At Clarendon Homes, we’ve been building quality homes for Australian families for over 45 years. Beautiful homes that stand the test of time. This commitment to quality and integrity in building began back in 1978 when our founder and Chairman, Peter Campbell built his first Clarendon Home.

Peter’s passion for building Clarendon Homes to a high standard of excellence and quality remains today. He continues to review each and every customer handover report because “it matters to get everything just right for our customers”, says Peter. It’s also his mission to impart this wisdom and knowledge to the next generation of the Clarendon team.

In 2023, this 45 years commitment to integrity in Australian residential housing was recognised by the Housing Industry Association (HIA) when it awarded Clarendon Homes founder, Peter Campbell, the prestigious Sir Phillip Lynch Award of Excellence.

According to the HIA, the Sir Phillip Lynch Award of Excellence recognises “those who have made an outstanding and distinguished contribution to the residential building industry at the highest level of excellence and integrity”

“Peter has a long history of forward thinking, constantly looking at ways to innovate and further develop building techniques and practices” says Mr Graham Wolfe, HIA’s Managing Director. “He deserves recognition for his unwavering commitment to helping Australians achieve the dream of home ownership. He has given so much back to the Australian community and the building industry as a whole.”

The HIA also says of Peter Campbell “His philanthropic activities are as inspiring as his business activities. Peter’s passion for his community, be it his staff, suppliers, trades or philanthropic endeavours, is testament to his character.”

In this article, we’ll share highlights from Peter’s career spanning 45 years and how through innovation and building relationships with both customers, suppliers, trades and a dedicated team, Clarendon Homes is the sought-after builder it is today. An Australian-owned builder you can trust.

How Peter built Clarendon Homes: from one spec home in 1978 to building over 30,000 homes for Australian families today

Peter Campbell built his first home back in 1978, a spec home at Emu Plains. With a background in drafting, he knew how to design houses but it was the first time he’d built one of his own. Of those early days, Peter says “I was just making it up as I went along”. It turned out to be more successful than he could’ve imagined.

Today, under Peter’s expert guidance, Clarendon Homes is a multi-award winning builder who has helped over 30,000 Australian families to build their dream home.

Let’s start at the beginning of the story…

The Early Years of Clarendon Homes

In 1978, Peter built his first spec home at Emu Plains. It wasn’t an instant success but he learnt a lot, enough to plant the seed that he could make a go of building houses. In those early days, it was a team of one with Peter working out of his home in Penrith.

Clarendon Homes thrived in the 80s (through two recessions) and Peter was able to move to an office at the back of a real estate agent’s in Penrith. He employed his first staff members. “One of the things that was a blessing was being based in Penrith,” says Peter. “Penrith was growing exponentially”. There was a real sense of community in Penrith. Most of the trades, suppliers and staff were local.

It was time to open the very first Clarendon Homes display so people could see for themselves how a Clarendon Home looked and felt. This was built in Kingswood, near Penrith. After the success of his first display, Peter saw a niche in the market. He went on to pioneer the first two-storey project home.

Clarendon Homes was one of the first builders to build a two-storey project home at Astoria Park (which was one of the first project home display villages). This was a significant milestone for Clarendon Homes. At that time, very few builders were building two-storey project homes.

Another important display home milestone for Peter was the construction of the Clarendon Homes flagship display centre at Parklea.

Today, we have more than 80 homes on display across NSW and QLD so you can experience the quality of a Clarendon Home in real life.

Peter’s passion for innovation in residential housing

Clarendon Homes has led the way for innovation in the building industry. Founder, Peter Campbell made it his mission to look for ways to develop new ideas and techniques which would improve the building experience for our customers.

Some of Peter’s building initiatives through Clarendon Homes include:

• The development of the ‘Your Home Selection Centre’ concept which brought together industry experts to guide our customers through every step of selections for their new home. This meant our customers could easily make all of their choices in one place.
• Clarendon Homes was one of the first builders to use waffle pods for concrete slabs in residential construction. Using waffle pods improved costs and slab construction times as well as increasing slab strength and reducing the risk of cracks in the concrete. This meant a better product for our customers.
• Peter implemented a revolutionary solution to solve the problem of “water hammer” caused by copper piping. Clarendon Homes introduced the PE-Xa piping system (poly pipe) on all hot and cold water services and gas services. This removed the need for copper piping, saving costs, time and no more water hammer issues.

• Clarendon Homes was the first major builder in residential construction to move from traditional concrete piers to screw pier technology as a standard inclusion because it saved on both time and construction costs. These savings could then be passed on to our customers.
• Peter worked closely with Clarendon’s prefabrication frame company to adopt a “Smart Frame System”. The Smart Frame System included predrilled framing studs to accommodate plumbing and electrical rough ins. The benefit was less drilling mess on site and a much tidier, cleaner wall finish in our homes.
• In addition to Peter being an early adopter of metal framing systems for Clarendon Homes, he also helped to pioneer the concept of hybrid framing systems. These hybrid systems included prefabricated metal frames and floor joists, along with a timber roof truss system. They combined the benefits of perfectly straight walls with the structural strength for roof tiles. This meant our customers would have the peace of mind of a better, stronger product.
• Clarendon Homes moved from timber to metal main floor joists with an adjusted depth to reduce the quantity of structural steel required. This immediately improved install times and work safety for our contractors.
• Peter implemented recessed wet area flooring into project home designs. This allowed a flush floor transition from the living area floors to wet areas. Clarendon Homes then fine tuned this system so it would also work on the first floor of a two storey home. This means our customers now have the option of recessed wet area flooring to all parts of their home.

Philanthropy: Giving back to the community

To quote Peter from his acceptance speech at the 2023 HIA presentation of the Sir Phillip Lynch Award of Excellence, “To be the recipient of this year’s ‘Award of Excellence’ is really quite humbling. Those that are close to me will know that I’ve never been the type to personally seek out this kind of recognition.” Because of this, we feel it’s important to acknowledge the many ways that Peter gives back to the community through his philanthropy. In 2008, Peter Campbell was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) for both his contributions to the building industry and his philanthropy. Over the years, Peter’s passion for giving back to the community means he has contributed to a number of causes including:

• In 2010, Peter climbed Mt Kilimanjaro to raise much needed funds for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation. The Humpty Dumpty Foundation is a children’s charity that provides essential life-saving equipment in Paediatric Wards, Neo-Natal Units and Emergency Departments.

• In 2019, Peter partnered with The Junction Works to build two Domaine Homes (at no cost). These homes provided secure accommodation and ongoing support for six young people living with disabilities.

• Since 2013 Peter has been a generous financial supporter of the School of St Jude, a charity-funded school in Tanzania. This school provides free primary and secondary education to children of the Arusha Region. Peter and his wife also visited the School of St Jude to meet the children and learn more about the important work of the school.
• Peter also generously supported St John Ambulance by donating a brand new fully equiped ambulance vehicle.