Thirty-Two Years On The Tools. The Last Six Building In The Great Southern.
This is the story of how I got into building, the thirty-two years that followed, and why I now build custom homes here in the Great Southern.
.svg){kind=small}
Renovation and Extension $600-$750K
.svg)
.svg){kind=small}
WA, Member 7 Years
.svg){kind=small}
Projects to $1.5M
.svg){kind=small}
and the Great Southern Region
Award-Winning Custom Home Builder
I'm Michael Smyth. I've won two Master Builders WA Building Excellence Awards and have been building in Denmark and Albany for the last six years. When you deal with me, you see every invoice on your project.
.svg){kind=small}
32
Years Of Experience
.svg){kind=small}
BC 50814
WA Registered Builder
.svg){kind=small}
Cost-Plus Contracts,
Full Invoice Transparency
.svg){kind=small}
NatHERS 7-Star
Minimum (NCC 2022)
.svg){kind=small}
6 Year
Statutory Structural Warranty
.svg)
Who Is The Builder Behind Great Southern Homes?
I am Michael Smyth, the owner and builder of Great Southern Homes. I came up through a carpentry trade and have spent 32 years on building sites across Western Australia and Sydney, from high-rise to remote community work to high-end homes. I moved my family to Denmark in 2020 and have built in the Great Southern ever since. I run every project personally.
.svg){kind=small}
It Started With Timber, Not A Trade
As a kid I was the one tinkering with wood, helping my parents with the DIY jobs around the house. By my teens I was making furniture for the sake of it. The carpentry came from that, not the other way around.
.svg){kind=small}
Straight From School Into The Trade.
I did some work experience with builders, finished school, and went into a pre-apprenticeship without much of a detour.
.svg){kind=small}
The Same Thing Still Drives It 32 Years On.
I like the making of a thing, and I notice when a join is right or wrong. That has not changed since I was a teenager with a workbench.
What follows is what happened after that, and why it matters to a home you are planning in the Great Southern.
What Experience Does Michael Smyth Bring To A Great Southern Build?
I did not arrive in Denmark as a tree-change builder witha fresh idea. I arrived with three decades behind me, across some of the harder conditions you can build in. Here is the path, and what each part of it taught me that a home down here actually needs.
1998: Carpentry, Then High-Rise In Perth
I started with a pre-apprenticeship and went into high-rise construction in Perth, around 18 months on large commercial sites. That is where I first saw how a big build is sequenced and inspected, stage by stage, before I ever ran one of my own.
2000: Building Supervisor, Marble Bar
I qualified, then took a supervisor role renovating housing in a remote Aboriginal community in the Pilbara, with trainees working under me. Running a site that far from anywhere teaches you to plan around freight, weather, and trades who are not down the road. That is the same discipline a build near Denmark needs, for the same reasons.
2004: Cyclone-Rated Builds, Broome
Six years supervising steel-framed homes built to cyclonic standard in Broome. When a house has to stand up to a cyclone, you do not get loose with the engineering or the sign-offs. You inspect at every hold point because the alternative is not an option. That standard stays with you.
2010: High-End Residential, Sydney
Two years working on high-end homes through Sydney's eastern suburbs and northern beaches, in a mix of foreman and carpentry roles. This is where the expectation of finish quality got set, with clients and trades who noticed every millimetre. We also took six months out to travel through the USA before heading home, which is its own kind of education.
2009: The Company Is Established, In Broome
Back in Broome, I set up my own building company. It was registered and ready three years before the first homes went up, while the licensing and the groundwork came together. The first builds followed in 2012, smaller projects to begin with, then larger custom homes, every one of them my own responsibility from first conversation to handover.
2017: Best Country Home, Kimberley And Pilbara Region
A custom dual-living home I designed and built won the Master Builders 2017 Best Country Home for the Kimberley and Pilbara region. It was recognition for the best-constructed home in the region that year, and after a decade of building up there, it meant something.
2020: We Moved To Denmark
This was not a career move. We had spent the better part of two decades in the Kimberley heat and were ready for the opposite of it. Denmark gave us forest, trails close to home, cooler air, and the outdoors back. We do more mountain biking and hiking now, more of just going out and finding new country to explore. I have built in the Great Southern ever since, and I live here in a pole home, which is partly why I can tell you what a sloping, treed block actually does once you start building on it.
Today: Custom Homes Across Denmark And Albany
Great Southern Homes builds custom homes, renovations, and pole homes across the region, with projects currently running in both Denmark and Albany. The 2025 Master Builders WA Building Excellence Award for Renovation and Extension, $600,000 to $750,000, came out of this work.
Why Does Great Southern Homes Work The Way It Does?
I keep the business small on purpose. I take on fewer projects so I can run each one myself, price it on a cost-plus basis so you see the real cost rather than a marked-up guess, and stay the single person you deal with the whole way through. None of that is a sales position. It is how I protect a client's money and my own name at the same time.
One Builder, Not A Handoff
One Builder, Not A Handoff
I have looked at bringing in a project manager to run more jobs at once. For now I have chosen not to, because the way Great Southern Homes builds depends on me being the one on each site. The standards I hold a build to, and the values behind them, are easier to protect when the builder and the point of contact are the same person.
When you build with me, you are not introduced to a supervisor you never met at the quote stage. If there is a decision to make or a problem to explain, it comes from the person actually running your build.
Cost-Plus, So The Price Is The Real Price.
Cost-Plus, So The Price Is The Real Price.
On a custom home that runs 12 to 18 months, no one can honestly lock every price at the start. A fixed price that pretends otherwise is just risk hidden inside a number you cannot see.
Cost-plus shows you the real cost of materials and labour as it happens, with the trades and materials quoted up front wherever possible. You are looking at the same figures I am
Fewer Jobs, Run Properly.
Fewer Jobs, Run Properly.
I would rather build a smaller number of homes well than spread myself across more than I can stand behind. The full process, the fortnightly updates, and the four-month review after handover are set out on the How It Works page.
What Does Great Southern Homes Stand For?
I do not have a wall of values. I have a few things I will not move on: that a home should be sound and healthy to live in, that I would rather promise less and deliver more, that you hear the truth from me even when it is not the easy answer, and that most of my work comes by referral because the last client trusted me. Those are the ones that hold.
.svg)
A Home You Feel Safe In.
The thing I feel responsible for is not just the look of a house, it is whether it improves the life of the people in it. A quality build that is healthy and sound to live in is the actual job. Everything else follows from it.
.svg)
Undercommit, Then Overdeliver.
I would rather give a timeframe with room in it and finish early than promise a date I have to apologise for. When I suggest a programme, I build in a margin so the surprises do not become your problem.
.svg)
Honesty, Including When It Costs Me Work.
If your project is not a fit for how I build, or there is a better option for you down here, I will tell you. I would rather lose the job than take one I cannot do well.
.svg)
Respect For Your Place, And The People On It.
Clients tell me the things they remember are the respectful trades on site and the state the place was left in day to day. A build runs through your land and often your life for the better part of a year. How that is handled matters as much to me as the finished house.
Is Great Southern Homes The Right Builder For My Project?
I build best for people planning a home they have been thinking about seriously for a while, usually on a block in Denmark or Albany, often while still living in Perth. They want it built properly by someone local, and they want to follow the work closely without having to be on site every week. If that sounds like your situation, it is the kind of project I am set up for.
Likely A Good Fit
Planning a sea change, or the next stage after the kids have moved on
Building a place you actually want to be in, not an investment flip
A real budget and a considered plan
Want a builder who knows the region, not one driving down from Perth
Probably Not The Right Fit
Looking for a first home or an entry into the market
Priced primarily on the lowest possible entry cost
A budget home built as cheaply as it can be done
Planning to do large parts of the work yourself to save money
If you are on the right of that table, none of it is a judgement. There are better options down here for those projects, and I will usually point you to them. You deserve a builder whose way of working matches what you are after, and sometimes that builder is not me.
.svg)
.svg)
How do I start a conversation with Michael?
If you have land in the Great Southern and a home in mind, tell me about both and I will give you an honest read on whether it is a fit.