Macquarie Point: earthworks are under way, two bidders are in, and the government won't say what it costs

Hazell Bros commenced bulk earthworks at Macquarie Point in July 2026 — bulk soil excavation, site preparation and archaeological investigations ahead of major construction. Those works are expected to run to mid-2027.

Two bidders are in a two-stage Request for Tenders for the main build, which opened in April and closes in November 2026, with contract award expected January 2027:

• BESIX Watpac

• Constructure Joint Venture — Webuild and China Construction Oceania, with McConnell Dowell as a key partner

Separately, Tasmania's parliament passed a motion in May calling on the government to table an updated cost estimate by 11 August 2026.

The government has refused to provide it

The deadline passed and no updated estimate was tabled. In the days after 11 August, Premier Jeremy Rockliff confirmed his government would not release revised cost estimates, defying the parliamentary motion — reported at the time as risking a constitutional dispute over parliament's power to compel documents. A subsequent Greens motion pressing for the figure was voted down, with Labor joining the Liberals to block it.

So on a project where the funding envelope equals the estimate to the dollar, the number that would show whether that still holds is being withheld — and both major parties have now voted to keep it that way.

For anyone pricing work on this job, that is the fact to plan around. A head contract closing in November and awarding in January will be let against a public cost figure that the government has declined to update.

The funding arithmetic leaves no room

The stadium was estimated at $1.13 billion. The committed funding:

Those three figures total exactly $1.13 billion.

Two things follow, and they are the reason the cost question matters more here than on most projects.

There is no visible contingency. The funding envelope equals the estimate to the dollar.

The federal $240 million is for the precinct, not the stadium. If any part of it is committed to precinct works outside the stadium, the stadium's actual funding is below $1.13 billion before a single cost increase.

And the state contribution is capped. Tasmania committed to $875 million with any increase requiring further parliamentary approval — so a cost increase is not an accounting adjustment, it is a return to a parliament that approved the project narrowly in the first place.

What is being built

Design features include a stage pocket in the northern stand for concerts, a single continuous concourse serving the whole stadium, a seating bowl, and separated back-of-house and catering facilities with a below-ground service road.

The retractable roof is the cost and program risk. Retractable roofs are among the most technically demanding elements in stadium construction — large-span moving structures with their own drive, control and maintenance systems. On a constrained foreshore site, in a city with no recent experience of building at this scale, it is where a fixed 2029 date is most exposed.

Who already holds work

Schlaich Bergermann Partners in the design team is worth noting — a specialist in long-span and moving roof structures, which is consistent with the retractable roof being the defining engineering challenge.

Why the deadline matters

The stadium received final parliamentary approval in December 2025, through Tasmania's upper house, after years of contested debate. Its construction is a condition set by the AFL for the Tasmania Devils to enter the competition in 2028 — a year before the stadium is due to open.

Parliament's May motion for an updated cost estimate reflects concern that global construction cost escalation has moved the number since the $1.13 billion estimate was struck.

As at late August, whether that estimate has been tabled is the first thing to establish. If it has and the number has risen, the capped state contribution means it returns to parliament. If it has not been tabled, that is a story in itself.

What to watch

1. Whether the updated cost estimate was tabled by 11 August, and what it says. This is the immediate question.
2. RFT close in November and contract award in January 2027.
3. Bulk earthworks completion mid-2027, which gates the main build.
4. Whether a cost increase triggers a return to parliament under the capped state contribution.
5. The 2028 AFL entry against a 2029 stadium opening — the Devils enter the competition a year before their stadium exists, which is a arrangement worth understanding.

Published 1 September 2026 · Updated 7 September 2026