Governments are spending billions to keep steel, aluminium, cement and timber made here, and factories are moving closer to the building site. Some materials have already gone offshore for good. For most of the past 30 years, the materials on a residential site came...
The state government will pay up to $4 million to restart Austral Bricks' Cardup plant. It adds a second producer to a market on allocation, but the plant returning is the one that closed, and new bricks are a 2027 story. The Western Australian Government will pay up...
New exploration tenders in the Taroom Trough are being framed as energy security. For builders, the more useful question is what fires a brick kiln in 2030. The Queensland Government has awarded petroleum and gas exploration tenders across the Taroom Trough, alongside...
Three projects just got a Prescribed Project declaration. It is a coordination tool with a two year clock on it, not an approval, and it does not put a single tonne of reinforcing bar on a Queensland site any sooner than 2028. Queensland has just declared three steel...
Suppliers are recovering the cost of this year's fuel shock through levies and freight charges rather than published price rises. The effect on a build is the same. The visibility is not. Concrete suppliers applied fuel surcharges of around $8 per cubic metre in late...
Clients are arriving with the style already picked. The James Hardie Modern Homes Forecast 2026 sets out where each of these two looks comes from, which is the part that decides what it costs to deliver. Clients now arrive with the style already chosen Most...
Builders in Western Australia report being placed on allocation for maxi bricks by the state’s only major producer. The constraint itself is not the surprising part. The market that produces it was signed off six years ago. Brick supply in Perth has been awkward for a...
The bands have existed since December. The guide explaining how to use them landed this month, and one of its three worked examples is a custom builder in regional Victoria. Nine months after Australia adopted a national system for classifying the carbon content of...
A feasibility study has confirmed a hardwood engineered timber plant in south west Victoria stacks up. Before you read anything into it about timber pricing, it is worth knowing which timber market it actually sits in. A feasibility study released last week found that...
For the first time in a generation, someone is building a new steel mill in Australia. Not propping up an old one. Building a new one, on the same Newcastle ground where BHP made steel for most of the twentieth century. Greensteel Australia confirmed this week it has...
Colli Timber & Hardware has secured a $2.734 million government grant and is matching it with its own funds to build one of WA's most advanced truss and framing facilities. The result: capacity to frame up to 960 homes a year. A family-owned timber supplier in...
Anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imported steel have stacked up fast this year. Layered on top of WT's forecast that building costs stay above 5 per cent, the message for anyone pricing structural steel is simple. Re-cost now. If you are quoting a job with...
Its biggest Australian factory just hit a half-century, kept growing, and kept hiring locally. For builders, that continuity matters more than the milestone. This year, the James Hardie plant at Carole Park, on the western edge of Ipswich in South East Queensland,...
A $5.43 billion deal has shifted ownership of Australia's largest steelmaking coal portfolio to an untested new buyer. The steel supply chain that sits underneath every build in this country just got a new landlord. Most builders will not have heard of Dhilmar...
When Aaron started The Good Builder, he expected the hard part would be building an audience. Instead, one of his first lessons came from a quiet meeting in a Brisbane café with someone who had spent decades inside Australia’s timber and forestry sector. That meeting...
When most people talk about business growth, they reach for the obvious levers: more leads, more staff, more machinery, more margin. In manufacturing, especially, the conversation tends to centre on output, efficiency, and “getting things out the door”. But on a...
Leadership transitions often signal more than a change in title. In many cases, they reflect a broader shift in direction, intent and ambition. At Timber Insight, the appointment of Craig Oatway marks such a moment. With a background spanning strategic leadership,...
Melbourne developer-builder Kincaid has delivered one of Australia’s fastest new-home construction turnarounds, unveiling a series of prefabricated terraces at Stockland’s Highlands estate that go from slab to occupancy in as little as two months. The project,...
Milwaukee Tool is strengthening its position in the professional carpentry market, unveiling two major additions to its expanding cordless range: the M18 FUEL™ 184mm Circular Saw and the 184mm NITRUS CARBIDE™ 24T Circular Saw Blade. Both products are engineered for...
Beyond the Bucket: How Goop Guys Built a Business on Trust, Not Just Product In an industry where materials, labour, and timelines are constantly changing, there’s one factor that holds everything together, trust. Builders rely on it. Trades rely on it....
A Legacy of Local Trust Continues After six decades serving the Macedon Ranges, Frosts Timber & Building Supplies is entering a new era. The long-standing, family-run business synonymous with quality materials and trusted service has officially passed from the...
In a major breakthrough for sustainable construction, researchers at RMIT University have teamed up with Bristile Roofing to transform two of Australia’s toughest waste challenges coal ash and recycled glass into durable, low-carbon roof tiles. The large-scale...
Australia’s Most Trusted Name in Site Protection Walk onto almost any major construction site in Australia and there’s a good chance you’ll spot the familiar Goop Guys logo, a mark that’s become synonymous with professional-grade protection and reliability. From...
A global alliance aims to simplify how the industry measures and selects building materials. In a world where construction consumes over half of all raw materials extracted, six global green building heavyweights have joined forces to tackle a long-standing problem:...
A Melbourne based manufacturer is shaking up the Australian housing sector with a breakthrough prefab system capable of delivering fully insulated three bedroom homes in just a few hours for as little as $75,000. The innovative panel based construction method,...
A 25-Year Blueprint for Timber, Homes, and Regional Jobs Queensland’s new Future Timber Plan is being billed as the most significant forestry policy reform in a generation, a 25-year roadmap designed to secure a sustainable timber supply for one million homes by 2044....
In a Price-Driven Industry, Lauxes Grates Proves There’s a Better Way to Work With Builders What makes a good supplier in 2025? If you ask most builders, it’s not the cheapest quote. It’s not the flashiest brochure. And it’s definitely not who shouts the loudest...
Australia’s steel sector, a critical pillar of the nation’s construction and infrastructure industries facing a defining challenge. While global demand for low-carbon steel is growing, the cost of energy threatens to undercut the industry’s transition toward a...
A New Era for Ceilings When people think about updating a home, they often focus on flooring, wall colours, or feature lighting. But one plasterboard manufacturer, CSR Gyprock, is asking homeowners and designers to look up. The company has just launched the Canto™...
For builders, the most stressful stage of a project isn’t the slab pour or the framing inspection. It’s the final stretch. The home is nearly complete, the finishes are in, and the client is already measuring curtains and planning move-in dates. At this point, even...
Australia’s housing crisis is colliding with another national challenge: the future of the Whyalla Steelworks. Construction-technology company PT Blink is proposing a solution that could tackle both, shifting multi-storey construction away from concrete and toward...
Building a home in just five weeks may sound like a marketing gimmick. But for NXT TEC. founders Natasha Di Ciano and Mataki O’Goshi Lim, it’s a reality they believe is critical to solving Australia’s housing shortage and part of a bigger global challenge. “We...
The wait is over...the Goop Guys are officially hitting the road as the 2025 Dunga Rally kicks off tomorrow, 21 August. This year, the rally means more than just dusty roads and backcountry detours. For the Goop team, it’s a family affair and a mission with purpose....
Culture That Actually Works Without the Clichés Ask any builder or supplier what culture means, and you’ll get a mix of answers. Morning smoko chats. Friday knockoffs. Maybe a values poster stuck to the office wall. But for Brendan, General Manager at Lauxes Grates,...
For decades, the bathroom floor grate was an afterthought, a functional necessity hidden at the edge of a photo shoot or under a shower mat. Builders, homeowners, and designers rarely gave it a second thought. Then came Lauxes Grates. What started as a simple idea,...
Australia’s building and design sector is undergoing rapid transformation, with material choices, sustainability benchmarks, and compliance requirements all evolving at pace. To keep a finger on the industry’s pulse, WoodSolutions has opened its 2025 Specifier Survey,...
And it’s only going to get pricier in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympics Brisbane Tops the Building Cost Charts Brisbane has officially overtaken Sydney and Melbourne to become the most expensive city in Australia to build in, according to Turner & Townsend’s latest...
Summary: The fractures left by COVID-19 still run deep in Australia’s construction sector — but leaders like Joseph Kanaan, General Manager - Building Markets Selection Steel, are working to restore trust between builders, trades, and suppliers. His simple ethos? If...
As Australia races to meet its climate targets, the federal government is keeping carbon tariffs on the table—potentially impacting cement, steel, and other essential building materials. Here’s what the construction sector needs to know. Australia’s construction...
When Ed Ross co-founded TradeMutt, it wasn’t to make a fashion statement. It was to start a conversation—the kind of conversation that could save a life. Speaking on The Good Builder Podcast, Ed shared how a single idea between two tradies on a job site turned into a...
Despite elevated costs and insolvency pressures, forecasts suggest a more stable market on the horizon. Builders who adapt now can position themselves for future growth. The Australian construction industry continues to face significant cost pressures, with builders...
Global building materials giant Saint-Gobain has officially acquired CSR, marking a major shift in the supply chain landscape for Australian builders and suppliers. In a move set to redefine the Australian construction supply chain, global building materials leader...
Over 300 builders, suppliers and other professionals jostled into the Brisbane Convention Centre for HIA’s annual State of the Nation breakfast in Brisbane on Tuesday morning. With the TGB team on site, Peter Loves gives the official Good Builder event recap. Senator...
Straight off the back of the Cyclone Alfred news cycle, everyone is talking about the steel and aluminium tariffs. But more so, Trump, the comments of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and the shock exclusion of Australia from US tariff exemptions via...
Brisbane, QLD – Thousands of homeowners, renovators, and industry pros flocked to the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from February 21-23 for the Brisbane Home Show, eager to explore the latest in home building, design, and technology. From spectacular...
If you think of trades as a family, plastering would have to be the black sheep. It’s the forgotten child, the one that no-one really likes to talk about, the outsider. But Kim Allen will have none of it. “Most plasterers don't actually choose to enter the industry,”...
In what could be the biggest turning point in the year for construction, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has dropped interest rates for the first time since 2020. The RBA has announced a 0.25 percentage points reduction. The cash rate...
Still scarred by the COVID experience, some builders are fearful the price of building materials could soon get out of hand. The recent release of Core Logic’s Cordell Construction Cost Index (CCCI) showed residential construction costs grew 3.4% over the 12 months to...
Do you remember when the cost of laying a brick during COVID jumped from $1.20 to $3 a brick - and that’s when you could get a brickie at all. That was a simple case of supply and demand - but a West Australian building company reckons it’s discovered a solution to...
Heat pumps have the fastest sales growth of any hot water system in the country but industry and government standards still fall well short of protecting builders or consumers. Although still lagging behind electrical, gas and solar hot water systems at about ten...
You don’t always have to buy a ticket to win the lotto, just ask Aaron Morris. The building industry stalwart who is best known as the Group Head of Sales for the Stoddart Group was walking around the Sunshine Coast without a worry in the world last December, looking...
LATEST NEWS
Japan's building ministry has published its plan to make the BIM model, not the drawing set, the thing regulators check. The roadmap runs to 2029, and it keeps a human firmly in charge of every approval. Japan has set a date for the moment building approvals stop...
Governments are spending billions to keep steel, aluminium, cement and timber made here, and factories are moving closer to the building site. Some materials have already gone offshore for good. For most of the past 30 years, the materials on a residential site came...
A few months ago, The Good Builder stood on the factory floor at Australian Framing Solutions as something pretty significant came off the roll-forming line. The 50 millionth metre of TRUECORE® steel produced by Australian Framing Solutions (AFS) using Scottsdale...
A builder focused entirely on first home buyers has put a price on all 26 of its Queensland designs. Eleven come in under $300,000, and the numbers show how much land a buyer can still afford before the state's grant cap applies. Price is the first question every...