TODD MILLER

Todd Miller is the owner of ZieglerBuild, a bespoke building, design and lifestyle brand. With strong roots as a family business spanning back to the 1980's, Ziegler – "the maker of bricks" first existed as a masonry and quarry company in Toowoomba. Todd, a Toowoomba boy, found his way into building from a wildly varied career path. Starting work at the tender age of 12 in his family’s businesses, Todd learnt the value of hard work early on, developing an incredible work ethic that has stayed with him throughout his life. 

Todd began playing professional rugby league at the age of 18, for clubs including the Cronulla Sharks, Many Sea Eagles, Gold Coast Chargers and Brisbane Broncos. Whilst playing footie he studied and worked as a hairdresser, eventually opening his own hair, beauty and photography salon on the Gold Coast where, as a hairdresser, he styled the hair of his fellow footie players and their wives. After an 8 year league career, Todd swapped to rugby union, playing for the Gold Coast Breaker’s inaugural team. He then headed to New York where he captain-coached White Plains in Stamford, Connecticut, then on to London, where he played for London Welsh. It was during his first days in London that Todd met his future wife, Diana. Fairly early on, they pledged to work hard and save money for their future together. He worked as a labourer on building sites there, as well as behind bars before falling into his first design job for an elite beauty spa on the Kings Road in Chelsea. From there he helped roll out the first organic supermarkets, Luscious Organic.

In 2003 after a couple of years saving pounds in London Todd and Diana made their way back to Australia where Todd completed a mature-age carpentry apprenticeship, thus allowing his passion for design to flourish on his own building projects. He worked in the family business on residential developments in Brisbane and Toowoomba completing a large number of high-end homes. Within a few years, Todd completed his builder’s license and in 2013 his outrageous vision to build a house out of 31 shipping containers over 3 levels became a reality when his project was filmed by Grand Designs Australia. The episode ranked as one of the most-watched, and Kevin McCloud, of Grand Designs UK, referred to Todd, when ranking the container house as 2nd in his all-time Top 10 Australia list, as “GI Jo”!

In mid-2015, after selling the container house Todd, Diana, and their 2 girls made the sea change to the idyllic location of Bangalow, NSW to set up and open The Newrybar Merchants. This collaborative creative space was a hub of activity and beautiful product, where Diana had an in-house studio and sold her art, and from where they sold Wolf & Maiden leather goods, imported from Diana’s birthplace, Cape Town. Todd also designed and refurbished old-school cars and motorbikes, which he sold at the Merchants. 

During 2016 Todd was joined by his cousin, Ben Quinlan, also a Toowoomba boy and builder, as a partner in ZieglerBuild, and together they completed a number of bespoke builds and renovations in Bangalow and Byron Bay, including the Chocolate Box, the Spell flagship store and Spell warehouse offices in the Byron Arts & Industrial Estate, Spelly’s personal house in Byron Bay, The Beach Café, and a high-end duplex in Kingsley Lane in Byron Bay. 

Ben and Todd decided to pursue their own separate passions at the end of 2019. Ben is still building in the Byron Bay area under Marloane Building, and Todd has shifted his focus to designing houses after enduring 2 shoulder reconstructions and spinal fusion surgery during 2017 and 2018. Todd now works with a few select builders and mentors up and coming Byron builders that have the same ethos for project design and budget delivery. This way Todd’s love for design and development has time to flourish.