BESIX Watpac crowned Queensland's top education builder for a third straight year

Behind this recognition is a principle we've held for more than a century — construction delivered by locals, for the communities they call home.

From Brisbane to Townsville to Cairns, each of these projects presented different design challenges and constraints, shaped by the region where it stands. We engineered around those requirements, working with local trades and suppliers who understand the ground they’re on. It’s an approach we apply to every project - investing in local capability and leaving a legacy that stays in the region.

2026 State Winner — JCU The Yeinie Building, Cairns

The Yeinie Building is the new home for James Cook University's health disciplines in Cairns, and the latest chapter in a BESIX Watpac story in the city that stretches back more than 100 years. Gifted its name by Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Country elders, the building sits in the heart of the Cairns CBD alongside Cairns Hospital, deliberately placing students next to the clinical services where they'll train.

When JCU’s sustainability objectives evolved, we re-engineered the project around cross-laminated timber. Delivering Cairns’ first mass timber structure not only raised the benchmark for sustainable construction, it upskilled local trades in a method new to the region, building capability that stays in Far North Queensland long after handover.

2025 State Winner — JCU Engineering & Innovation Place, Townsville

The Engineering and Innovation Place (EIP) on JCU's Bebegu Yumba campus in Townsville is a four-storey centrepiece for engineering and IT education, enabling students to learn by experimenting, testing and building with the same tools used in industry.

Our fifth project in a 15-year partnership with JCU was built by a North Queensland workforce, with over 80% local suppliers, 89 apprentices and trainees, and 72 First Nations workers engaged across every subcontractor on site. Delivering a regional first in cyclone-rated engineered timber and seismic design meant our local trades mastered bespoke techniques built for the tropics, equipping Townsville with new capability for the campus builds still to come.

2024 State & National Winner — Brisbane Grammar School STEAM Building, Brisbane

The STEAM building transformed the rear of Brisbane Grammar School's inner-city campus. The six-storey hub for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics is home to 15 university-standard laboratories, design and art studios, and a 300-seat auditorium. Its signature is three bespoke learning pods suspended from the roof structure into a light-filled central atrium.

Those pods demanded specialist trade expertise, working to fine tolerances on a constrained inner-city site with little room for error. It's this kind of complex, bespoke work that rewards an experienced builder and the skilled trades alongside them. That standard carried through to the national stage, where the project won the Education over $10m category at the National Master Builders Awards.