April 2019 Newsletter

Welcome to the April edition of the CGC Newsletter 2019.  The return of the Berejiklian Government has filled the market with confidence with regards to construction and civil infrastructure. Business should be booming here for quite a while.

On a lighter note, with so many British expats in the company, there is much excitement around the Champions League and the Premier League, which is coming to an end. With fans here for Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool you can imagine that English football is the talk of the office.

Finally, March saw the return of the NRL comp for another season, with 15 tipsters across the two offices.  After 6 rounds, Jamie Ryde is still in the lead, closely followed by Dan Kundi.  Last years winner, Fiona Eskbank, is currently bringing up the rear.  Will she be the dark horse for two years in a row?

Keep reading to see what our Brisbane staff have to say about the Brisbane construction market and then to the social events here at CGC.

Brisbane Update with Maria, Jamie, Matt and Lindsey 

With the Brisbane team covering Construction, Design and Engineering, the Brisbane market seems to be gaining some much needed momentum with the announcement of two of the biggest projects Brisbane has ever seen affecting all sectors. 

Multiplex have been announced as the winners of the highly anticipated Queens Wharf project which upon completion will cover a massive 20% of the Brisbane CBD.  The other large project Brisbane has been eager to see announced was Cross River Rail, with Jacobs, Aecom, Hassell and CPB named as some of the key players who will be involved in the delivery. 

On top of these projects the building market seems at its busiest so far for this calendar year across QLD in the run up to EOFY with clients looking to spend the remainder of their budgets – predominately refurb and fit out projects.

Other companies in the commercial sector are seeing a quieter than usual market and have indicated that the upcoming elections are linked to this. So once these are announced, we expect to see an influx in hiring.  Some builders operating in the retail sector have seen a recent spike in works which is typical with the seasonal work that takes place across this sector. With the announcement of these large projects, we have seen a small spike in employers who have started looking for people on a contract basis in a market that has most recently been dominated by more permanent work. It will be interesting to see if this continues when more project wins are announced in the short term.

Overall, although many companies have had a steady start to the year it looks as if the second half of the year is set to be busier and Brisbane is just seeing the start of some great, landscape-changing projects.

CGC Social

As you know we celebrated the end of last quarter with Barefoot Bowling in Bondi. A great afternoon was had by all with Christina captaining the winning team.

This month we celebrated Azri and Carmel’s birthdays with cake and well, Anzac Day, respectively. Happy Birthday to you both!

CGC was represented at the WIDAC (Women in design and construction) networking event on the 4th of April at Brickworks showroom on Barrack street. The event was based around the subject of courage. There were six excellent guest speakers from the Architecture, Design and Construction sector. The six tremendous ladies faced their public speaking fears and shared with us their insights, project demands, learnings and more.

And lastly, we’ve had a couple of significant CGC Anniversaries this month with Evan Morgans marking 7 years and Steve Morris attaining 6 years service. You two are CGC stalwarts and we have a lot of affection for your individual ways. Big shout out also to Jamie Madden who has been with us for one very busy & productive year! Congratulations to you all.