If you’re living in Sydney you probably turn a blind eye to the construction that is happening everywhere; we have become that accustomed to seeing construction sites, whether it be a new apartment block being created from scratch, road works for the Light Rail or new motorways like the WestConnex. But have you noticed the skyline lately or are we turning a blind eye?

Sydney Crane Craze

River Levett Bucknall (RLB), a quantity surveying company, released their quarterly crane index. In Australia there are currently 685 cranes working on a variety of different projects throughout the country. But what surprised us, but shouldn’t really have surprised us, is that 350 of those cranes are currently operating in Sydney. That’s more than half; 51% of all of the cranes in the country are in Sydney, compared to 151 cranes working on projects in Melbourne, 85 in Brisbane and 31 on the Gold Coast.

Why are there so many cranes in Sydney?

Every crane in the sky is evidence of a new home being built, or new set of apartments to accommodate the ever growing population. Aside from residential, the Government is investing massively into public infrastructure so they are also evidence of work on schools, hospitals. Not to mention private projects of varying degrees. In NSW construction work grew by 7.5% in 2016/17 financial year.

Residential activity is up by 12% alone in the same time period, which may answer the question as to where the cranes are distributed throughout the city. Many of the 350 cranes in Sydney can be found throughout the city’s suburbs, unlike other cities which have cranes closer to the city centre. Which suburbs are most affected? Epping tops the list with 16 cranes, Wolli Creek is next with 13 and Parramatta currently has 10 active cranes working on construction projects. In Wolli Creek an entire apartment had to be evacuated as a crane collapsed into the side of the building. Any construction project carries risks, as this situation clearly demonstrated.

Are you looking for a crane operator job?

This is of course great news if you’re a crane operator looking for work in Sydney, you’re in high demand! Even if you’re not Sydney based there is certainly no shortage of demand throughout the country given the scale and variety of projects. Talk to us at BriX Projects labour hire Sydney about the different jobs that we have available or the clients that we are working with, and we can place you in the right job and right location for you.