Queensland ends QBuild modular manufacturing at Eagle Farm

The decision was confirmed during Queensland Parliament’s Housing and Public Works estimates hearing on 23 July. QBuild director-general Mark Cridland said the final module produced at the South-East Queensland Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeship Centre was completed in May 2026.

Cridland said the converted depot had structural columns that restricted concurrent manufacturing, roller doors that were too low for modules to be moved easily, and insufficient hardstand space for large-scale storage.

A recent government expression-of-interest process attracted responses from 97 suppliers. Of those, 83 were based in Queensland, 67 manufacturers were located in South-East Queensland and 18 suppliers were considered suitable for the government’s requirements.

“The cost differential is around 20 per cent, so it means that trying to compete with now very established, very high-capacity private manufacturers is not the best use of resources,” Cridland said.

Housing and Public Works Minister Sam O’Connor said QBuild’s operation had contributed to the early development of Queensland’s modern methods of construction sector, including by testing construction approaches and providing practical experience for apprentices.

However, he told the committee the market had changed considerably since the facility began manufacturing.

“A growing number of private modular suppliers have now established large-scale, purpose-built manufacturing facilities in South-East Queensland,” O’Connor said.

“These businesses can manufacture at greater scale and achieve cost and production efficiencies that QBuild’s repurposed Eagle Farm depot cannot match.

“The Eagle Farm facility was not designed as a large-scale modular housing factory. In fact, it was not properly set up as a factory at all.”

O’Connor criticised the former government’s conversion of the depot, describing it as a “fake factory” whose layout and infrastructure constrained production.

“Homes manufactured there have cost significantly more than comparable private market alternatives,” he said.

“As a result, a sustainable future pipeline of manufacturing work could not be secured because it was too expensive compared to the private market. We simply were getting no-one putting in orders for the houses being produced there because they were far too expensive.”

Once its current pipeline is completed, the site will return to its original role as QBuild’s Eagle Farm depot and become its South-East Queensland apprentice hub. The government said the change would not reduce QBuild’s workforce or apprentice numbers.

Cairns manufacturing capacity retained
QBuild will retain direct modular manufacturing at its Portsmith facility in Cairns, where private-sector manufacturing capacity is more limited.

The facility has a target of increasing output by approximately 40 per cent from 1 July 2026. Cridland said the expanded operation could produce 36 modules each financial year, although that could not be translated directly into a set number of homes.

“It could be a one-bedroom home, which is one module, or a four-bedroom home, which could be five modules,” he said.

O’Connor said the facility was positioned to serve Far North Queensland and remote communities. An independent quantity surveyor has been appointed to examine how it could increase production while improving value for taxpayers.

Find QBuild’s MMC program HERE and the Estimates—Housing and Public Works transcript HERE