Moonaboola Development: Moving into Construction Phase

IDC is proud to announce the completion of all civil works at the Moonaboola Development site, due to commence construction before mid-2024.

Through clever engineering, what was once an unusable parcel of land is now soon to become a regal 80,000 sqm site for 3 advanced manufacturing facilities.

Project Overview

The Moonaboola Development compromises the purpose-built expansion of two local manufacturing facilities, Moddex and Bendpro, in addition to the formation of a new and exciting business, Galco, a state-of-the-art hot dip galvanising facility, including robotic technology, all designed to very high standards.

The Groundwork

Prior to our development work, the site was approximately 88,000m2 of unusable swamp land subject to floor hazard levels.

IDC was engaged under an Early Contractor Involvement basis for the Design and Construct, as a reliable builder that could ensure to the client that the project was viable. We identified the obstacles of the site, and provided effective solutions that we knew in our experience were feasible. Working in low swampy land, we knew we had to plan well to ensure the initial land development phase was a success.

The Strategic Thinking

The site was low and subject to stormwater inflows from large external catchments, which caused flooding across the whole site, maintaining most of the site as a swamp. The key objective was to create surrounding large swale drains and use the extracted material to increase the surface level of the building area. The swale drains had the important task of conveying the water on and off the site quickly, which limited the storage capacity required under peak flows. The end result was a major win for the client. Through clever engineering, we were able to ensure the project went ahead.

The Results

All the bulk earthworks and critical elements of making the site flood immune have now been completed. We have been able to develop the site into approximately 58,000m2 of useable land. We are almost nearing finalisation in the building design, and are commencing construction within 3 months.

In addition to a win for the client, we also played a part in re-utilising all the vegetation cleared from the site. This has been mulched on-site and transported to Bundaberg to be processed into high-quality compost for the macadamia industry.