26 August 2026
The Lake Hawdon North project on South Australia’s Limestone Coast has won a fourth industry award—the 2026 Civil Contractors Federation SA Earth Award for a project in the $5 million to $10 million category!
The multi-award-winning project is a masterclass in how thoughtful engineering can deliver lasting environmental outcomes while balancing the needs of biodiversity, regional communities and agriculture. We’re proud to have partnered with the Department for Environment and Water, and Tonkin to deliver this important infrastructure.
The Lake Hawdon North project, which has previously won state and national Australian Water Association Awards and an IPWEA Excellence Award, aimed to improve the availability and quality of habitat for a range of endangered migratory and non-migratory shorebird species in an internationally recognised wetland system. We hear that the birds are starting to return to this area.
Working alongside our project partners, we constructed a new regulator and an adjoining rock-ramp fishway—with rocks placed by hand—to enable more natural water-level management.
These on-ground works created up to 1,763 hectares of suitable shorebird habitat, supported fish passage and strengthened the long-term resilience of the wetland. The works simultaneously maintained the operational requirements of the South East Drainage Network, which supports the local agricultural industry.
The project is also the start of something much greater. It has established a benchmark for future environmental infrastructure by demonstrating how engineering can restore large-scale wetland systems while maintaining existing land and water management requirements.
The Lake Hawdon North project is part of the Healthy Coorong, Healthy Basin program, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the Government of South Australia.
Read more about engineering that created the Lake Hawdon North project
Read more about the environmental importance of this project and wetland site.