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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →BMD Constructions has been appointed to carry out the early works for the new Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced on Friday 17 July 2026. The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority, GIICA, said in its own release the same day that the package is due to be finished by mid-2027, and the ministerial statement says works will start in early August.
It is the first building contract awarded on the largest venue of the 2032 Games, and the first that will be plainly visible from the suburbs around the park: bulk earthworks, haul roads and retaining walls on a site the authority has held since 1 June.
GIICA media release and Queensland Government ministerial statement, both 17 July 2026.
What the contract covers
GIICA lists the scope in seven parts: bulk earthworks, erosion and sediment controls, haul roads, semi-permanent fencing, stormwater drains, retaining walls and the establishment of a logistics plaza.
Read together, they describe the reshaping of a sloping park into a level, drained and serviced platform that a stadium builder can take over. Bulk earthworks cut and fill the ground to the levels the design needs. Haul roads let trucks move within the site without using park paths. The logistics plaza is the yard where deliveries are received and sorted, which on a constrained inner-city site reduces the number of vehicles waiting in surrounding streets.
The value of the contract has not been disclosed, according to Business News Australia's report of 17 July. The work is paid for from the $7.1 billion Games Venues Infrastructure Program, jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments.
Related readShowgrounds rebuild costed at $287.5 million ahead of athlete villageSince taking possession on 1 June, the ministerial statement says, GIICA has been carrying out preliminary site investigations and survey assessments. BMD's arrival moves the site from investigation to construction.
Who BMD is
BMD is a Queensland company, founded in 1979 and still family owned. Business News Australia describes the group as a $2 billion business employing more than 2,300 people across Australia in civil construction, urban development and building. In its own announcement, BMD calls itself Australia's largest privately owned civil contractor and cites earlier Brisbane projects including the Legacy Way tunnel and the Gateway to Bruce upgrade.
The engineering firm GHD announced on 20 July that it is BMD's design partner for the package, providing multidisciplinary design and technical advice to prepare the site for stadium construction. BMD also says it has engaged Bajara Plant Hire, an Indigenous-owned business, for civil earthworks, with trainee pathways in civil construction and plant operation.
The Deputy Premier presented the appointment as a local one, saying it ensures "a Queensland business is delivering for Queenslanders". BMD Group chief executive Scott Power said the company would draw on its local workforce and work closely with the authority, the project team and the community.
GIICA chief executive Simon Crooks called the award "another major milestone on our critical construction pathway". The phrase is a fair description of where the package sits: nothing above ground can start until it is done.
How the builder was chosen
GIICA describes a two-phase open-market procurement. The first phase drew 22 prequalification responses; a formal invitation to offer followed, from which BMD was selected.
Related readCentenary Pool closes as Games works spread to three inner-city sitesThe early works are separate from the contract to build the stadium itself. That larger contract is still in competition. On 9 April 2026 GIICA announced that two joint ventures, Built with the Spanish group Sacyr and John Holland with BESIX Watpac, had been chosen for an early contractor involvement phase, with the final selection due later in 2026 and main construction to start in 2027.
Splitting a project this way is common when the completion date cannot move. The site can be prepared while the main builder is still being chosen and the design is still being finished, so that the months between now and mid-2027 are not lost. The trade publication The Stadium Business, reporting on 20 July, names the stadium's design team as Cox Architecture, Hassell and the Japanese practice Azusa Sekkei.
| Contract | Who | What it covers | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early works | BMD Constructions, with GHD as design partner | Earthworks, drainage, haul roads, retaining walls, logistics plaza | Early August 2026 to mid-2027 |
| Main stadium build | Built with Sacyr, or John Holland with BESIX Watpac | The 63,000-seat stadium | Selection later in 2026; construction from 2027 |
GIICA releases of 9 April and 17 July 2026; GHD release of 20 July 2026.
Where early works sit in the program
GIICA describes every one of its venues as moving through the same five phases: planning and approvals, design, early works, construction, and commissioning and handover. At Victoria Park the phases overlap. The authority's venue page shows design running through 2026 while early works run from 2025 to 2027.
The start date has also come forward a little. When the State Budget was handed down in June, the industry publication Austadiums reported that bulk earthworks at the park were expected in late 2026. The ministerial statement of 17 July now puts the start of works in early August.
Victoria Park is not the only site reaching this stage. GIICA's progress note of 26 March 2026 recorded that site works had begun for the Logan and Moreton Bay indoor sports centres. In Cairns, the authority said on 15 July that the first stage of early works at Barlow Park Stadium, the relocation of utilities, would begin in mid-September 2026. The stadium package is nonetheless of a different order: a year of earthmoving for a 63,000-seat building, where the others are preparing sites for grandstands and sports halls.
Related readHow Brisbane 2032 venues get approved: the Games planning shortcutFor the local building industry, the pattern across these announcements is that the first Games contracts are civil ones. Earthmovers, drainage crews and plant hire firms are engaged before the builders of the venues themselves.
What neighbours will notice
For the people who live around the park, this is the stage at which the project becomes audible. Bulk earthworks mean excavators, trucks and compaction equipment working across a large area for months.
The scope itself points to some of the measures that manage that. Erosion and sediment controls keep soil out of drains and waterways in heavy rain, which matters on a hillside that drains toward the low ground of the park. Semi-permanent fencing replaces the temporary panels put up in June. Internal haul roads keep much of the truck movement inside the fence.
What has not been published, in the material released so far, is the detail residents usually ask for first: working hours, the routes trucks will take to and from the site, and where spoil will go. GIICA chief executive Simon Crooks said only that people would see "plenty of activity" in the park as the program advances. Notices of that kind are normally issued by the contractor and the authority before heavy work starts, and early August leaves a short window for them.
The stadium is listed by GIICA at Herston, and the suburbs closest to the works are Herston, Kelvin Grove and Spring Hill, with the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital precinct on the park's northern side. Owners and tenants in those streets are the readers with most reason to look for the construction notices when they appear.
Related readAquatic centre design revealed for the Centenary Pool siteThe stadium this prepares for
The numbers have not changed since the venue was confirmed. GIICA gives the capacity as 63,000 seats, or 70,000 for concerts. The stadium is to host the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics in 2032, and afterwards the Brisbane Lions, the Brisbane Heat and the Queensland Bulls.
The 100 Day Review of March 2025 estimated the stadium at $3.785 billion, excluding precinct and transport infrastructure. The Queensland Budget of 23 June 2026 progressed $417 million for venues across the state, with starting works at Victoria Park named first in the ministerial statement that accompanied it.
Opposition to the site continues. Applications under the federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act were still before the Commonwealth when the authority took possession in June, as InDaily Queensland reported at the time, and campaigners have continued to protest. The early works contract does not alter that process, which is run by the federal Environment Minister.
What comes next
Four dates are now on the public record for Victoria Park. Heavy earthworks start in early August 2026. The main stadium builder is to be chosen later in 2026. Main construction starts in 2027. The early works are to be complete by mid-2027.
Alongside them sits the Government's promised consultation on the master plan for the wider Victoria Park precinct, which a Delivering 2032 update in May said would open soon, and under which about two thirds of the park is to remain green space.
The sequence is tight but coherent: the ground is prepared while the builder is chosen, so that one can hand over to the other in the middle of next year. Whether it holds will be visible, month by month, from the streets around the park.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
