Robbie Bower builds an awarded construction firm in Adelaide from 1970s on adventurous strong 'can-do' attitude
Robbie Bower remained involved in the 21st Century in her award-winning Bower Construction and Design, with examples of work shown (centre). At right; Bower in her younger days. taking on work such as a promotional model for Holden cars.
Images courtesy Robbie Bower
Robbie Bower, in her twenties and a single mother of three boys in the 1970s, became one of the first women in South Australia to hold a full builder’s licence. She started Bower Interiors that became Bower Construction and Design and celebrated 50 years in 2023.
Born in Wales, Bower was the daughter of air force parents who moved to Melbourne when she was young. Bower credited her father, a Spitfire pilot during World War II, with instilling her "can do" attititude. When he became general manager of Connellan Airways in Alice Springs, Bower went to boarding school in Adelaide where her family later settled. In the 1960s, after tertiary study, she headed to London to work as a radiographer. She also took on side jobs such as dressing up as a cowgirl in a marketing job selling car polish or selling Irish bacon in the basement at Harrods department store.
In the early 1970s, Bower was back in Australia, living in Sydney and married to former Olympic skater Mervyn Bower, who was finding it hard to get regular work. Bower took on a money-making venture rare at that time for men and unheard of for women: buying houses, renovating them and flipping them for a profit. By the time son Piers was born, the couple moved back to Adelaide to be with family and get some help with a growing household.
In Adelaide, Bower continued to buy and renovate homes, building a reputation and a client base, including those who wanted her to build new houses. Bower, newly divorced and raising three boys, started her building career – without a builder’s licence. This led to Adelaide city council intervening but helping her get a licence based on the quality of her work.
From making minor changes to home interiors, Bower started running a company building houses from the ground up. In those early days, she was hands on in every facet of the work: footings, steel uprights, hanging doors, painting them, painting walls and roofs. Bower Construction and Design quickly became an award-winning company that earned the trust of South Australia’s leading architects and a strong working relationship with figures such as Rob Williams (later of Williams, Burton, Leopardi).
While some clients were surprised and resistant that “Robbie” on the telephone turned out to be a woman, Bower found that bias rarely extended to the men on the worksite: “The tradies were my greatest allies and supporters. And they quickly found out, usually without questioning it, that when I said something had to be done a certain way, it’d better be done that way.”
From 2000, Bower Constructions completed more than $100 million in projects and won four major excellence awards with the Master Builders Association of South Australia, with Bower firmly involved in the company with her three sons.
