RCR Tomlinson chased solar it didn't understand — the 120-year firm folded

RCR Tomlinson, founded by brothers Ernest and Edward Tomlinson, had been a mining engineering mainstay for 120 years. Then it ran hard at the solar boom, building farms across Australia — without ever having built a solar farm before. The reckoning came with a $57 million write-down on two Queensland projects, the Daydream and Hayman solar farms, in August 2018. In September the board raised $100 million from shareholders, underwritten by Macquarie Capital, presenting the raise as the fix.

Three months later the banks refused further funding and the company went into administration. Commentator Tim Treadgold's verdict: 'they did not know what they were doing. They bid on contracts they couldn't complete, they underbid in order to win contracts.' The company had underestimated equipment costs, renewables labour shortages, and never allowed for grid-connection approvals from the Australian Energy Market Operator, whose tightened testing had slowed the sector. 'It must have known quite some time ago that it had problems and it simply did not tell anyone how bad it was.'

The collapse stranded projects in progress, including the expansion of Synergy's Greenough River Solar Farm — 45 per cent complete with the utility reviewing how to finish it — and the Pilbara lithium processing plant it was building. Senior executives had departed without explanation before the collapse, which is precisely what put the September capital raise under scrutiny: investors who subscribed were left asking what the board knew when.

Administration within three months of a $100M capital raise; shares worthless; subcontractors and projects like the half-built Greenough River farm stranded.

The company bid fixed-price contracts in a technology where it had no delivery track record.

Underbidding won work that was unprofitable from signature, so growth compounded the losses.

Grid-connection approval time under AEMO's tightened regime was never priced into delivery schedules.

The problem was disclosed only after the write-down forced it, months after the position was known internally.

Entering an infrastructure sector you have never built in means your bid price is a guess — underbidding to win work is just scheduling your own collapse.

RCR Tomlinson entered administration in November 2018, with creditors including subcontractors — who reported the two prior years as the worst in the industry — left out of pocket and clients such as Synergy scrambling to rescue half-built assets. The AEMO used the wreckage as a teaching case, warning new entrants to engage network businesses and the regulator before making commercial commitments.