The owners of Queensland civil contractor QH&M Birt have donated $40 million to motor neurone disease (MND) research.
Inspired by the advocacy work undertaken by AFL great Neale Daniher, who suffered from MND and passed in May, Quentin and Kylie Birt said the footballer “had the guts” to stand up for an important cause and they would like to do the same.
“He’s one extraordinary Australian; it’s a true story,” they said to Channel 7 at the AFL Big Freeze match that took place on Monday.
“He just did his thing better than all of us put together, that’s all.”
They said that they hoped that their massive donation would help aid FightMND’s efforts to find a cure for the disease.
The Big Freeze match is held each year to raise funds and awareness of MND, organised by charity FightMND. It was inspired by the Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral on social media.
FightMND was co-founded in 2014 by Neale, who played for AFL team Essendon between 1979 and 1990 before moving into coaching. He was diagnosed with MND in 2013 and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2016 for his efforts in raising awareness of MND. He was then promoted to Officer of the Order of Australia in 2021 and named Australian of the Year in 2025.
QH&M Birt
Quentin Birt started his civil construction business QH&M Birt in 1973 with “a station wagon, a wheelbarrow and a shovel” and a contract for a carpark in Moorooka for Australia Post. Now the business operates across Australia on large Tier 1 projects in civil construction and mining.
The company’s stamp is on a vast array of projects across the country: from Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria with a project creating a tailings storage facility for GEMCO, to construction of one of the final sections of Cooroy to Curra Highway in Queensland, to BHP’s Olympic Dam in South Australia.
It’s a long journey from Birt’s very first jobs: excavating a carpark for Australia Post in Brisbane’s southern suburbs, and later creating a small road at Queensland University’s St Lucia Campus, which led to a 10-year working relationship.
“There have been hundreds of jobs, so it is difficult to really think of one as a favourite or the most challenging,” Quentin said.
“The University job is a standout, along with a dam in Croydon, the Amrun Mine development for Rio Tinto, Eliwana Rail for FMG and the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.”
To help meet the tasks required of these jobs, QBirt has the largest privately-owned scraper fleet in Australia, with its size putting it among the top five in the world.
The Brisbane-based entrepreneur has bought 415 machines from Hastings Deering since buying his first Caterpillar motor grader in 1976, and says he’s no longer surprised by any advances in technology. His 100th was secured in 2021.
“The advancements in communication, survey, materials handling, hydraulics, etc are enormous,” he said.
“The scraper is a specialised unit, which can cut and load material, transport, then place in a select manner.”
For more information on FightMND, visit: https://fightmnd.org.au
