Philip Dulhunty Founder

Philip Dulhunty  OAM

1924 – 2020

THE PASSING OF OUR FOUNDER PHILIP DULHUNTY OAM

Last December, after a short illness, we farewelled our company’s founder Philip Dulhunty. Well known to very many ESI members, Philip was for many decades an icon of Australia’s lively electricity supply industry.

He was a visionary, an innovator, a risk taker, a shrewd businessman and above all, a loyal and always entertaining friend. Of the many entertaining stories in his ‘must read’ autobiography “Never a Dull Moment” was his purchase of an elephant to shift pole timbers into deep forests where conventional extraction methods were impossible.

Six decades on – in 2009 – the innovative Philip introduced Titan glassfibre reinforced cement concept to Australia, foreseeing the growing need for lightweight, long life fireproof electricity distribution poles to replace increasingly scarce high maintenance wood poles, especially in challenging situations. His Titan vision, in high fire risk environments, today surpasses all known alternative solutions.

Although aged 96 at the time of his death Philip attended both in person and latterly by Zoom almost every monthly meeting of the Dulhunty Poles board. His wisdom, experience and abiding enthusiasm will be much missed by all of us who have been privileged to work closely with him in developing this remarkable product.