panel erection is under way. Note the TEA Ferguson still in action: it wasn’t retired until 1983.
Present day Alexandra Post Office: the building was opened by Central Otago MP Warren Cooper on 21 February 1977. It is arguably our finest building, complementing the unique local landscape as nicely as it does; a credit to architects McCoy & Wixon who were its designers. This was local stonemason Bill Grant’s first job.
Cromwell reservoir under construction: another Charlie Breen, Syd McEwan effort. The wall and roof units were supplied by a precast sub-contractor. In 1970, on the Bridge Hill reservoir, Charlie Breen precast his own units on the site. We bought the crane new in 1978, and one way or another it remained in our hands until… View Article
Prime Minister Rob Muldoon opening new Ministry of Works and Development regional offices on 5th February 1981 in Central Otago; John Breen far right. Bruce Sutherland was the foreman. Known as the William Fraser Building, the complex is now the Central Otago District Council HQ building built by Breen.
The Lake Onslow Dam was built for the Otago Central Electric Power Board in a single summer season. The crest of the dam is 684 metres above sea level. We camped on site and batched our own concrete. We built the Kowhai Power Station on the same Teviot River in 2009-10.
Coronet Peak Base Facilities were constructed by a partnership of Inder Construction and Breen Construction over the two summer seasons of 1982-83 and 1983-84. Bruce Sutherland and Ken hood were the foremen and Steven Gregory was the project manager; John Blair was the architect.
Alexandra Police Station, Central Otago; the building was opened 11th March 1992. The big flood of November 1999 missed coming in to this building by a mere 100mm or so. Jeff Golden, Jason Mackie, Colin McDonald and Graeme Bell are the Breen people in the photograph. Tony Meehan was the stonemason.
Port Craig viaduct restoration: fifty days on the trot in the South Coast bush, ending on the shortest day of the year; a John Breen/ John Symons/Kerry Eggeling project. The first job John Breen and John Symons did together was the single-mens’ quarters in the just-starting out new village of Haast in 1978.
Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World (Wanaka) contract. Alistair Sherriff was the project manager, and Alex Ross/Keith Nesbitt did the building. Tim Bradford was the engineer.
Molyneux Aquatic Centre opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark on 12th April 2003 (Granny Breen helped cut the ribbon). A Lindsay Breen, Graheme Hastie, Keith Nesbitt project. This was Breen’s second Alexandra pool complex. We got a 200mm snowfall when this complex was under construction, the biggest fall I can recall in Alexandra.
New Dunstan Hospital opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark on 4th November 2005. Graham Johnson was the project manager and Geoff Hines the site manager. One of Breen’s first jobs in Central was the Cromwell Hospital, built in 1939, when they also built the nurses home which was demolished to make way for this complex.
Lakeshore Springs Apartments – the most recent in a long list of Wanaka main street development which also includes the imposing Wanaka Library designed by Noel Tapp; this was Alistair Sherriff’s last project (and Kelvin Mulqueen’s first); Alistair died, age 53 on 28th April 2005.
Fish-pass on the Rangitata Diversion Race. Another project in the same vicinity was a big Rakaia Pumping Station structure for Trust Power; yet another was a run-of-the river hydroelectric installation on a Rakaia tributary stream at Cleardale.
Wanaka Retirement Village for Presbyterian Support Otago (2009-10); Graham Johnson was the project manager and Mike Doherty and Phillip Studholme were the foremen. Breens built Alexandra’s Ranui Home for the same organization in 1972; it was opened by Prime Minister Norman Kirk on 18th March 1973.
Alexandra Community House; the project manager is Trevor Breen, the site manager is Paul Hucklebridge and the quantity surveyor is Peter Breen; Bruce Sutherland is the foreman. Bruce is second only to Neville Bell in terms of longevity as a carpenter/foreman for Breens; Neville has worked continuously for the company since 1972.
