PROUD MIGRANT WHO BUILT LEGACIES

LORENZO GALLI
18/1/1930 – 21/5/2004

Lorenzo Galli, a property developer, construction and quarry king and, most recently, the owner of a winery, has died in Melbourne after a short illness at age 74.

Galli arrived in Australia in 1952 from Tuscany in Italy as a 22 year-old with no English, but within four years he employed more than 100 people, and by 1966 he had listed his construction company, Galli Ltd, on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. By 1971 his second company, Apex Quarries (known as Galli Quarries), was also listed.

He was motivated to build lasting legacies rather than wealth, so it was that his first company, formed with his brother Michael, built every main road in Victoria at the time, including the stretch of Hume Freeway from Beveridge to Broadford.

He built his businesses vertically going into the quarry business essentially to meet the needs of his road-building arm. That, in turn, led him to buy large parcels of land that he developed into new housing estates, where he provided the roads and other infrastructure and then sold the home sites to builders. That led him to build the homes himself. Then came plant nurseries to provide gardens for the homes.

In the 1980s, this vision stretched beyond Victoria to Queensland, where he built the suburbs of Arundel Park and Paradise Park on the Gold Coast from bushland. His most recent investment was a $400 million, 311-hectare site at Yeppoon in Queensland, on which his company will create Keppel Views, a community with 1200 houses, a golf course, shopping centre and sports complex.

Galli could see no point relaxing, so on his trips back to Tuscany with wife Pamela, his yearly project was to follow the family’s tradition and make the next year’s wine for the family. This led to the development in 1977 of Galli Estate vineyard and winery on 40 hectares at Rockbank on Melbourne’s fringe and 104 hectares at Heathcote in regional Victoria.

Galli chose the sites because he believed in the quality of the soil and climate of both locations. The Rockbank site has a unique 56-metre underground cellar, which was designed after Galli heard that the trusses used in building the Burnley Tunnel could be bought. To him, this was simply a good opportunity to build the cellar, winery and restaurant, in Roman arched form.

Pamela now manages the Galli Estates winery and his son Mark has taken over the reigns of the other businesses, including the investment at Yeppoon.

Galli, who had a deep love of Australia and the opportunities it gave him and other migrants, left an enormous mark on his adopted country. He was proud to have built things that will last and to have established relationships with people that will be fondly remembered.

He also had a deep respect for the hard-working Italian migrants who came to Australia and sought to build a life for themselves in a new country. As a mark of respect, he left $250,000 in his will to the Italian Assissi Community Centre, a combined aged-care centre and nursing home in Rosanna.

Galli is survived by Pamela, his wife of 34 years, son Mark, daughter Loretta, and six grandchildren.

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