The cranes have it - A Melbourne construction overview

The cranes have it - A Melbourne construction overview
Mark BaljakOctober 21, 2013

Articles have surfaced in recent weeks highlighting the number of cranes appearing throughout Melbourne and the implied construction/economic activity that follows. Yesterday yielded the most recent piece with the Australian Financial Review running an article titled 'Crane count a good construction indicator' where international property and construction practice Rider Levett Bucknall counted the number of cranes populating the skylines of state capitals - an index of construction prosperity if you will.

Quoting the article, "Melbourne has 43 visible cranes in the CBD, and 15 more within a ­five kilo­metre radius. Of that, 33 cranes are supporting residential developments. There are 13 on commercial sites, six are on health sites and the remainder are working on sport, retail and education projects."

The cranes have it - A Melbourne construction overview

Using the resources at Urban.com.au's disposal we've decided to take this index a step further, today providing a breakdown of greater Melbourne's crane count accurate to within one or two units. Melbourne first broke through the 100 tower crane barrier during November 2012, with the peak achieved during June 2013 where an impressive 108 tower cranes were plying their trade.

While a General Cranes unit was disassembled last weekend at Melbourne Star and Melbourne Sky within Melbourne's CBD, Clark Cranes erected a unit for a 77 apartment complex at 701 Barkly Street Footscray bolstering the current count to 97 cranes visible over greater Melbourne's skyline. Although many projects are in the construction phase, it's interesting to note that pre-sales for certain large residential projects commenced well over two years ago. Regardless the table below is gives a clear indication of Melbourne's current construction progression.

LocalityTotalResidentialCommercialInstitutional
Melbourne CBD261880
Melbourne LGA / Docklands11551
Southbank / Carlton17809
Port Phillip2200
Stonnington7700
Boroondarra6501
Yarra8710
Whitehorse4121
South East suburbs5302
North West suburbs11911
All97651715

What can be deuced from this? Residential projects account for 67% of tower cranes in use. While a number of big ticket projects such as Richmond Icon, Central South Yarra and Vision Apartments will gain cranes in coming months, it's expected the overall number of cranes working on residential projects will decrease, mirroring current market sales. The suburban spread of tower cranes is healthy with localities such as Sandringham, Pascoe Vale and Glen Iris hosting sizeable residential projects, further bolstering the march of apartment living into outer suburbs.

Commercial projects are holding up well given the market is cycling out of its peak. Aside from KPMG anchoring a substantial office development within Collins Square relatively few office projects are in the pipeline. Institutional projects cover medical facilities, government buildings and education builds. The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Mercy Fernhill, Royal Children's Stage 2, Warringal Private Heidelberg and Carlton Wellbeing headline big ticket medical projects requiring tower cranes; always a good sign when money is invested into fundamentals such as health.

In the wider sense consigned to history are the boom and bust days that typified Melbourne during the 1990's where no cranes were visible in Melbourne's skyline for years on end. While any free market is susceptible to corrections, the cycle has flattened out considerably to the point where any project can commence subject to its own stipulations. Add the proliferation of apartment living and tower cranes will always be a part of Melbourne's vista, as they should be as part of any progressive city.

Mark Baljak

Mark Baljak was a co-founder of Urban.com.au. He passed away on Thursday 8th of November 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 37. Mark was a keen traveller, having visited all six permanently-inhabited continents and had a love of craft beer. One of his biggest passions was observing the change that has occurred in Melbourne over the past two decades. In that time he built an enormous library of photos, all taken by him, which tracked the progress of construction on building sites from across metropolitan Melbourne.

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