George Avon 

Director of Lillico Corporation Pty Ltd

Lillico Corporation Pty Ltd董事

People usually think that no visit to Victoria is complete without visiting Melbourne, Phillip Island and the Mornington Peninsula. After ticking those top tourist destinations off the bucket list, it then becomes a little tricky to decide where else to visit… 

However, there are several growing and attractive townships that are less than two hours away from these popular areas. This alone is enough to entice many international and local tourists to explore and possibly consider such townships as their next home.

One such mini metropolis is Warragul, located 102 kilometres away from Melbourne towards the Southeast. The town is named after an Aboriginal word meaning “Wild Dog” and sits between the Strzelecki Ranges and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range to the South and North of Melbourne respectively. 

Known for its beautiful scenic views of Victoria’s countryside and blessed with lush greenery, hills and mountains; Warragul could be next on the list for people who are looking to move away from the ever-growing population density of Melbourne.

“The best part of the job is when you successfully complete a project.”

Builder George Avon envisioned this years ago and has partnered with property investor Jason Yeap to establish Lillico Corporation to develop 170 blocks of land on the outskirts of Warragul. 

“This is a booming country town that’s only one hour away from the major attractions like Melbourne, Phillip Island’s beaches and the snow-capped mountains. It’ll be the next major town filled with residential areas, hospitals, schools, shopping centres, sporting facilities and tourist attractions,” said Avon.

He knows this for a fact as he was born and bred in Warragul and has built several residential and commercial units in the area for over 40 years. 

HARD WORK COMES BEFORE SUCCESS

Avon who runs his family business of eight employees including his wife as the bookkeeper and son as one of his carpenters; has been referred to as a very “successful” builder.  

“Being successful in this industry isn’t easy. My day starts at 5.30am every morning and I clock off at 6pm every night, it’s normal to do 12 hours a day. But what you put in is what you get out of it,” Avon says.

“The best part of the job is when you successfully complete a project. I’ve built some childcare centres in Warragul and they were probably the easiest jobs with no issues,” he said. 

He admits that the most difficult part of his job is establishing trust with people due to his unfortunate experience of working with people who don’t turn out to be who they said they were. 

“There are plenty of choices out there for builders, however we ensure that only the highest quality materials are used.”

“I’ve experienced this in a few projects that didn’t work out and you just get on with life – just quickly overcome it and move on,” said Avon who also used to run a local hotel together with two other business partners. 

With several new developments cropping up each day, it’s easy as a buyer to get duped into making a quick purchase without conducting thorough due diligence. Whilst anyone can market their projects to buyers, there are no shortcuts when it comes to ensuring quality. 

“There are plenty of choices out there for builders, however we ensure that only the highest quality materials are used. Regardless of whether you’re building a house, commercial unit or a shopping centre; buyers can see it in the product when we spend extra money on high quality materials. It is this dedication to quality that will inevitably make us a top choice when it comes to property development.”  

一般人游览维多利亚州时，首选目标通常是墨尔本，然后接下来可能是菲利普岛(Phillip Island)、莫宁顿半岛(Mornington Peninsula)和其他受欢迎景点。但也有一些发展迅速、颇具吸引力的城镇距离这些热门区域不到2小时的路程。仅这个特点就已经让许多国际和当地游客积极探索，并考虑将这些城镇作为下一个的家园。

Warragul就是这样一个小城镇，在墨尔本东南偏东102公里处。这个地方以土著词“野狗”命名，介于南部的Strzelecki山脉和北部大分界线的Baw Baw山脉高原之间。

维多利亚以优美的郊外区域景色而闻名，传说中的绿树成荫，山峦叠嶂。对于想要远离墨尔本急剧增长人口密度的人们来说，这里可能是最佳选择。

George Avon 作为一名眼光独到的房产建筑商，数年前就提出相关设想，并与房产投资者叶绍礼(Jason Yeap)合作，在Warragul市郊进行占地160块的Lillico混合开发项目。

“这是一个繁荣的乡镇，距离墨尔本、菲利普岛海滩和雪山等主要景点仅需1小时路程。这也会是集居民区、医院、学校、购物中心，体育设施和旅游景点于一身的重点城镇。”

担任Lillico开发项目总监的他清楚认知这是一个事实，因为身为Warragul土生土长的当地人，他在该地区建造住宅和商业单位工程已经累积了40年的经验。

“我也有在一些项目中经历挫折，但你只能持续生活，快速克服并前进。”

George Avon 所有成都是仰赖努力与勤奋来实现，即使被认为是一个非常“成功”的建筑商，经营着家族企业，共有8名员工，包括他的妻子是财务会计，还有其中一名儿子是木匠。

“在这个行业熬出头并非易事。我每天清晨5点半开始工作，晚上6点下班，一天工作12个小时最正常不过。付出多少回报就有多少。”

“这份工作最激动人心的时刻是当你达成了一个成功的项目。我在Warragul建设了一些托儿中心，可能毫无悬念这是最轻松的工作。”

他承认，工作中最困难的部分是与人建立互信关系，事实证明有些人并非他们所说的那样。“我也有在一些项目中经历挫折，但你只能持续生活，快速克服并前进。”他也曾和两名商业伙伴共同经营一家当地酒店。

他表示，随着高频率冒出的许多新开发项目，作为买家很容易被迷惑，在没有慎密核对考虑下快速购买。他说，任何人都可以向买家推销项目，但质量绝对是无捷径可走。

“虽然有很多选择，但作为建筑商，我们确保只使用高品质的材料。如果你花费一点额外的钱建造一个商业单位或大型购物中心，买家可以在最终产品中看到它，也将使我们在开发项目中脱颖而出。

By Karina Foo