In mid-2017, Joseph Wallace and David Wirth called a small room in East Brisbane the Multhana Head Office. When they were not on-site, they spent their time building up a strong pool of clients who were looking for commercial landscaping, cleaning, and maintenance services.
Multhana has now grown to a team of over 150 employees servicing clients across Queensland, large and small. Quickly outgrowing the office, Multhana are now located in Brisbane Technology Park at Eight Mile Plains.
“People everywhere are beginning to recognise Multhana. We’ve had people who are just passing by stop us and tell us they recognise the Indigenous meaning of the artwork on our logo, and say, ‘that’s deadly!’” says Joseph Wallace, Managing Director.
Building New Approaches to Indigenous Employment
In the Kalkadoon language, Multhana means ‘coming together to help each other.’ Joseph’s professional and personal experience of the complex issues facing Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Australians has fuelled his passion for creating positive change in the wider Indigenous community.
After completing his Masters in Indigenous Social Policy and Education, and spending the past three decades in the public and private sectors managing Indigenous Affairs, Joseph founded Multhana Property Services to bridge the employment and economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Joseph believes “the main objective is to give opportunities to local Indigenous people, whether it’s young school leavers or mature people out of work.”
This approach has also helped the businesses they work with to understand more about Indigenous participation and how they too can affect change.
Invigorating Business and the Community
Innovation and adapting to change are what Multhana does well. This year Multhana rose to the challenge of tackling COVID-19, working alongside Brisbane City Council to provide disinfection cleaning for the City’s fleet of over 1200 buses.
Providing these resources to the BCC has enabled Multhana to take on new employees, the majority of who had lost their jobs in the hospitality sector.
Maintaining Our Commitment
The team at Multhana take pride in what they do. Recently one of our cleaning employees received the CPB Contractors Protect & Respect Award for her outstanding efforts on-site at Cross River Rail, where Multhana are cleaning.
The employee went above and beyond ensuring the health and safety of personnel at the site at this critical time.
Multhana’s success is attributed to the dedication of our employees as well as the willingness of our clients to make positive difference in the community. We are proud to boast a 58% Indigenous workforce and over 20,000 Indigenous hours worked so far this year.
Indigenous Business Month runs from October 1 – 31 each year by MURRA alumni, who see business participation as a way of providing positive role models for young Indigenous Australians.
If you would like to engage Multhana for your cleaning, landscaping and building needs, please contact helpdesk@multhana.com.au or 1800 68 58 77.