Taking road less travelled to success

BRISBANE: It’s no coincidence that the main road through Australia’s fastest emerging and privately built new city is called Sinnathamby Boulevard.
The 2.5km multi-laned tree-lined highway is deliberately named after Maha Sinnathamby (pix). Born in Rantau near Negri Sembilan, the entrepreneur, who headed Down Under in 1971 with just a few dollars and a city vision in his heart, now sits at number 50 on Australia’s rich list.
Sinnathamby is the brains, builder and a good deal of brawn behind Greater Springfield, which is located in Queensland’s south-east corner just a short distance from Brisbane and the world famous dazzling beaches of the Gold and Sunshine coasts.
The property developer, who started his 7,000-acre (2832ha) project in 1992, had his master-plan for a truly sustainable city declared world’s best by the World Real Federation in 2010.
The title skyrocketed his unrelenting quest for success to the front pages of the Australian media. He’s also been happily front-of-mind to a rapidly expanding community of more than 30,000 people who have travelled to Greater Springfield to buy up house and land packages across his six suburbs.
Big businesses, like American corporate giant General Electric, have also established themselves strongly in the city-to-be which is specifically designed around health, education and information technology.
And how did they all get there?
“A truly great city has to have a truly great main thoroughfare,” said Maha with a sense of supreme insistence when he was interviewed recently. Anyone who meets him soon understands that when Maha Sinnathamby sets his sights on something – even building a city from nothing – he never ever gives up.
“Look at Paris, London or any of the big cities of the world and you’ll see wonderful boulevards that help define the character of those places. “I decided that would be appropriate here too and that nothing was going to stop me from having Greater Springfield stand out just like them.” he said.
In 2006, after convincing many politicians that it had to happen, he ordered a battalion of bulldozers and an army of road workers into action.
His city’s thumping artery was soon carved out. A high capacity distinctive road that currently carries tens of thousands of cars and other vehicles every day. According to Maha, Sinnathamby Boulevard is a pipeline which has so far delivered nearly A$12 billion (RM35 billion) in investment directly into the Greater Springfield CBD, the major retail shopping precinct and other areas including a high-tech medical zone, a university and more than a dozen private and public schools.
“When it was first completed, there was really no city around it and hardly anyone to use it.” Maha reflected. “But just like in life generally, I always say know where you are going and to use a favourite saying of mine: always use the road less travelled to chase you success.”
Apparently many listened and are listening still. Sinnathamby Boulevard is fast becoming an Australian regional landmark.