From Little Things, Big Things Grow

Director and Housing Principal Dave Kelly has reached 15 years as an Inertian, which also means that it is 15 years since Inertia was founded! Over this time Inertia has grown from strength to strength and Dave has been there to see it all.  From starting out as ‘Qld Structural Engineering Pty Ltd’ and working out of  a converted bedroom in a house in Ashgrove to seeing the business grow to over 30 employees and working on iconic projects like the Midtown Centre.

“All I was hoping for when I started the business was to buy a new car to replace the flogged little Daihatsu Charade I was cruising around in. However, I pretty quickly realized there was a significant market for a small-to-medium size engineering firms that provided a professional and personal service, and my vision for the company became a lot more ambitious”, says Dave.

“Feels like so long ago that I was sending out 3 copies of certified plans that were stuffed into A4 envelopes, weighed on scales and then the correct amount of stamps had to be licked and applied. Now we are pretty much paperless!”

Inertia has grown a lot from the salad days of licking stamps and driving around in Charades.  Joining the business in 2008, Managing Director Scott Clements brought an even grander vision of what we could achieve and from there, the business really started to take off.  A focus on great communication with stakeholders, delivering innovative engineering outcomes and having a great office culture was our foundation (apologies for the engineering pun).  That focus combined with bringing in an excellent leadership team including Emma Clements, Calvin Kirk, Jason Ray and Phil Latham has really driven the business forward and will continue to well into the future.

Dave, Scott and the rest of the management team should feel immense pride in building a small structural consultancy into the beast that is Inertia!