Wagners eager to start quarantine hub, can be built in six weeks
Queensland construction stars the Wagners say they could get the first stage of their proposed quarantine hub built within six weeks.
Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Queensland construction stars the Wagners say they could build the first stage of their proposed international quarantine hub within six weeks of getting the green light from government.
Wagners chairman Denis Wagner told The Australian that the family was still waiting for approval from the state government for the project that could see a 1000-person quarantine camp built near their private Wellcamp airport, west of Toowoomba.
The Wagners, whose construction materials business is being buoyed by big-ticket infrastructure projects such as Inland Rail and Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, are not asking the government for a cent to build the camp. The camp is seen as a safer model than increasingly risky city-based hotel quarantine.
In a separate proposal Avalon Airport, owned by Lindsay Fox’s Linfox, is negotiating with the commonwealth and the Victorian government to accommodate up to 1000 international arrivals near Geelong, a plan that could slash the risk of further breakouts in Melbourne.
Mr Wagner said: “Although there has been some negativity about the camp, we have got a lot of support for it from this region.
“It will be a lot safer system than what they have got now. Once the contract was signed we could have the initial stage built within six weeks.”
The purpose-built camp, which would be dismantled once the pandemic was over, would house people in cabins or rooms.
A spokesman for Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles said the state government was fully supportive of the proposal and approval was now largely up to the Commonwealth.
One issue would be approval from aviation authorities to allow international passenger arrivals at Wellcamp. The airport is already used by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific for freight runs.
The Wagners — including brothers Denis, John, Neill and Joe — saw their 47 per cent stake in Wagners Holding soar by $12.9m to $173m on Thursday as big infrastructure projects boosted profits. The stock closed up 8.03 per cent at $1.95.
Wagners, which makes concrete and composite materials for everything from roads and bridges to light poles and warehouses, posted a 14 per cent increase in profit to $1.4m in the six months to the end of December.
Revenue increased 27 per cent to $155m as the Toowoomba-based company sold more concrete, cement and quarry materials.
All levels of government in Australia were starting to develop plans to rescue the economy, primarily by increasing government spending on infrastructure. Mr Wagner said large infrastructure and resources projects including Inland Rail and Cross River Rail were already boosting demand for construction materials.
Wagners was supplying precast concrete tunnel segments to Cross River Rail, valued at $40m, while a $35m quarry operation and haulage agreement had been reached with the Carmichael Mine Project in Queensland, valued at over $35m.
He said Wagners was positive about the Australian economy coming out of COVID-19, with good prospects for many industries.
“Aviation has been struggling and the airport is very quiet but construction is going well, property development is going well and so are our investments in agriculture,” he said.
Mr Wagner said the announcement on Thursday that Brisbane was in the box seat to win the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games also would boost economic confidence, particularly in southeast Queensland.
With the focus on a low-carbon economy, Wagners is now investing heavily in new generation materials including composite fibre technologies that are increasingly replacing wood and steel in construction.
The company recently manufactured its first batch of 1000 composite material power poles for a NSW energy company.
“The poles will replace wooden ones,” said Mr Wagner. “The composite poles will last longer than wood and will become increasingly popular as people don’t like cutting down trees.”
The company also was providing composite materials for Amazon warehouses in the United States.
Mr Wagner said the company was seeing growing demand for its Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC) material for infrastructure projects in Europe and India. The global regulatory focus on CO2 emission control provided a perfect platform for expanded sales of the product.
Instead of using traditional cement, EFC uses two industrial waste by-products — blast furnace slag and fly ash — to create an alternative eco-friendly product.
The family constructed 51,000sq m of heavy duty pavements at its Wellcamp airport in 2014 using EFC.
More Coverage
Originally published as Wagners eager to start quarantine hub, can be built in six weeks
Transurban defends lucrative toll contracts
The $40bn heavyweight has defended its lucrative contracts in Sydney as it continues talks with the NSW government over reforms to the state’s toll road charging regime.
Big insurance hikes may have run course: Suncorp
Suncorp CEO has provided some hope to homeowners that eye-watering premium hikes may be in the past, as he called for a halt on building homes ‘in areas they should never be built’.