It’s a few months since Peter Morrison stood behind the dais in his mammoth factory facility in Orange, (a former munitions factory) NSW and welcomed the curious and the influential to the launch of his company, GTT.

The name derives from Green Timber Technology, a surprisingly bland name for a cutting-edge company that is capable of essentially producing (in panelised form) 800 homes a year.

That’s a big promise, but not one made lightly. GTT is Morrison’s take on MMC (modern methods of construction) building that can produce a timber ‘kit of parts’ at lightning speed, while maintaining green credentials.

Whereas modular home builders create volumetric 3D units in a factory that can be transported to site, the GTT factory produces the whole ‘kit of parts’ – like a flat pack and delivers that to site. It’s off-site controlled manufacture, but with remarkable design flexibility and expedited production.

The immaculate production facility in Orange is inhabited by carpentry machine lines and stations from industry automation giant Weinmann. At the October 2025 launch a complete interior wall panel was produced in a few minutes – including GPO and window cut outs and pre-drilled holes for conduits. It’s one thing to read about it, but it’s a damn site more impressive to actually see it happen.

At this speed GTT can produce an entire house (in elemental form) in four hours, all from renewable timber sourced from GTTs plantation partner just thirty minutes down the road. Waste (in time or material) is kept to an absolute minimum. If innovation is needed to save the struggling housing industry, look no further.

“We’ve got plans to go elsewhere, but not right now. We need 12 months of filling this factory up and getting it right,” says Morrison.

Filling the factory is of course the task at hand –but already that is looking good. Morrison see the Mum and Dad market as a more retail extension of his business, and not one he has the time or resources for right now. He sees the business more as a wholesaler, with his prime market being development companies from the big end of town, operations such as Stockland’s, Walkers and Frasers etc. Unit orders from big developers are numbered in hundreds at a time, and of course government contracts can match that and more. But such large orders leave troughs in production, and it’s here that the one offs will be more than welcome – if they’re from experienced architects.

“If they (architects) can consume our technical guide and they can design with our system in mind then it actually makes our process very easy. The integration is ideal for a one off,” says Morrison who clarifies they are very flexible and open to new design opportunities.

For architects the technical input from GTT acts as a second set of eyes – and offers a secure production schedule and guaranteed costs. The IT gurus at GTT are front of house; very much an integral part of the working concept team, and can change plans in seconds, and feed the variation directly to the construction station computer saving time and money.

The GTT system is quick, it’s sustainable, it’s cost saving (and provides cost certainty right down to the number of nails required) – is this not a safe solution to the housing shortfall?

In May of last year, the Australian Government’s National Housing Affordability and Supply Council released a report that forecast that “938,000 new dwellings will be built in Australia over the Housing Accord period covering the FIVE years ending 30 June 2029. This implies a shortfall of 262,000 dwellings relative to the 1.2 million Housing Accord target. No state or territory is forecast to meet the share of the target implied by its population.”

Pressure from all levels of governance, from the Federal Housing Accord right down to suburban LGAs, has resulted in some improvement in the crisis with an uptick in building approvals – and some clarity in the complex land use conundrum – but then other factors muddy the progress, such as the lack of trades. Build Skills Australia estimates the trades shortfall to be 116,700 if the industry is to produce the 1.2 million houses pushed by the Federal Government. Automation is part of the solution.

MMC is not taking jobs, it’s supplementing a struggling industry and rather than bemoan the advanced systems, smart builders now have a chance to improve their own productivity – without waiting for rare-as-hens-teeth trades.

“If you’re a mid-sized or small builder, and if you’re building ten homes a year now, and making 5-10% on that, what if you could do double the volume, hold your margin at the same position, and limit your risk because we’re taking the risks for you? So, you’re up out of the ground, and you’ve got your weatherproof box within two days,” explains Morrison.

And of course, GTT is keen to educate and explain the system to builders, while still conceding some builders will prefer the traditional method. For Morrison, there is room for all to survive and thrive.

Governments in South Australia and Western Australia, and South East Queensland are already showing interest in GTT, but disappointingly sections of the NSW government involved in home building are proving difficult to bring to the table. But not all – GTT has just been awarded a very large contract with Homes NSW, which will no doubt prove the value to the other more recalcitrant departments. One hopes.

Early MMC enthusiasts rushed to the industry with enormous investments, but little experience and promptly fell over. Morrison (whose previous experience includes Program Director for Modern Methods of Construction with the NSW Government) knows this, and while keenly awaiting the chance to scale up GTT across the country, is not falling into a hurry-up-and-fail financial hole in the ground. He cites failures of the MMC system in the UK, which he says saw $2 billion, over a period of 10 years, disappear into thin air.

The future in this burgeoning industry, if fostered by the drive of people such as Peter Morrison, will become the standard. This amalgamation of technology, design and building skill will advance the quality and affordability of construction for everyone. The trick will be to keep it moving forward, to encourage and not hinder those who hold the secrets of innovation, because, as a rule, we don’t make the path of the bright and gifted easy.

Morrison and his growing family have put everything on the line, the young team he’s built is supportive and individually brilliant, all ready to challenge and change the market. Pete is quoted as saying he never switches off, and any conversation with him attests to it; one gets the feeling while talking to him that while he is intelligently answering questions, his mind is busy working out clever solutions to old problems.

His plan is coming true, in measured certain steps – but I had to ask, is it just as he had planned it – this transition to world class innovator? And for the first time in our conversation Peter laughed and answered from the heart, “No, it’s way harder.”

And it is that laughter, that unguarded moment that made me believe this is one bright light that is certain to lead the way.

Image: The GTT system imagined in large projects such as Muswellbrook village / Supplied.

Prue Miller

Let’s connect!