A familiar infrastructure challenge is unfolding now
Australia is entering another wave of major water infrastructure investment, reminiscent of past booms following long periods of underinvestment. The post-war “golden age” of dam building and the surge during the 2000s Millennium Drought highlighted the nation’s reliance on large-scale projects like dams, desalination plants and pipelines to secure water supplies. However, with limited new construction in the past decade, the sector now faces aging assets, climate pressures and an urgent need for expansion to support population growth, housing, energy transition and water-intensive industries such as data centers and hydrogen production.
The challenge lies not only in funding but also in rebuilding the sector’s capacity to deliver. Years of slowdown and corporatization have eroded Australia’s specialized engineering workforce, leaving a shortage of skills needed for bulk water projects. Without coordinated planning and workforce development, the nation risks project delays, rising costs and failure to meet broader policy goals. To avoid repeating boom-and-bust cycles, experts stress the importance of steady, sustainable investment and collaboration across government, industry and education to ensure Australia has the water infrastructure and expertise needed to underpin its future economy.
