The giant, pale green building with its glass dome is about the last fixture on Earth you'd expect to find among the half-a- dozen dwellings that are the Northern Tasmanian hamlet.

But Alwyn Shaw has lived at Whitemore all his life. His dad's garage-cum-workshop is still in the main street beside his own home. The building where he went to primary school is on the other side next to the local tennis courts.

When he's planning a $1.5 million business expansion, where else would it be located?

Shaw Contracting has expanded dramatically in the past decade into one of the State's biggest earth- moving and civil construction companies, regularly bidding for contracts worth more than $20 million both within Tasmanian and, lately, in Victoria.

Two years ago, Mr Shaw decided it was time to properly house the burgeoning business at one central site.

The three-storey office building and boardroom with one of the best corporate views in Australia is the last stage of the expansion programme.

``We've found that out clients really enjoy coming out to Whitemore,'' Mr Shaw said.

Soon they will be ushered to the very top of his new corporate offices to gaze at the 180-degree view of the lavender-blue Great Western Tiers seemingly only a few paddocks away as they sip their welcoming coffees.

``This place gives a bit of sanity in a world that is moving at such a fast pace. There are three tennis courts up the road. We often have a hit _ clients too,'' he said.

Mr Shaw's unusual business formula seems to work.

He has just sent off a team of men and some of his biggest machinery to Victoria to complete a 20-week contract for Enetech South, a subsidiary of Texas Utilities, engaged by the giant Melbourne Water Supply for major remedial work at the Yan Yean water supply.

He has also tendered for another big contract at Kempsey after the Yan Yean project, the aim being to maintain a year-round contracting operation, even during Tasmania's wet winter when the company's big earth-moving machines are usually idle.