About The Morris Group

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The Morris Group is an independent family-run Australian business operating across tourism, hospitality, renewable energy, finance, technology and aviation.

ABOUT US

Founded by Chris Morris, the founder of ASX Top-50 global company Computershare, the Morris Group is a network of businesses striving to create a positive impact and enable access to the best in people, places and quality of experience. Technology and innovation propelled our journey in the beginning, and continue to drive everything we do.

ABOUT US

The Morris Group believe economic success and environmental sustainability go hand-in-hand. We aim to exceed a ‘tread lightly’ approach by strengthening and enriching the environments in which we work; actively restoring, repairing and enhancing the natural ecosystems we operate within.

MORRIS GROUP

Philosophy

At Morris Group we believe business can be a force for good. Our vision of success is defined by strong communities, thriving environments and happy people.

We think every day is a chance to do something great and that there is always more that can be done to change the way we work, for the better.

We think every day is a chance to do something great

Fair & Equitable Society

Access to inclusive education, training and employment opportunities.
Strengthening regional economies and supporting economic transition.

Sustainability

Creating positive impact through responsible business management.
Funding environmental protection, regeneration, research and awareness.

Wellbeing

Fostering health, balance and joy through businesses which drive connection to nature, to one another, and to self. Funding medical research and safety initiatives.

Chris Morris Casino Atlantic City

Empowerment

Investing in passionate people and providing the pathways and resources to unlock their potential to create success together.

He’s the tech entrepreneur who 40 years ago founded Australia’s most successful tech company ever, made an absolute fortune and bought a tropical island off North Queensland’s coast which sparked a spate of acquisitions. With redevelopments underway at his spa retreat in the Daintree Rainforest, his outback cattle station west of Cairns, and The Ville Resort—Casino in Townsville, Chris Morris’ tourism empire in sunny NQ is almost complete.

Sitting in an ocean-view boardroom at The Ville Resort–Casino, talking about property’s newest outlet, The Quarterdeck, Melbourne businessman Chris Morris points out the window towards Magnetic Island and says simply, “that view is magic”. Finally, The Ville’s facing the water.

Since mid-2015, Chris’ company Morris Group, which acquired Townsville’s aging elephant of a casino-hotel for $70 million, has been redeveloping the property into a total entertainment destination. Stage 1 will be completed in the coming weeks, with a bill circa-$42 million. (Contractor Hutchinson’s Builders has used 84% local contractors on the project.) At the same time, Chris and Morris Group are completing upgrades to their other properties within their Northern Escape Collection including a refresh at Daintree Eco Lodge and a new-build resort at Mt Mulligan Station west of Cairns. Adding to these, Chris owns Orpheus Island Lodge and its northern neighbour Pelorus Island (purchased in 2017), giving him the trifecta in Australian tourism – reef, rainforest and outback.

It was never Chris’ intention to be in hospitality though, or his vision to own tourism businesses. In fact, he says he’s never really had ‘visions’, even for his first company, Computershare.

By his own admission, Chris Morris was terrible at school. “I failed everything except for maths,” he tells, attributing his performance to the typical distractions for teenage boys. So, Chris’ mother enrolled him in a three-month computer course at Taylors College, Melbourne. It was 1966 and the first ever computer course in Australia.

From that course, Chris worked for the first computer bureau in Melbourne (this was long before PCs), and eventually he started working on share registry systems. In 1978, he joined with business partner Ken Milner to found Computershare and provide computer bureau services to Australian share registrars. “We had 49%,” recalls Chris. “We worked with a bureau, which had the big computer, and they had 51%. Everyone back then used to run their own registries, or they were run by chartered accountants. Within five years, just about everyone in Australia used us. We then did what everyone does – we went to New Zealand first, then UK, then when we got brave we went to the US. We were one the first companies to use PCs as distributive processors instead of the big old green terminals – if you can remember them.”

By 1992, Chris and his business partner had bought out the bureau’s 51%. “They were raiding our super funds; we didn’t take them on and instead bought their 51% for I think $50,000. Then Ken said, ‘let’s sack everyone’ – we had all the major companies using our software and it would take them three or four years to catch up to us. I couldn’t do that, so some other staff and I bought him out. He sold for $2 million for 50% of the company which today is worth around $9.5 billion.”

Chris Morris Christopher Morris Band

Computershare was floated on the Australian stock exchange in 1994.

Chris Morris Casino Buffet

“We [Computershare] have 18,000 people globally in 27 countries and manage the debt and companies’ registries of most of the major listed companies globally. It’s by far the most successful IT Company Australia’s ever had by a long way.”