About Hickinbotham

For a family that has achieved so much in many different areas, the Hickinbothams have maintained 
a remarkably low profile.

The seed for the building company was sown when the late Alan David and his father, Alan Robb Hickinbotham, bought a block of land in Linden Park in 1954. They built a house on the block to cater for strong post-war demand, which was quickly sold. This first Hickinbotham home in Sturdee Street, Linden Park, still stands proudly today and is in immaculate condition.

Invention in their blood

The Hickinbotham family’s awareness for the need to improve building and development methods, protect the environment and preserve the precious resource of water has seen them introduce many radical innovations to their community estates. They were the first developers to put telephone and power lines underground and have restrictive covenants on the felling of trees at their Athelstone estate in the 1930s.

This estate was the first development ever to win a Civic Trust award. The concept of storing run-off stormwater in the aquifer for later re-use was pioneered by Hickinbotham in partnership with the CSIRO, and was put into practice at the company's Andrews Farm estate. This project set a precedent for the rest of Australia and from it national standards were developed.

Another Hickinbotham water project was the Renmark Water Reclamation Plant, a state-of-the-art facility to purify and filter Renmark's wastewater so that it can be re-used for irrigation rather than polluting the River Murray.

Hickinbotham was instrumental in bringing into being Australia's first joint ecumenical Anglican/Catholic school at Andrews Farm, St Columba College. It was one of the first of its kind in the world. 

Another innovative school project was Woodend Primary at Sheidow Park. When the cash-strapped government of the day was unable to provide a much needed primary school for the people living on the Woodend Estate, Hickinbotham funded the school, built the campus and leased it back to the government, creating the first privately owned public school. This project received national attention.

A family of humble high-achievers

There is a very long Hickinbotham family association with football dating back to the late 1800s, starting with David Hickinbotham ('Old Dave') who played for Geelong. He was one of the legends of the game, was regarded as the finest centreman of the 1880’s, and was remembered as a revolutionary football strategist. As the club’s captain, he took the team undefeated through the 1886 season to be both premiers and champions of Australia. His grandson was Hickinbotham's founder and former Chairman (Alan), who also had a passion for football, having played for South Adelaide, South Australia and Geelong while pursuing a career as a science teacher at Geelong Grammar. He eventually moved to coaching after a chronic injury took its toll. Alan was President/Chairman of South Adelaide for 14 years and was the club's patron and number one ticket holder.

Alan and his wife Margaret had five children, and Alan would readily tell people his wife was the 'power behind the throne' having provided a strong and loving foundation for the family.

First-born, David became involved in the Hickinbotham building and development business at just 20 years of age while finishing an economics degree. After 25 years, he swapped bricks for wine, taking over Hickinbotham's extensive vineyard operations and wine business.

There is a very long family association with football dating back to the late 1800s.