National Solutions Group – Group Operations Manager

Rod Blandford has the building industry in his blood. He was born & bred on the Sunshine Coast into a family of builders with his father & uncle running their successful building company on the Coast from the early 1950s.

He was on building sites from the age of 10 gaining some hard earned pocket money on weekends and school holidays. It was always going to be a natural progression into the building industry.

At the end of 1974 when Rod finished high school in Nambour, he was indentured to McKinnon & Blandford to start his Carpentry Apprenticeship and his life in the building industry. One of the first valuable experiences Rod gained as a young apprentice was going to Darwin to help clean up & rebuild the town after it was devastated by Cyclone Tracy. He returned to the Sunshine Coast during 1975 where he worked for a further 5 years, successfully completing his apprenticeship and passing with honours.

When Rod learnt his trade, it was in the days when they did everything themselves. This included all their own footings & concrete slabs, drainage and septic systems, steel work, gyprocking, painting, tiling and metal roof sheeting as well as every aspect of timberwork. This has given Rod a broad & invaluable knowledge of many individual trades.

He & his wife returned to Darwin in 1981 where he ran his own successful building company for 8 years, earning industry awards for the work he did in residential housing. Rod also did work for the Northern Territory Conservation Commission helping set up the now famous Litchfield National Park.

The beginning of the 1990’s saw Rod return to the Sunshine Coast. From this time on Rod put his tools aside and for the next 11 years he worked with local building company P.J. Burns to establish and manage a project housing division. Rod’s last project with P.J. Burns was overseeing and managing the rebuild of the burnt out heritage listed Childers Backpackers Hostel in 2003.

Rod then returned to his roots developing several housing projects for himself & clients in various locations around the Sunshine Coast.

In 2005 he began work with Rick McCarthy establishing a property division securing land on the coast & in Brisbane to provide complete packages for clients with whom they had been associated for many years. In 2006 Rick & Rod joined together to establish what has now become National Building Solutions.