He started with nothing in a Darwin bedroom; now he’s building a national empire

Neill Carberry arrived in Australia as a backpacker with no plan to stay. Thirteen years later, he’s won eight business awards and can’t quite believe any of it is real.

Neill Carberry and Louise Carberry at the 2025 Australian Training Awards at Darwin Convention Centre. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The delivery driver was understandably confused.

He had just pulled into the driveway of a modest rental home in Stuart Park with a truck full of electrical supplies.

“Do you have a forklift?” he asked Louise Carberry, who was standing in the doorway with her newborn baby on her hip.

It was 2012, and her husband Neill had just started NC Electrical and Air Conditioning from their snug spare bedroom.

Within weeks their driveway had become an impromptu loading dock.

The situation was, as Mrs Carberry puts it now with a laugh, “all wrong”.

Today, Mr Carberry stands in a 1000sq m warehouse in the industrial heartland of East Arm, surrounded by eight business awards won in the past year alone.

But when the accolades started rolling in this year, his first instinct was disbelief.

“Don’t ever say that to me again,” he recalled telling someone who called him an inspiration.

“I’m like, f--king hell, never say that again.

“I feel like I’ve earned it, but I don’t feel like I’m there yet. We’re at 20 per cent of where I want us to go.”

Mr Carberry was named the Territory's best tradie in 2014. Picture Katrina Bridgeford

It’s a peculiar kind of impostor syndrome for someone who has built a multimillion-dollar business from nothing, in a country he never intended to call home.

Mr Carberry arrived in Australia in 2011 with Mrs Carberry, his partner since they were 16.

They were backpackers on working holiday visas, planning to stay in the country for a year before returning to Ireland.

They picked fruit on a banana farm in Innisfail, Queensland, to extend their visas, then headed to Darwin for what was supposed to be a week-long stopover.

“We landed on Mitchell Street on a Wednesday,” Ms Carberry remembered.

“It was like the street was on fire. We were supposed to fly out the following Wednesday. We never got on that flight.”

Within days, Mr Carberry had landed an electrical contracting job.

Within months, they’d decided Darwin was worth sticking around for.

By 2012, Mr Carberry registered an ABN and started his own business.

Two weeks later, Mrs Carberry discovered she was pregnant with their first child.

“That gave us a different level of ‘sh-t, this can’t fail’,” Mr Carberry said.

When asked if he had a backup plan for if his business venture failed, his answer was immediate: “If you spend time putting any effort into a plan B, you’re taking away from plan A.”

That philosophy defined the next decade of Mr Carberry’s life, his wife said.

Mr Carberry hires people with no experience at all. Picture: Supplied

He worked seven days a week, 15 hours a day, for years.

“Very hustle culture,” Mr Carberry said, almost apologetically.

The breakthrough came in 2015 when NC Electrical won a major NBN contract to install 16,000 wireless connections.

Operating out of that spare bedroom, the Carberry’s adopted a simple growth model: “We’d make enough money, we’d buy another car, and we’d hire another person, make more money, buy another car, and hire another person.”

In 12 months, they went from two people to nearly 25.

The spare bedroom gave way to a storage unit.

Then three storage units.

Then seven.

Eventually, Ms Carberry convinced her landlord to rent Mr Carberry the industrial shed next door.

By 2021, when they purchased their current facility, Mr Carberry walked into the empty 1000sq m warehouse and thought “f--k, this is way too big. What am I doing?”

What set NC Electrical apart, Mr Carberry said, wasn’t just its growth trajectory: it was his approach to hiring and training.

He doesn’t hire experienced project managers or seasoned tradespeople from competitors: he hires people with no experience at all.

“It’s more fun to hire somebody with no experience and train them,” he explained.

His vetting process is equally unorthodox.

Ms and Mr Carberry at the NT News Leader of the Year Awards. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

When applications come in, he sends a blunt email asking if they understand what they’re signing up for: the blame when things go wrong, the 40C roof spaces, the four-year financial commitment.

“Generally, anyone who writes back and goes like, ‘Hell yeah, sounds fun,’ I’m just like, bring your boots, come tomorrow, we’ll figure out a home for you.”

Only about 5 per cent respond with that enthusiasm.

But those who did, he said, become his most successful hires.

“I can train anybody anything,” he said, “but I can’t train determination and drive.”

Such a philosophy was born from his own experience.

Mr Carberry failed maths in school, a critical subject for anyone hoping to become an electrician.

But he convinced his first employer to take a chance on him anyway, arguing it was the teaching method, not his ability.

“Someone took a chance on me,” he said.

“That’s where that compassion to take a chance on people comes from.

“I feel like if you have the ability to help someone, you’ve got a moral obligation to.”

Today, NC Electrical runs what Mr Carberry called an “incubator” for tradespeople.

One second-year apprentice recently told him: “Boss, I want to be a business owner too.”

Mr Carberry’s response: “Good, because that’s what I want for you too.”

They now meet once a week for an hour so Mr Carberry can share what he’s learned about running a business.

Daniel, one of Mr Carberry’s solar installers, spent three years resisting encouragement to start an electrical apprenticeship.

“Nah, boss, I’m gonna be the best solar panel installer in the world,” he would tell Mr Carberry.

Eventually, Daniel relented.

Last year, he won Apprentice of the Year.

But for all his success in mentoring others, Mr Carberry struggles to accept recognition for himself.

This year, NC Electrical won several awards, including the NT News’ Territory Leader of the Year People’s Choice Award, brought to you by the NT Government.

“I’ve only been here for 12 years,” he said.

“And we’ve made that much influence on the people of the Territory? That means more to me than anything.”

NC Electrical was also last week awarded bronze in the Australian Apprenticeships Employer category at the 2025 Australian Training Awards.

Northern Territory Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Federal Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles and NC Electrical and Mr Carberry during a recent visit. Picture: Thomas McLean

He’s now plotting the next phase: he wants to establish a national footprint within the next 24 months.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished electrician, I’ve accomplished engineering, I’ve accomplished the managing director thing,” he said.

“So now I’m constantly trying to bring myself up to market, consistently challenge myself with a new challenge.

“I’d love to go and help inspiring businesses, inspiring entrepreneurs. Not by giving them advice, but telling them all the things that I’ve done wrong.”

It’s perhaps the most Irish thing about him: that even after building an empire from essentially nothing, he still can’t believe his luck.

Maybe that’s what’s driven him this far.

As his chat with the NT News wrapped up in his office, Mr Carberry returned to that theme of gratitude.

“We’re very grateful for the opportunity that we’ve got,” he said.

“We’re not finished yet. We’ve got a long way to go.”

For now, though, it’s back to the thing he loves doing, back to the grind and back to proving – to himself more than anyone – that the kid who failed maths and showed up in Darwin for a week-long holiday might just have what it takes after all.

Originally published as He started with nothing in a Darwin bedroom; now he’s building a national empire