Bruno Gordano Grollo AO (born 1942, Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian businessman, property developer, former Director of Grocon and is noted for his controversy surrounding the Swanston Street Wall incident on 29 March 2013.
Here were some new debts to pay off.’ [4] Luigi Grollo and his family left their hometown of Arcade, Treviso, Italy after it became a World War I battleground and was no longer habitable.
[5] At 18 years old, with his older brother sponsoring him, he boarded the passenger ship named the Principe d’Udine and arrived in Melbourne on 24 July 1928 to start a new life in Australia.
The next morning we left for Healesville to go to work.’ [4] In 1938, Luigi settled in Carlton and began concreting work, whilst building his construction business, formerly known as L Grollo & Sons, on the weekends, while wife, Emma, helped with bookkeeping and accounts.
[5] Luigi’s one-man company began with residential paths, gutters, fireplace foundations and swimming pools before rapidly expanding in the 1950s to become the Grollo Group, transitioning to constructing multiple high-rises in Melbourne.
[4] Bruno headed Grocon Constructions and multiple building assets and in 2003 made his two sons, Adam and Daniel, joint managing directors.
[8] This conspiracy arose from fears surrounding the taxation office in which the court alleged that Grollo had failed to declare $59 million in the process of building the Rialto Towers.
[9] On 28 March 2013, during wind gusts of up to 102 kilometres per hour (63 mph) a Grocon building site construction wall collapsed on Swanston Street, Melbourne killing three pedestrians walking by.
[11] Grollo stated about the incident, ‘I personally, along with all of the directors and employees of Grocon, reiterate our deep regret at the tragic and untimely loss’.
[8] His ambitious ideals underlined many aspects of the company, Grollo stated he wanted, ‘To do something for Melbourne that did what the pyramids did for Egypt, or the Colosseum did for Rome, or the Opera House and Harbour Bridge did for Sydney'.
[15] The proposal was reviewed again in 2003 for construction to begin in Dubai, commissioned by The Grollo Corporation and Emaar Properties, the largest development company in the Arab Emirates.
[16] The $3 billion deal was proposed as an exact replica of the original Grollo Tower, however ultimately the project was cancelled and Bruno’s ambitious skyscraper was never built.
[18] In January 2018, Grocon was awarded construction rights for a project in Central Barangaroo, Sydney as a deal with Aqualand and Scentre Group.
[20] They were married for 26 years before Dina suffered a stroke which left her severely paralysed until her death, aged 58, in December 2001; Bruno keeps a room in her honour at his house.
I’m trying to live long enough to see the success of gene, nano and stem-cell therapies which will keep us alive.’[21] He now employs a professional team within his Melbourne home in Thornbury, ‘Casa Del Matto’ which translates to House of the Madman in English to research products on the market and new science on anti-ageing and longevity.