Australia Hub Operating Review

Anchored by the completion of some of our flagship projects, the Australia Hub provided certainty for the Group by delivering strong gross margin performance.

Despite a reduced group revenue profile (FY26 group revenue AUD$2.2bn (FY25: AUD$3.3bn)), the Hub delivered AUD$81.6m in pre-exceptional EBIT (FY25: AUD$90.2m), with an improved pre-exceptional gross margin of 9.4 per cent (FY25: 6.4 per cent).

The result was produced through excellence in delivery, including the completion of the Suburban Rail Loop Initial Works and Early Works in Victoria, the Byford Rail Extension in Western Australia and the QR Stations Accessibility Upgrade project in Queensland, and sustainable overhead management, with the Australian business reshaped as we prepare to launch our next wave of projects in new states.

For the first time since the Federal Infrastructure Review in FY23 (May–November 2023), the infrastructure pipeline was relatively stable, with the procurement of major opportunities in our priority sectors being brought to market and determined within anticipated timeframes. In FY26, the Australia Hub secured or was made preferred proponent on five major opportunities, including the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Venues Infrastructure Program and The Wave (Stage 1) Brownfield Package in Queensland (part of the broader The Wave faster rail scheme), the Sydney Metro West Five Stations project (in partnership with Gamuda) and Five Dock Station project in New South Wales, and the revived Great Eastern Highway project in Western Australia.

These project wins, which came in quick succession in the last four months of FY26, contributed more than AUD$1.2bn in sales and provide a strong tailwind leading into FY27. As a result of these wins, the Australia Hub order book remains strong at AUD$3.1bn, with several key opportunities – headlined by AUKUS in South Australia and future stages of The Wave project in Queensland – set to be determined in the first quarter of FY27.

Discipline in opportunity selection

The cornerstone of Laing O’Rourke’s sustainable profitability in Australia has long been underpinned by the discipline of our opportunity selection. More than 97 per cent of our order book is made up of contracts that are low-to-medium risk in nature, which has proved particularly prudent in a decade that has been dominated by significant price escalation and supply challenges from COVID-19, the Russia–Ukraine war, the Middle East conflict, and a domestic infrastructure review that resulted in 118 projects being cancelled or deferred.

We have continued to solidify our position in the transport and defence sectors in Australia, while taking strides to diversify into re-emerging sectors, including water, health, and airports. As we approach FY27 and look towards the new paradigm, we are appraising opportunities in these sectors that will allow us to leverage our leadership in modern methods of construction and complex engineering.

Following structured change in December 2024, the Australia Executive Committee (AEC) welcomed two new members in FY26, with Christian Porter (Director, Clients & Markets) and Andrew King (Director, Commercial) appointed to their posts.

Delivering for clients and communities

While the primary focus of the Hub was to secure our next wave of projects, we continued to deliver for our clients and the community across Australia.

The Suburban Rail Loop Initial Works and Early Works was the first contract awarded as part of the Victorian Government’s city-shaping Suburban Rail Loop scheme. With work commencing in 2022, our team delivered enabling works across seven sites, including two tunnel access shafts, new tram stops, critical utility relocations, new road alignments, and various other site establishment activities. These works, delivered on time and in line with budget, will enable the main works contractors to construct the 26-kilometre twin tunnels in Melbourne’s east.

Following the completion of the Morley-Ellenbrook Line Upgrade project in December 2024, our team in Perth delivered our second METRONET project in less than a year, with the opening of the Byford Rail Extension project in October 2025. The project extended the existing Armadale line by approximately eight kilometres in Perth’s southeast, providing two new stations for commuters at Armadale and Byford. Our commitment to sustainability shone through in design and delivery, with both stations being awarded 6 Star Green Star Design ratings (the highest sustainability credential available) and more than 11 kilometres of recycled noise walls being installed along the rail corridor.

In Queensland, we successfully achieved practical completion on our Queensland Rail Stations Accessibility Upgrade project in July 2025. Following an 18-month delivery programme, our team delivered four station upgrades with significant accessibility improvements across Brisbane’s northern and southern suburbs.

Beyond the completion of these three key projects, our project teams continued to push the boundaries of what’s possible with other major milestones across Australia.

In Victoria, our flagship road project, the multi-billion dollar Eastern Freeway Upgrades – Burke Road to Tram Road project, surpassed 50 per cent completion in FY26. Overall project turnover has now exceeded AUD$2bn and the project remains well on track to achieve all project milestones in advance of contractual dates. The project team has exemplified Laing O’Rourke’s leadership in modern methods of construction and digital innovation by completing one of the heaviest and most complex lifting operations in Australia’s history and safely delivering two new state-of-the-art pedestrian bridges over the Eastern Freeway, which carries up to 180,000 vehicles per day.

In Western Australia, our Swan River Crossings project has taken a major leap towards project completion, with the closure of the existing bridge in February 2026. In yet another exemplar of our excellence in modern methods of construction and innovation, the project team is installing pre-fabricated bridge beams over water and is on track to deliver Australia’s first extradosed bridge in FY27.

In New South Wales, we continued to support the Sydney Metro programme across FY26, delivering the new Bankstown Plaza, a new fully accessible footbridge at St Mary’s Station, and we are nearing completion of our work on the Western Tunnelling Package.

In the Northern Territory, our RAAF Base Darwin Mid-Term Refresh project has surpassed 60 per cent completion and is on track for completion in FY27.

Investing in our future

While the hallmark of FY26 will be the strength of our financial results, underpinned by excellence in delivery and securing five new opportunities, including the landmark Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Venues Infrastructure Program, the Australia Hub has continued to invest heavily in its future.

Project Playbook, our new project management system which standardises the Laing O’Rourke project delivery operating model, was launched in November 2025. Playbook is designed to provide clarity and consistency in the way that we go to work, allowing us to deliver with certainty for clients across our operating sectors and geographies. The launch of this tool follows several years of investment and trials, and it has been accessed nearly 2,900 times in the past five months.

We remain relentlessly focused on the safety of our people, our supply chain, and the community. In FY26, we launched our enhanced Fatal and Severe Risk (FSR) Standard, with 232 improvements made to our 17 fatal and severe risks. These improvements provide clearer, stronger, and more specific controls that are easier for our people to verify in the field. We also launched our Delivery Excellence Score, an evaluation tool that was designed to ensure that our projects undertake FSR assessments, identify opportunities, and take action to improve safe delivery on sites.

Driving sustainability

We continued to drive our Global Sustainability Strategy, with our push for a diverse and inclusive workforce and leadership in carbon management and reduction.

In March 2026, Laing O’Rourke Australia was awarded the Workplace Gender Equality Agency Employer of Choice for Gender Equality for the fourth consecutive period. The citation can only be achieved by meeting a rigorous set of criteria in relation to gender pay equity, inclusive leadership, prevention of discrimination and harassment, and career progression for women.

With our continued push to reduce our carbon emissions, our Sustainability and Environment team launched the carbon forecasting tool, which is now embedded in our bid governance process. This ensures that there is executive deliberation and considered investment in decarbonised solutions as we move towards our targeted reductions in Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2030.

Our commitment to reconciliation similarly remained a cornerstone of our way of working in FY26, with our projects and offices procuring nearly AUD$92m of goods and services from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses. Beyond the numbers, we continued to build new partnerships with Indigenous organisations, headlined by the formalisation of our relationship with Bandu, an organisation that provides Indigenous employment opportunities. This partnership, which will provide scholarship opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, was developed in honour of Nathan Mitschuinig, a proud Wiradjuri man and respected Laing O’Rourke leader, who sadly passed away in 2024.

With another profitable year for the Australia Hub now achieved, our focus for FY27 remains on adding strategic opportunities to our order book, substantially delivering our major projects in Victoria and Western Australia, and preparing for the next wave of mega-projects in our order book that will leverage our power of experience and global operations.