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- 27/08/2025
27/08/2025
🏗 🚧 🌏 🛠🚀 🦺 ♻ 🤖 🧱 🏛 🧰
THE MORNING PAPER FOR CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS AND TRADIES
🚨 Safety Updates
Menai Civil Contractors Pty Ltd has been fined $69,750 in the Industrial Court of NSW after pleading guilty to a category 3 offence under the Work Health and Safety Act NSW 2011. SafeWork NSW prosecuted the civil construction company following a workplace incident on 11 November 2022 where a worker fell nearly 4 metres from a bridge abutment.
The Office of Industrial Relations (OIR), responsible for WHS, electrical safety, and workers’ compensation in Queensland, seeks nominations for its Industry Sector Standing Committees. Candidates with WHS experience are encouraged to apply. The Minister aims for gender balance, equal representation, and diverse, regionally based perspectives. Apply by 10 October 2025.
âś’ Headlines & Industry
To tackle Australia's construction skills shortage and housing crisis, the federal government launched a $10,000 payment program to help apprentices complete their training. With many leaving for higher-paying unskilled jobs, the initiative aims to retain workers in critical trades. Over 1,200 apprentices have already joined, with Victoria leading uptake.
The federal government will pause National Construction Code updates until 2029, except for urgent safety or quality changes. This aims to provide builders with a stable rulebook, reducing red tape and delays. The pause helps speed up housing approvals and construction, supporting affordability and steady supply in the sector.
Utility field technicians in Australia and New Zealand spend excessive time driving, often due to poor inventory management requiring trips to collect parts. This “windshield time” reduces productivity, increases safety risks, and raises costs. Just-in-time inventory, real-time parts visibility, and decentralised parts hubs help reduce driving, boost efficiency, and enhance safety
Mining services and contracting firm Tasmea lifted its profit to $53 million in the last financial year, amid an aggressive acquisition strategy that saw four deals closed within a year.
🏗️ Projects
NSW
The Reserve Bank of Australia has been given approval to remove the asbestos from its Sydney headquarters, allowing the central bank to push ahead with its troubled $1.2 billion renovation.
New South Wales contractor Stephen Edwards Constructions has begun works to upgrade Dundas Public School in Western Sydney. Several other school projects are underway across the greater Parramatta area, as part of the state government’s $3.9 billion investment in rebuilding public education, including upgrades, new high schools and new public preschools.
The New South Wales government is investing more than $63 million in critical infrastructure projects across Western Sydney to better connect housing growth with the infrastructure to support it. Projects will include local road, school, land and emergency services upgrades, supporting around 125,000 new homes over the next 15 years.
Landcom proposes 220 build-to-rent apartments for essential workers on surplus WestConnex land in Annandale, with rezoning underway. The project will create 130 full-time equivalent construction jobs annually and 40 ongoing roles once complete.
NT
The NT Department of Infrastructure and Logistics has been fined $26,000 for destroying a sacred "lightning tree" during construction of a road near a remote Central Australian community.
QLD
A Queensland shire council lays out strategy to attract up to $40 billion in investment in new wind and solar, despite state government ripping up renewable targets.
SA
Works have begun on a $25 million repair project on The Outback Highway between Lyndhurst and Marree, following flooding caused by Cyclone Tiffany. Procurement for the works has been completed, and the project will be managed and delivered by South Australia’s Department for Infrastructure and Transport.
VIC
Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny has approved the Amess Road Precinct Structure Plan – paving the way for 1,360 more homes in a brand new estate in Riddells Creek.
Community consultation is now open for Melbourne Water’s $28 million Reimagining Eumemmerring Creek Project that will see two kilometres of an underground piped and concreted section of Eumemmerring Creek transformed into a natural, open waterway.
Melbourne Water has completed a $330 million upgrade to the Western Treatment Plant, introducing a world-first shortcut nitrogen removal sewage process that sets a new benchmark in treatment technology.
AECOM has secured a contract for the redevelopment of the Albert Park Pit Building, a motorsport street circuit in Melbourne, Australia.
WA
Macmahon Holdings Ltd has announced that it has been awarded an underground mining services contract by Black Cat Syndicate Ltd at the Majestic Mining Centre which is part of the Kal East Gold Operation located in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region of Western Australia.
🚀 Innovation, Digital & Futuristic Technology
Is volumetric modular construction on the verge of a breakthrough, or will it remain experimental or occasional, as it has so far in many countries?
Digital twins bring big value to construction and facilities management in myriad ways. Now, new research is being done to develop a digital twin framework to enhance sustainability and efficiency of modular buildings.
🌏 Around the World
A railway steel truss arch bridge section being erected in the predawn hours Aug. 22 plummeted into a river in Northwest China, killing at least 12 workers, news agencies reported.
Despite President Trump’s action to cut billions in federal funding for the California High-Speed Rail project, a new poll finds that 62% of registered voters in the state – and 80% of Democrats – support continuing to build what advocacy group US High Speed Rail calls “America’s first solar-powered electric bullet train”.
TAQA Transmission has appointed Turner & Townsend to provide programme management consultancy services to support the retirement of a power generating plant in Abu Dhabi.
đź“– Miscellaneous
Natural capital—soil, water, and ecosystems—underpins all economic activity, including construction. The article urges integrating natural capital accounting into development approvals to ensure sustainable building and avoid ecosystem damage. Without this, faster construction risks depleting resources, threatening long-term economic resilience and wellbeing amid environmental challenges.
The City of Melbourne has released its draft Melbourne 2050 Vision for public comment. The 25-year vision was shaped by extensive engagement with more than 1,850 community members and stakeholders. It outlines draft principles to guide the city’s future.
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