Maha Sinnathamby

Maha Sinnathamby
Maha Sinnathamby, 2015
Born	(1939-12-10) 10 December 1939 (age 77) Rantau, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Residence	Brisbane, Australia
Occupation	Property Developer,Civil Engineer

Maha Sinnathamby is a Malaysian Australian businessman and property developer. He is the entrepreneur behind the Greater Springfield Development in Queensland, the largest master-planned community in Australia.

Born in Malaysia on 10 December 1939, Maha Sinnathamby is a Hindu of Sri Lankan Tamil descent.

His childhood was spent on a British-owned rubber estate in the small farming village of Rantau, Negeri Sembilan. His father worked for the plantation but was taken as a prisoner of war in July 1944 during the Japanese occupation of Malaysia. In September 1945, his father was released.

Maha moved to Australia and studied civil engineering at the University of New South Wales. After graduating, he worked as a civil and design engineer for several years in South East Asia before returning to Australia.

He started his own property business in Perth in 1971, before moving to Queensland in the early 1980s. He continued building the company with numerous small residential subdivisions and several commercial projects in the region.

In 1992 with business partner Bob Sharpless, Maha bought a 2,860 hectare (approx 7067 acre) area of land in Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane, for $7.9 million. He then lobbied for basic education and transport infrastructure to be built in the area, which required a rezoning bill to be passed. On 24 January 1997, Queensland Parliament unanimously voted in favour of the legislation.

The Greater Springfield area was designed as Australia's largest master-planned community (10th largest globally), and is focused on interconnected pillars of health, education, and information technology:

Currently, more than $12 billion has been invested by public and private stakeholders into the project. A $1.2 billion dual track major rail line was established in 2013 and connected Greater Springfield to the wider South East Queensland area. Greater Springfield's current population is approximately 35,000, with a predicted growth to 105,000 by 2030. Greater Springfield's masterplan also retains 30 per cent of the land holding for open, green space.