This month, Balpara celebrates our 50^th anniversary. Five decades in business is not just an indicator of our longevity. It’s proof of our resilience, technical knowledge and expertise, and the trust that our customers continue to place in us.

Our Founders and CEO reflect on this journey and how we’ve evolved with the needs of the Australian communities.

Bayside Drafting Australia (now Balpara) was established in March 1976, when three young draftsmen took the leap to start their own business. Founders Robert Blanche and John Wilson are still Owner/Directors of the business to this day.

They initially worked out of a backyard bungalow, before moving to a house in the southern suburbs of Melbourne to accommodate their growing team during a significant building boom.  

“It was a different time,” Robert Blanche recounts, “At one point we had people sitting at drawing stations in the hallway to meet the demands of the projects we were working on.”  In the early 1980s, we designed and built an office to suit the unique needs of a drafting team, which was more comfortable for all involved.

Our story essentially takes place in two acts. For our first twenty-five years, we were known for our expertise in structural steel drafting, before transitioning over to electrical. Our reputation now is for our electrical capabilities, for services including project management, engineering and design, detailing and drafting, surveying, VEDN auditing, asset location and assessment, soil testing and geotechnical.

John Wilson asserts, "Our ability to address market demands has been fundamental to our ongoing success over the past fifty years. Although we have faced difficult decisions, this has allowed us to evolve in ways that support Australian communities, even if some of what we do is underground and therefore not seen by the public.”

Contributions to iconic Australian infrastructure

Our first jobs were hardly glamourous, unless you like the rare Woolworth store (formerly Safeway) that has yet to be renovated. In the early years, we worked on a wide range of small commercial and industrial projects, which started to grow in scope and size at the end of the 1970s. While we often reference well known infrastructure projects, we completed thousands of structural steel projects of various sizes throughout Australia.

“We drew the structural steel for some of Melbourne’s most iconic infrastructure, including the Southbank pedestrian footbridge, the Arts Centre roof, Melbourne Central (originally Daimaru glass spire), the MCG light towers and Northern Stand,” says Robert. “We were also involved in projects for the Sydney and Brisbane airports. The innovation and dedication that our teams brought to many of these projects was exceptional.”

Towards the end of last century, it became evident that demand for electrical drafting and engineering was gaining momentum, while structural steel demand was declining. We hired experts in electrical drafting and engineering, rapidly building our electrical expertise. We also applied our standards for quality, accuracy, and communication from structural drafting to our electrical services.

Transitioning to electrical drafting and engineering

As Australia expanded its electrical infrastructure to match population growth and technological demands, we built our electrical engineering and design capability.

Our first electrical jobs involved drafting for maintenance upgrades with CitiPower, which required our drafters to collect physical drawings from CitiPower, rolled up in tubes. Electrical upgrade work quickly expanded to regional Victoria, and then we began to secure as-built drafting work for new greenfield residential developments. Dial before you dig services, now known as Before You Dig Australia (BYDA), was a logical progression from there.

“We strategically focused on services and capabilities that required a local presence, as offshoring was prevalent,” says Robert Blanche. “Partnership is a core focus for our business, and our clients understood the benefit of having a local team onsite to collaborate and solve issues.”

By 2010, our structural team made up less than 15% percent of the overall business, with our electrical services encompassing survey, design, drafting, engineering and as-built detailing. It was past time for a name change to reflect our service delivery, so in August of that year, Bayside Drafting became Balpara. 

Robert’s son Sean Blanche, joined Balpara as the Victorian Electrical Manager in 2012, having previously worked as an engineer externally, and in leadership roles internally in other parts of the business. In 2013, Sean became Balpara’s CEO and continued expanding the organisations services.

“Our strategic advantage is our specialist capabilities and customer relationships,” says Sean. “We therefore looked at ways to achieve concentric growth, diversifying by leveraging from our existing capabilities and sector knowledge.” This expansion went hand in hand with digitalisation, which is constantly changing community and industry needs.

The impact of technology on our services

It’s hard to fathom that other than the telephone, we didn’t use technology to perform our work in the early years. This became problematic when we won a tender for the Loy Yang Power Station, requiring us to operate closer to the city. We rented space in a nearly vacant building on St Kilda Road but were unable to get phone service for weeks. Being resourceful, the team would pin their drawings to the elevator walls while using its emergency phone to make calls.

Robert Blanche recalls speaking on the phone in the lift when a distinguished man attempted to enter. Assuming he was a contractor scheduled for a forthcoming meeting, Robert initially requested that he wait, but allowed him entry after his insistence, noting that he selected the only other occupied floor. It was only when the doors opened and the gentleman exited that Robert realised it was former Victorian Premier Henry Bolte.

Balpara's first major technological transformation didn’t occur until the 1990s with PCs and design software, requiring us to retrain our entire workforce. However, from here technology has evolved on an ongoing basis. Key technology evolutions have included the use of theodolites for surveying, nPoles, REVIT, RASTA and CAD software to complete overhead powerline surveying, GPS, 3D modelling and scanning, ground penetrating radars, asset proving, soil testing, and earth resistivity assessments, to name just a few.

“Digitalisation has changed the way we work and how quickly and accurately we can do things,” says Sean Blanche. “We’re excited to see how AI helps us to transform our services and capabilities in the coming years.”

Balpara has utilised emerging technology for landmark projects across Victoria, whether linked to defence, bushfire mitigation, urban residential development, lighting and zone substation upgrades, or so much more.

“Our reputation has continued to grow along with our services. We’ve retained many key customers for decades, which indicates our ability to deliver,” says Sean. “I’m also proud of the role we’ve played in developing the careers of countless industry experts, and the variety of different projects we’ve been involved in throughout our journey.”



50 years is a long time to be in business. We wouldn’t be here without all of the incredible employees that have contributed along the way, and the customers that gave us a chance and allowed us to build lasting partnerships.

Learn more about our 50 years in business, or view our latest projects.