The hunt begins for Queen’s Wharf construction workers

The hunt for workers to deliver Brisbane’s $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf development has begun, says Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones.

Ms Jones said the search for 2000 workers coincided with the first day of construction on the Queen’s Wharf diaphragm wall - a 172-metre concrete wall which will create a watertight underground barrier between the Queen’s Wharf basement and the Brisbane River. 

“Workers will excavate more than 450,000 cubic metres of material over the next 15 months to create a five-level basement for thousands of car parks at Queen’s Wharf,” she said.

“As the project moves towards peak construction demand, we’ll be recruiting hundreds more construction workers to deliver Queen’s Wharf.

“Starting this week, tradies and companies interested in working on this project will be able to register their interest online.”

Ms Jones said the launch of the website on Friday morning will be followed by an advertising campaign for more workers in the Courier Mail.

“The website will enable subcontractors, suppliers and individual tradespeople to register their interest to participate over the life of the Queen’s Wharf’s build.

“The Consortium will go live with an Industry Capability Network website, to capture what they expect will be thousands of varied expressions of interest to work-on and supply this massive, game-changing development.

Ms Jones said Multiplex, one of Destination Brisbane Consortium’s contractors, would advertise for a range of workers in Saturday’s Courier Mail.

The fields targeted include; painting, steel work, glazing, metalwork, carpentry, roofing and hardware supply.

Ms Jones urged workers keen to register their interest to visit www.queenswharfbrisbane.com.au

Destination Brisbane Consortium Project Director Simon Crooks said the diaphragm wall was an engineering feat rarely seen in Brisbane.

“We will use more than 2,500m3 of concrete – enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool - to build the diaphragm wall,” Mr Crooks said.

“The wall will have 28 panels running along the inside edge of Queens Wharf Rd to Margaret St to provide a watertight barrier.

“The 28 vertical panels are 800mm wide and are between 2 metres and 7.2 metres in length.”

To build the diaphragm wall, a guide wall is first dug, and a narrow vertical trench is then excavated and filled with bentonite slurry, a naturally occurring clay.

A steel reinforcement cage, up to 6 tonnes in weight and more than 20 metres in length, is then craned into the vertical trench, which is then filled with concrete to create the panels.

The clay slurry is recycled and stored onsite during the works in large blue and yellow towers along Queens Wharf Road.

Mr Crooks said the barrier wall will take around three months to complete. The remaining circumference of the basement will be secured with concrete piles and rock anchors.

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