On 21 October 1873, the inaugural meeting of the Builders & Contractors Association of NSW (BCANSW) was held at the Temperance Hall (since demolished), in Pitt Street, Sydney. The minutes of that meeting record that “in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that an association of the master builders of Sydney should be formed, having for its object the protection of their interests.”
That occasion marked the foundation of the Builders & Contractors Association of NSW (BCANSW).
The prime aim of the members, expressed in a resolution on 21 January 1874, was “to adopt an arbitration clause in the conditions of contract, (and resolved that) a committee be formed to prepare a clause, and have it legally drawn up.”
Countless formal and private discussions were held between the committee and architects. By 15 July 1874, the committee had recorded four important achievements:
• An arbitration clause had been agreed upon by the association and the architects;
• Association members had agreed that they would “enter into no contract unless the ‘condition of contract’ agreed upon by the (builders & contractors) association and the architects form the conditions”;
• The precedent had been set for standard forms of building contracts; and,
• Permanent lines of communication – and a spirit of co-operation – had been established between builders and architects.