The construction industry is booming in Australia. In fact, despite facing a multitude of challenges over the past two years, Australia’s leading construction firms continue to get projects off the ground. And, they deliver significant city-shaping developments. So, here are the top construction companies in Australia and the world.
CPB Contractors
CPB Contractors is the Australasian construction company of the CIMIC Group. The majority of CPB Contractors’ work is in the area of civil engineering projects. But, they’ve also acquired a lot of mining and commercial construction work. In fact, they work across all key sectors of the construction industry. And, this includes roads, rail, tunnelling, defence, building and resources infrastructure.
This leading international construction company is a member of the CIMIC Group. And, for the past 70 years, it has been working on constructing and designing major civil engineering projects across Australia. But, their operations span Australia, New Zealand, Asia, India and Papua New Guinea, including some of the region’s most iconic projects.
CPB Contractors’ mission is to generate sustainable returns for shareholders by delivering projects for clients, while providing safe, rewarding and fulfilling careers for their people. Their work covers a range of delivery models, including: Design and construct, Construct only, Construction management, Alliances and joint ventures, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in conjunction with CIMIC’s Pacific Partnerships.
Lendlease
Lendlease Group is a multinational construction, property, and infrastructure company headquartered in Barangaroo, Sydney, Australia. A Dutch refugee named Dick Dusseldorf formed the company in Sydney in 1958. And, it is located in four operating regions: Australia, Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Lendlease has been entrusted with many public, cultural, and social projects like constructing the Sydney Opera House, creating the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. And, also restoring and renovating historic buildings such as London’s Tate Britain and National Theatre. In addition, it has carried out a number of restoration projects, including Elephant & Castle in London, Victoria Harbour in Melbourne, and Riverline in Chicago.
On the one hand, their Construction segment provides project management, design and construction services, predominantly in the defence, mixed use, commercial and residential sectors. On the other hand, their Investments segment includes a leading wholesale investment management platform. And, it also includes the Group’s ownership interests in property and infrastructure co-investments, Retirement Living and US Military Housing.
Laing O’Rourke
Laing O’Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, England, United Kingdom.
Ray O’Rourke founded the company in 1978. Their fully integrated offer includes engineering, construction, and asset management. And, it delivers a single-source solution for some of the world’s most prestigious organisations.
A globally diversified engineering firm operating in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, their 2025 mission is to be the recognized leader for innovation and excellence in the construction industry.
Hutchinson Builders
Hutchinson Builders is one of Australia’s largest privately-owned construction companies. Founded in Brisbane in 1912, they have grown into a dynamic and diverse construction company, delivering sophisticated projects across a comprehensive portfolio.
Their national presence stretches from Darwin to Hobart and Cairns to the Pilbara in the West, building not just in big cities but also in the most remote regions of Australia.
The construction firm has been constructing projects under the moniker “Hutchies.” The firm has 1,500 workers today and works on roughly 250 projects each year with an average worth of $22 million. Hutchies was recently chosen to construct Global Switch’s Sydney East Data Center’s second and third stages, which will keep data centre needs for the next 20 years.
Probuild (until 2022)
Since its inception in 1987, ProBuild had grown to over 1,300 employees. Their project management services included the expansion of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at South Wharf, Victoria, which was supposed to grow by 20 hectares to include a 150-space multi-storey car park.
The company collapsed into administration in February 2022, after the group’s owner, South Africa’s WBHO, decided to stop financially supporting it.
WBHO blamed the collapse on factors including Covid-19 restrictions and a decision by the Foreign Investment Review Board in January last year to block the sale of the business to China’s state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation for a reported $300m, saying the Australian businesses “have not being able to complete projects on time and not been able to recover variation and delay claims”.
Nexus Infrastructure
Nexus provides Engineers, Project Managers, Technicians, Certified Materials, Full Logistics, and Industry-leading documentation to transition projects from construction completion to operations efficiently and safely in some of the world’s most remote and inhospitable locations.
Nexus Infrastructure is a group of firms, including Plenary, Cintra, and Acciona, that have formed to design, build, and operate the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
With a 25-year operation and maintenance contract handed to Nexus, the construction of the span will be handled by Nexus’ Construction partnership with Acciona and Ferrovial.
John Holland
John Holland is one of Australia’s leading engineering contractors. One of the top construction companies in Australia delivers innovative construction projects and diverse service solutions worldwide.
Since their first projects in the late 1940s, they have worked on projects in every Australian state and territory, across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. In 1948, Sir John Holland started the company after which it was acquired by Heytesbury Pty Ltd in 1991 and Leighton Holdings in 2000.
It was acquired by its current parent firm CCCI, the overseas investment arm of CCCC (China Communications Construction Company Limited), in April 2015. In 2015-16, the firm’s largest contract to date was the $2.5bn EastLink, a major road infrastructure project that it carried out as part of a joint venture with Theiss and which was awarded in 2015-16.
Fulton Hogan
Fulton Hogan is a large infrastructure construction, roadworks, and aggregate supplier company from New Zealand. The company was founded by Julius Fulton and Robert Hogan in Dunedin in 1933.
Fulton Hogan Pty Ltd currently employs more than 6,900 people and operates in a variety of industries including transportation, mining, water, energy, civil construction, and land development infrastructure throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific.
ADCO Constructions
ADCO is a renowned civil contractor in Sydney’s burgeoning construction industry, handling projects ranging from $1 million to more than $200 million.
The firm has offices throughout Australia and specialises in the extension, refurbishment and renovation, design specialties, construction management, and developmental advisory solutions to buildings and warehouses.
Since its founding in 1972, ADCO has completed over 3,500 projects valued at more than $10 billion. ADCO currently employs 580 individuals directly.
The construction services company caters to both the public and private sectors. Recent projects include Smithfield Cinemas and Entertainment Leisure Precinct in New South Wales, as well as the renovation of Shepparton Law Courts in Victoria.
BGC
BGC is a Western Australia based group of companies with interests in Construction Materials Production, The Manufacture of Building Products, Residential Construction, Industrial Maintenance, and Fabrication Services, Commercial Construction, Heavy Road Haulage, Property Ownership, and Management.
The group has grown and diversified dramatically from modest beginnings as a property developer in the 1960’s. BGC Construction was established in 1994 to meet “growing demand for commercial building construction in Western Australia,” and it has since worked on projects all throughout the state.
Its vertically integrated group of companies builds homes and manufactures most of the materials into them, making BGC Western Australia’s largest home building group. BGC directly employs around 2,000 people in a diverse range of manufacturing businesses in Western Australia.
Richard Crookes Constructions
Richard Crookes Constructions (RCC) has been a private, family-owned construction company building for government and private clients since 1976. RCC delivers projects across a range of sectors, with office locations in Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and Brisbane.
With over 700 staff, their personnel’s depth of experience enables the company to deliver 60 projects at any one time across all major industry sectors.
Built
The Sydney-based company with over 1,000 employees, Built, is an Australian construction, refurbishment and fitout business operating in Australia, New Zealand & UK. Since 1998, Built has grown to be a national diversified general contractor and one of Australia’s largest private construction groups.
The construction group has an accredited in-house sustainability team and has been recognised for more than 60 Green Star, LEED, WELL and NABERs ratings across its Australian projects.
Watpac
Established in 1983 in Brisbane, Watpac is a leading national construction company that operates in the commercial and residential building construction, and marine and civil industries.
With over 30 years of growth and success, Watpac employs more than 800 people in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Townsville, Port Macquarie, and Australia.
BESIX Group has been a major shareholder since 2013. On November 13th, 2018, Watpac announced that BESIX Group increased their participation from 28% to more than 50%, acquiring a majority of the shares. BESIX Group acquired all remaining shares in 2019 and form BESIXWatpac.
Salini Impregilo NRW Joint Venture
Salini Impregilo is an Italian industrial group specialising in constructing major, complex projects worldwide. Over the past 110 years, the Group has operated in various sectors, including dams and hydroelectric plants, hydraulic works, railways and metro systems, airports and motorways, civil and industrial buildings.
NRW Holdings is a diversified provider of contract services to the resources and infrastructure sectors in Australia and internationally. With extensive operations in Western Australia and Queensland, NRW’s geographical diversification is complemented by its delivery of a wide range of operations.
These encompass civil expertise including bulk earthworks and concrete installation; contract mining and drill and blast. NRW Holdings also encompasses a separate facility for comprehensive refurbishment and rebuild for earthmoving equipment and machinery.
Scentre Group (Westfield Group)
Scentre Group owns and operates the pre-eminent living centre portfolio in Australia and New Zealand with retail real estate assets under management valued at $55.3 billion and shopping centre ownership interests valued at $39.7 billion.
This comprises 42 Westfield living centres with substantial franchise value and the ability to attract the world’s leading retail brands.
Parkview Group Australia
Founded in 1997, Parkview is a multi-award-winning property company committed to integrity, excellence, and innovation in both residential and commercial construction and development.
The specialise in the delivery of high-quality residential & aged care living, commercial, industrial & bespoke education spaces.
Mirvac Group
Mirvac is a real estate group listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with activities across the property investment and development spectrum and retail services.
As an integrated real estate development company, it develops, acquires, owns, invests and manages a portfolio of assets. The company also provides design, construction, development, leasing, property management, funds management and asset management services.
Mirvac owns and manages office, retail and industrial properties across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth in Australia. Its property portfolio includes residential, commercial and industrial properties including offices, retail centres, apartments, car parking facilities, and hotels.
The company carries out the management of listed and unlisted property funds on behalf of retail and institutional investors. Mirvac is headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
BMD Constructions
BMD Group is an Australian construction company founded by Mick Power in 1979 and based in Brisbane, Queensland. In 2016 it was listed at 44 in The Australian Financial Review’s “Top 500 Private Companies”, with an estimated annual revenue of A$895 million.
BMD Constructions builds roads and bridges for state government agencies and other large infrastructure facilities like the bridge to carry Melton Highway over the Bendigo railway line in Melbourne for the Level Crossing Removal Authority, the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway in Brisbane, or the expansion of the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal at Hay Point, Mackay.
Downer EDI Works
Downer EDI Works Limited is a large New Zealand engineering and construction company owned by the Australian Downer Group. Downer is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and employs more than 53,000 people.
SMEC Holdings Limited
SMEC Holdings Limited is an Australian-based firm that provides consulting services on major infrastructure projects worldwide. SMEC undertakes feasibility studies, design, tender and contract management, construction supervision, and project management.
It provides specialist expertise and technology-driven solutions across the road, rail, aviation, greenfield communities. And, also in hydro and solar, geotechnical and tunnelling, environmental and asset management.
Deicorp
Founded in 1999, Deicorp is a Sydney-based business that has 200 in-house staff and has constructed more than 8000 apartments in 40 suburbs across Sydney and Canberra.
Kane Construction
Kane Constructions is a privately-owned commercial construction company active across all property sectors.
The Melbourne-based builder has a turnover in excess of $1 billion and employs over 500 full-time employees. They operate on the east coast of Australia from offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Canberra.
The company’s national pipeline of active projects is predominantly based in Victoria and Tasmania. And, they also have a collection of projects in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In addition, they have a smaller number of projects under way in New South Wales and the ACT.
Hansen Yuncken
Hansen Yuncken, founded by Otto Yuncken and Lauritz Hansen in Melbourne in 1918, has been in operation for more than a century.
In 1937, Hansen Yuncken expanded its operations into Hobart, followed in 1939 by an office in Adelaide. In the 1960s it opened a Northern Territory office and in 2010 an office in Brisbane was established.
The company is known for inventing a suspended scaffold to replaster the domed ceiling at Melbourne’s State Library in 1929. Also, for converting Adelaide Railway Station into a casino in 1985. And, etching into the side of the banks of the Derwent River to create MONA—the Museum of Old and New Art—in 2011.
The construction group’s national portfolio of projects is currently weighted towards Victoria. And, 30 percent of its projects are in New South Wales and nearly 20 per cent in South Australia.
Hickory Group
The Melbourne-based company has more than 1000 employees and specialises in construction, structures, facades, manufacturing, fit-outs and logistics.
Hickory has completed upwards of 150 high-profile projects across its 30 years in operation.
Icon Construction
Six years ago the Icon businesses were given a lift when one of Japan’s largest builders, Kajima Corporation, took control. Kajima subsequently took over another mid-tier builder, Cockram, in 2018 and merged it with Icon.
Almost half of its current projects are residentially focused with a third of those community projects and the remaining portion commercial builds.
Icon’s subsidiary, Icon Developments, operates separately to the construction business Icon Co and currently has a range of residential and commercial developments in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
Multiplex
Multiplex is a tier-one construction company which has been operating for over 60 years. It currently operates across four continents in six countries with 1600 staff in Australia, 900 in Europe, 4100 in the Middle East and 120 in Canada.
And, it currently has a heavy exposure to Western Australia, accounting for over 30 per cent of its current pipeline, while it is also building consistently in New South Wales and Queensland.
Want to learn more about the current trends in the construction industry?
Read our blog post about 10 trends to watch for in 2022.
