John O'Neill

Family businesses have been the mainstay of the strata industry in New South Wales since its inception in 1961 and some of the largest strata management companies in this state are still in family hands. Look no further than the Linders family and Strata Choice; the Vumbacas and Jamesons; and Clisdells to name just a few, but the numbers are diminishing as family businesses are sold off to larger corporate players in the market.

    One family business which continues to thrive is O'Neill Strata Management in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Founder, John O’Neill, began working in the strata industry in 1990, in the Accounts Department at Alliance Strata Management. Soon after, he established his own strata management company assisted by his wife, Arlene. In the last 20 years John has been joined by his two sons, Ben and Nick, both of whom now hold senior positions in this family company.

   John O’Neill, born in 1950 in Waverley, lived for the first 24 years of his life in Bondi. His father, Les, was a fascinating character, who drove trucks and, with his brother, Norm, owned his own transport company, Commercial Carrying Company. In addition, Les’s family was involved in the carnival industry and John O’Neill well remembers accompanying his father as he set up carnival rides at beachside suburbs in Sydney and also up and down the coast. John’s mother, Esther, was a seamstress who worked for a clothing company in Surry Hills. John attended Bondi Beach Public School for his Primary education and then Vaucluse Boys’ High until he gained his School Certificate.

    After leaving school John began studying to be an accountant at the Metropolitan Business College in the city. The first year of this course was completed full-time and the next 18 months part-time, whilst working at his first job with W S Tait & Co Pty Ltd. After completion of these basic accounting qualifications, John, still working for Tait’s, enrolled at TAFE to gain his Higher School Certificate (HSC), studying part-time for three nights a week. After successfully gaining his HSC, John continued his accounting studies at Randwick and Ultimo TAFE, again part-time and graduated in 1973 as a fully fledged accountant. At that time, prior to university Accountancy degrees, this was the path followed by most accountants in NSW.

   In 1972 John left Tait’s to join Incorporated Agencies, a company which imported glassware, kitchenware and other household goods, as an Accounts Clerk. John only stayed at Incorporated for a little over a year, but it was long enough to meet fellow worker, Arlene, whom he married in 1974. Arlene had been born in Glasgow in 1953 and moved, with her family, to Australia in 1966, settling in Fairfield and, later, Willmot in Sydney’s west. Arlene had already begun nursing studies and, when John left Incorporated to return to Tait’s in 1973, Arlene resumed her studies in nursing. After their marriage in 1974, John and Arlene lived at first in Harris Park so that Arlene could be closer to Parramatta and Blacktown hospitals.

   John commuted to the city to his job at Tait’s, where he was the head of the Accounts Department. W S Tait Pty Ltd was an interesting company of “island agents”. The company’s clients in New Caledonia; Vanuatu; Fiji; Samoa; and Papua New Guinea would send orders for a variety of goods to Tait’s, who would then fill the orders and ship these goods to the islands. A subsidiary company of Tait’s would import Chinese clothing and shoes and sell them into the Australian market. Tait’s was a large operation and John’s role represented a big step up in his career.

   In 1976, John and Arlene’s first child, Rebecca, was born and the family moved in with Arlene’s parents in Willmot, so Arlene could finish her nursing course, with her parents looking after the baby. During this time, Arlene qualified as a Registered Nurse and worked as a highly skilled Emergency Department sister. In 1982, whilst the family was still living in Willmot, the couple’s second child, Ben, was born.

   In 1979 John’s father, Les, died. He had been a very canny investor in property around Bondi and, initially, after his death, John’s mum, Esther, tried to manage the portfolio on her own. When she struggled to do so, she asked John to assist and, so, John gave up his job at Tait’s and worked full-time managing the portfolio, which included four blocks of flats.  As there were building works being carried out on some of the properties, John also worked with the builder, gaining skills and expertise, which would later prove invaluable. In 1984 John and Arlene purchased a house in Ramsgate Avenue, Bondi where John resides to this day.

   In 1987, John returned to Accountancy with various firms until, in 1990, he accepted a role as the Accounts Department manager for John Scott’s Alliance Strata Management. At this time, Alliance was the largest strata management company in Australia, boasting more than 3600 buildings under management and employing 35 strata managers and a host of ancillary staff. John’s Accounting Department consisted of twelve people and thus he had a very responsible role. The year 1990 was also significant in that John and Arlene’s third child, Nick, was born. However, midway through 1991, John was ready to branch out on his own and he and Arlene set up Strata Accounting Services, which provided accounting assistance for self managed strata plans, which probably represented half of the entire market at that time.

   These intervening years had not been all plain sailing. In 1987, Arlene was diagnosed with a brain tumour and although she underwent a successful operation to remove it, by 1995 it had grown back and she needed further surgery followed by chemotherapy. After a major setback late in 1995 Arlene faced months of rehab and was confined to a wheelchair. It was at this time that John decided that he needed to obtain his Real Estate and Strata licence and become a fully qualified strata manager. Giving accounting advice to self-managed strata plans was a diminishing market, but strata management itself was on the rise. Consequently, John attended Dover Heights TAFE full-time for a year in 1996 and gained his Real Estate; Stock and Station Agent; and Strata Management Licence.

   John, assisted by Arlene, began O’Neill Strata Management in early 1997 in their own home in Bondi with 13 plans. A year later they were managing 39 plans and employed their first staff member, Samantha Turnbull. By the year 2000 they were managing in excess of 60 plans and there were now three employees, all working out of the family home in Bondi. In these early years, John acknowledges the assistance and mentoring of Graham Randall from the Home Unit Owners’ Association, which was a very influential group at this time. Randall asked John to deliver a presentation at the organisation’s annual conference in 1999 on the likely impacts of the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the strata industry. Randall then organised an interview with Mike Carlton on Radio 2UE on the same issue, which was a hot topic at the time, with the GST to be introduced in July of the next year, 2000.

   As the year 2000 rolled around the business had well and truly outgrown the family home. As John describes it, there were bits and pieces of the business all over the house—photocopier here; desks there; and files and records everywhere. The time had come to move on. Fortuitously, they found an ideal office in a terrace house on the corner of Carol Lane and Junction Street Bondi Junction. Unlike most offices they had inspected, this one did not need much rectification to make it wheelchair accessible for Arlene and, so, in July 2001, the company began operations there.

   By 2016 the company boasted eleven staff and outgrew these premises as well, at which time another move was made to the present site in Grafton Street Bondi Junction. During their time in the terrace house at Junction Street John and Arlene’s sons joined the business, Ben in 2002 and then Nick in 2009.Both young men had been educated at Sots College, where amongst other achievements, they were both part of the school’s prestigious “A” Pipes and Drums Band, being very proficient pipers.

   Both Ben and Nick started at the bottom of the business learning the ropes from the ground up—a process which has held them in good stead in later years. Both are now fully licenced and, in 2015, Ben became the company’s CEO. Sadly, during this period, Arlene passed away in July 2007 after a year in hospital. Nick was responsible for bringing his best mate from school, Evaan   , into the business and he, too, is now a licenced strata manager. In keeping with the family feel of the business, it is interesting to note that John’s mother, Esther, worked for the company in the early years of this century until she was well into her ‘90’s, giving O'Neill's the rare distinction in the strata industry of having three generations of family members working concurrently.

   John O’Neill has been a member of ISTM and then SCA(NSW) for more than 30 years, joining in 1991, when he established Strata Accounting Services. He anticipates continuing to work in the industry for many years to come, although he is looking to reduce his workload somewhat and indulge some of his interests. He and his now partner, Sonia, plan to continue travelling now that restrictions have been lifted and borders opened again. John and Sonia were introduced by friends after both their spouses passed away. John has a passionate interest in military history and owns a substantial collection of books in this genre. In fact, his 2015 trip with Sonia was to visit Gallipoli to mark the centenary of the Anzac landings in 1915 and to Belgium to mark the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He also plans to do more motoring in his spectacular red MG TF sports car and continue his weekly tennis matches.