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 to $4 million to restart the Austral Bricks plant at Cardup, south east of Perth. It is the same brickworks its owner shut in April 2023 after years of losses.
Three years on, the state is paying to bring it back. The reason is simple. Western Australia has by far the highest share of new double brick homes in the country, according to the state government, and since Cardup closed it has had one major brick producer trying to keep up.
For builders already on allocation, the question is not whether this helps. It is when, and on what terms.
The $4 million is paid in three parts, and most of it depends on dates
The funding package announced on 29 September is split three ways.
A $3 million upfront contribution covers recommissioning, including repairs and maintenance to the facility. A further $500,000 is paid if the plant resumes operations by March 2027. The final $500,000 is paid if Cardup delivers 17 million Maxibricks within 12 months of restarting.
The Small Business Development Corporation will administer the grant. The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation will work with Brickworks on updates to the site licence, including a potential 10 year extension.
The government expects the restart to lift the state’s brick production by about 10 to 15 per cent once the plant is running.
Read the milestones together and the timeline becomes clear. If the restart lands on the March 2027 target, the output milestone falls due in early 2028. Nothing new comes off the Cardup kilns this year.
Brickworks closed Cardup after years of losses in WA
The history matters, because the plant is not reopening into a vacuum.
Brickworks’ own 2023 annual report sets out why it left. The company said it ceased its Western Australian brick operations following many years of sustained losses. Sales in the state had fallen further after it lost key customer accounts when it tried to lift prices. Its Bellevue plant closed in November 2022, and the last brick came off the Cardup line in April 2023.
The exit cost Brickworks $55 million after tax that year, made up of a $32 million impairment and $23 million in exit costs.
It also closed at the bottom of the cycle. The same report recorded detached house commencements in Western Australia down 31 per cent over the 2023 financial year.
That left Midland Brick, owned by BGC, as the only major producer in the state. As we reported earlier this month, WA brick supply has tightened to allocation, including for the Maxibrick lines used in internal walls.
Then demand turned. According to the state government, housing commencements have grown to more than 24,200 homes since Cardup closed, including around 19,500 detached homes, up more than 50 per cent over that period.
The plant coming back is the plant that closed
This is the detail that deserves the most attention.
In 2020, Austral Bricks referred a proposal to the WA Environmental Protection Authority to redevelop Cardup. It included a new kiln and dryers, a new baghouse scrubber and a new primary crusher, and would have lifted the plant’s design capacity from 200,000 to 250,000 tonnes a year.
The EPA’s register records that assessment of that proposal was terminated in November 2025.
The funding announced this week is described as supporting recommissioning, including repairs and maintenance. None of the published terms refer to a new kiln or an expansion of capacity.
Definition: recommissioning a brickworks
Recommissioning means bringing a mothballed plant back into production using its existing kilns and equipment. It typically involves repairs, maintenance, licence updates and rehiring a trained crew. It is different from adding new capacity, where a new kiln or production line is built. A recommissioned plant returns with the same capacity and cost base it had when it closed.
In other words, the plant coming back is the plant that closed.
The plant coming back is the plant that closed.
That does not make the restart a bad deal. Demand in Western Australia is now very different to what it was in 2023. But it does mean the cost base that Brickworks judged unviable has not been rebuilt. What has changed is the market around it, and a state government willing to help with the restart bill.
Brickworks chief executive Mark Ellenor said the company was supporting the government’s request to restart Cardup to address shortages and improve certainty of supply.
What the published terms leave open
The incentives are tied to two things: a restart date and a first year output figure.
The terms as published do not set a minimum period of operation beyond that first year. The licence extension is described as potential, not settled.
The published milestone also refers only to Maxibricks. That is the large format internal wall brick, and it is exactly where allocation has been biting. Whether Cardup will also produce face brick has not been stated.
Midland Brick is also expanding capacity at its South Guildford and Middle Swan operations, according to the government. No figures have been published on the scale of that work.
For builders trying to plan 2027 and 2028 programs, those gaps are the difference between a genuine second supplier and a temporary top up.
The state is backing bricks and the alternatives at the same time
The Cardup deal sits alongside other spending aimed at the same bottleneck.
The government points to $49 million in grants through its Housing Innovation Fund, including increased production of wall frames, roof trusses, modular homes and housing components. It has also committed $48 million to two new Advanced Manufacturing Facilities for prefabricated medium and high density apartments.
That is a hedge. The state is propping up the dominant wall system while funding the ones that could compete with it.
It is also a recognition that bricks are only half the constraint. A double brick home needs bricklayers in sequence, and bricklaying is the most fragile trade in residential construction. More bricks do not lay themselves.
Master Builders WA welcomed the decision as pragmatic. Chief executive Matt Moran said the focus needed to stay on lifting supply as quickly as possible while supporting builders already carrying significant cost and supply pressure.
Relief for WA builders is a 2027 story, not a 2026 one
Nothing in this announcement changes brick availability on a Perth job this year.
Allocation conditions set by the existing producer continue until new output arrives. The March 2027 date is an incentive target, not a guaranteed start. Kilns that have sat idle for three and a half years need repair, testing and a trained crew before they produce saleable brick at volume.
The more useful read is structural. For three years, a single producer has carried Western Australia’s brick supply through a stretch in which detached commencements rose by more than half. That is the pattern we keep seeing in national construction industry trends: capacity leaves in a downturn and does not come back on its own when demand returns.
Cardup is coming back because the state decided it could not wait for the market to do it.
The point
Western Australia has bought back a second brick producer for $4 million. That is a small cheque for a large problem.
But the plant returning is the one its owner once judged unviable, restarted without the new kiln once proposed for it. Whether Cardup becomes lasting capacity or a short term patch will depend on three things worth watching: the restart date, whether a minimum operating term is written in, and whether investment in the plant goes beyond repairs.
Until then, WA builders are still working with one queue.
We will keep tracking brick supply and the WA housing pipeline. Subscribe to our weekly eNewsletter to get the next update when Cardup’s restart date firms up.
Frequently asked questions
Brickworks ceased its Western Australian brick operations in 2023 following many years of sustained losses, according to its 2023 annual report. Sales had fallen after it lost key customer accounts when it tried to raise prices, and the last brick was produced at Cardup in April 2023.
The WA Government has offered Brickworks a $500,000 incentive if the plant resumes operations by March 2027. A further $500,000 is payable if it delivers 17 million Maxibricks within 12 months of restarting, which on that timeline falls in early 2028.
The state government expects the restart to lift Western Australia’s brick production by about 10 to 15 per cent once the plant is operating, with a first year milestone of 17 million Maxibricks.
Midland Brick, owned by BGC, has been the state’s only major brick producer since Austral Bricks closed Cardup in 2023. The government says Midland Brick is also expanding capacity at South Guildford and Middle Swan. Cardup would become the second producer once it restarts.
Last updated: 30 September 2026
General Information Only. This article provides general information about conditions in the Australian construction industry. It does not take into account your particular circumstances and is not legal, financial or professional advice. Figures cited are current as at the date of publication and may be revised by their issuing bodies. You should obtain your own advice before acting on anything in this article.
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