Prepared for Dampier Cargo Wharf Project Stage 3
May 2026
Thank you for considering McConnell Dowell. This short capability statement explains a bit more about the benefits of working with us and showcases our capabilities and some of the interesting projects we deliver.
From remote resources and energy projects to city-shaping infrastructure, we've built thousands of quality assets and facilities.
Engineering-led, our expertise has grown steadily to span building, civil, electrical, fabrication, marine, mechanical, pipelines, rail, tunnel and underground construction..
We do that through delivering projects that connect, sustain and enhance communities, and through providing career opportunities that challenge, reward and grow our people.
We also have five company values that guide our behaviours and decisions. Our values are:
We also understand that construction today is as much about community and sustainability as it is about concrete and steel. Our unwavering objective and commitment is to deliver what we promise to our customers, while protecting and enhancing our people, the community and the environment.
As a leading marine contractor, we bring deep expertise and a legacy of inventive construction to every project. Our fleet of specialist marine plant - including jack-up barges, support vessels, and our custom-designed ‘traveller’ piling system - reflects our commitment to smarter, safer, and more sustainable delivery.
Our equipment is also available for short, medium, or long-term hire. Explore the profiles below to see how our assets can support your next marine challenge.
We delivered a major wharf upgrade in two phases for Rio Tinto at Dampier Port, using modularisation to accelerate construction and reduce the cost of onsite labour.
Phase A included the construction of a 455 m wharf extension, a new access jetty, tail end structure, electrical deck, and modifications to the existing wharf.
We designed and constructed the marine structures for BCI Minerals’ Mardie Salt & Potash Project in Western Australia, using our innovative canti-traveller system for speed and low impact delivery.
The 'Mardie' Project is a large-scale, solar evaporation operation on the Pilbara coast. Capacity of the completed facility is estimated to be 5.35 million tonnes per annum of high purity salt and 140,000 tonnes per annum of sulphate of potash, over an operating life of at least 60 years.
During the Australian resources boom (2004-2014), BHP challenged us to design and construct two new iron export wharves on a fast tracked program to support their rapid growth program (RGP) initiative.
To meet the challenge, while delivering safely and to a high quality, we broke new ground in large-scale marine modularisation, making it central to our construction approach.
At the height of the Australian resources boom (2004-2014), we became the marine partner of choice for Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), as they developed the infrastructure to support their new iron ore export business.
As part of the $10 billion Roy Hill Iron Ore project, we designed and constructed the Stanley Point Iron Ore Terminal at Port Hedland. We used substantial prefabrication and our innovative temporary works system for low impact, high productivity construction.
Our scope consisted of a two berth iron ore load out wharf, connected with a 3600 m long elevated road and overland conveyor to the ore stockyard. In addition to the wharf and the overland conveyor, we delivered an abutment, drive stations, three transfer stations and all SMPE&I works.
We revolutionised the design and construction of large-scale marine infrastructure when we delivered the Chith Export Facility - a large, complex and remotely located project for Rio Tinto at their Amrun bauxite mine, south of Weipa in Far North Queensland.
The facility comprises a 650 m access jetty, a 350 m loading wharf and an onshore conveyor system. Innovatively designed by Jacobs and constructed by us in just 10 months, modularisation was at the heart of the solution and our project team took it to new levels in scale and breadth.
We recently completed Stage 1 of the Swanson Dock West Remediation, and are now delivering Stage 2. This is our sixth project for Port of Melbourne since 2017.
Swanson Dock West (SDW) is a critical International Container Terminal comprising of a 944 m wharf with three container-handling berths, which were constructed in several stages between the 1960s and 1980s. The existing wharf is of varying forms of construction and some sections are close to or beyond the typical design life of 30 years. As a result, major remediation was needed.
We refined the initial concept design and constructed a new outer wharf structure at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin to support the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The project involved the construction of a new 250 m long wharf and two approach jetties.
While the final structures are simple in their geometry and configuration, the site location and operational requirements were challenging.
We demolished a 100 year old wharf and designed and constructed a 100 m long replacement for Port Nelson Ltd, without impacting their operations. The new wharf caters for larger container and cruise vessels, and is also more resilient to seismic activity.
We commenced with the demolition and removal of the old timber and concrete structure, together with its associated fendering, concrete retaining wall, and two piled bollards.
We completed the main berth construction scope for BHP Mitsubishi Alliance's (BMA) SABR Project, using the Early Contractor Involvement process to develop a number of innovations.
SABR, short for 'Shiploader and Berth 2 Replacement', was a brownfields project located within the lease boundaries of BMA's existing Hay Point Coal Terminal near Mackay, Queensland. It included the disassembly and replacement of one of the existing shiploaders and berths to improve materials handling throughput and cyclonic wave immunity.
It's the technical problems and challenges solved behind the scenes by people empowered to think creatively and work collaboratively. It’s the alternative idea or innovation that saves time, reduces cost, makes us safer, and delivers more value.
It might not always be evident when you look at the end product, but it's there, inside every McConnell Dowell project.
Our digital engineering team are experts at building applications using 'Unreal Engine' - one of the world's most advanced 3D graphics game engines.
We've used Unreal to develop a traffic simulation tool to test temporary traffic management schemes before rollout, and simulated construction works in an operational airport with AI driven crowd behaviours.
The team's most recent application is a powerful marine construction simulator - fully developed in-house. The simulator combines intelligent 3D plant models and reality capture data to accurately place marine plant in a virtual environment and replicate its real-world capabilities.
The tool enables our teams to simulate methodologies and iterate the positioning of plant and equipment around the design models. This is all done in a realistic environment with features such as accurate bathymetric data, reality capture point-cloud models, and real-world tide levels.
The permanent works build sequence can be tested to ensure we avoid clashes during construction. Plant and equipment is programmed with its real-world performance and dynamic constraints to enable equipment limitations to be established and enabling features such as crane hook capacity to be determined in real-time.
We are leading the industry in simulation - identifying and mitigating constructability issues during the design phase, driving program and cost certainty for our customers.

Our 'Canti-Traveller' is a purpose-built temporary mobile platform that facilitates fast, safe, low-impact construction of piled marine jetties and piers.
The innovative system, designed and fabricated by our in-house team, provides a platform for progressively installing new piles, propelling itself along the new jetty alignment using hydraulics.
A piling gate fixed to the front of the Traveller allows pitching and driving of piles in a vertical position. If required it can be used to install raking piles using the gate’s hydraulics. The piling gate also provides a working platform for cutting piles and welding headstocks. Bent spacing can extend to 27 m, and it has a system for changing direction. The traveller supports a 450 tonne crawler crane, if required.
One of the primary advantages of the Canti-Traveller is its minimal ecological impact, not touching the earth except for the permanent piles it both drives and sits atop. Removing the need for marine-borne plant, it also operates independently of marine conditions, offering significant program and cost certainty. This makes the Canti-traveller particularly effective in design and construct projects where the program can be optimized for maximum efficiency.
We have a proven track record of successful installations in environmentally sensitive areas and a reputation for delivering safe, efficient, marine solutions for our customers. The Canti-Traveller reinforces our leadership in marine innovation and construction.
Click on the video to see the Canti-Traveller in action (Hint: It's yellow!). Click here for a more detailed specification.
On the Granite Island Causeway Project in South Australia our team used the 'hand over hand' construction method to minimise environmental impacts and ensure delivery on time.
The 'hand over hand' method employs three concurrent work fronts:
As the structure advances out into the water it acts as a construction platform for the work crews to build the next stage. Each work front takes a similar duration, ensuring maximum certainty in productivity and schedule.
Analysis was conducted on various construction approaches during the tender phase, including the use of jack-up barges or a temporary bridge structure to facilitate construction. However, the 'hand over hand' method was the only one capable of achieving completion by the target date.
The other benefit of the method is its minimal footprint. Minimising the impact on the sensitive marine environment was a key consideration during the tender and design phases of the project.
The adoption of the method, along with the use of precast prestressed deck units which pushed the span out as far as possible, minimised the number of pile driving operations further reducing the impact on the marine environment.
The design and construction methodology was fit-for-purpose and extremely efficient. It resulted in on time and on budget completion and had a low impact on Victor Harbor's rich marine ecology.
On the Granite Island Causeway project in South Australia, our team designed and implemented a "shroud and bubble curtain" to stop marine piling noise from disturbing the Southern Right Whale (SRW) and other marine fauna, such as the Australian sea lion and little penguins.
Prior to the solution being developed and approved, a local whale protection group strongly objected to piling occurring during whale season, which had the potential to impact the project's schedule and budget.
The bubble curtain was designed to reduce the noise levels by scattering, absorption, reflection, and refraction of the sound waves. The curtain design, along with some other piling modifications, gave sufficient confidence for federal approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act for piling during the whale season.
We helped revolutionise the design and construction approach for large-scale marine infrastructure on Rio Tinto's Chith Export Facility project in remote Far North Queensland.
The 350m wharf structure was split into seven, first-of-a-kind ‘jacket’ modules (the substructure) and six topside modules. Weighing approximately 680 tonnes each and standing 30m high, the jacket modules, with integrated dolphins, reduced the number of permanent wharf piles required from 100 to just 28, minimising environmental impact to marine life – a core focus for the Chith Export Facility team.
The wharf topside modules, placed on the jackets, ranged from 600 to 1400 tonnes and were fabricated complete with all services, conveyors, concrete roadways and access walkways.
In true ‘plug and play’ fashion, the modules were delivered and installed by a heavy-lift ship in a safe, clean and efficient operation.
The project, completed in just 10 months, was awarded the Australian Construction Achievement Award by Engineers Australia and the Brunel Medal by the Institute of Civil Engineers (UK).
In marine environments, where the margin for error is razor-thin, temporary works aren’t mere enablers—they’re foundational to safe, efficient delivery.
Take the Swanson Dock upgrade at the Port of Melbourne. Our temporary works team engineered an innovative fender access platform, earning the a WorkSafe Victoria award for “Best Solution to a Specific Workplace Health and Safety Issue”
Here’s what set it apart:
Why Temporary Works Matter
Prioritising safety at early design stages – Proactively engineering safe access platforms significantly diminishes risk in live marine settings.
Driving productivity through better access – Easier, safer access means faster cycle times and fewer quay-side delays.
Enabling precise engineering works – Demolition, rebar placement, and spraying all demand stable, safe working environments—temporary works deliver just that.
Promoting sustainability and reuse – Modular, reusable temporary works not only save time but also cut embodied carbon across projects.
By spotlighting temporary works as a core part of project delivery—not an afterthought—we’re reshaping how marine construction tackles safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
During the six-month value engineering period our Digital Engineering team developed a 3D digital BIM model of the project in Revisto which was then used to review the scope, method and programme to maximise efficiencies, save time, money and reduce environmental impacts.
The programme, which was developed in collaboration with Eastland Port to be as lean as possible, cleverly coordinates machinery and the multiple crews so they can work on the relatively small site simultaneously and safely.
The digital model was used to ‘virtually’ work through construction and identify any timing or space conflicts before physical works started. It made it much easier to plan how the site layout would change, to allow for materials, plant and team movements.
For more information about the project click through to the Project page or watch the animation of the project.

In partnership with Australian OEM, Black Stump Technologies, we have co-created the 'Solarator', a compact containerised power plant that combines solar panels, batteries and a small diesel generator.
Now being used on our project sites across Australia, the Solarators are scaleable in output and can reduce diesel consumption by up to 90% for our off-grid site facilities. Over a 10-year period the units will save over 8000 tonnes of carbon on our work sites.
The Solarators are available in a number of configurations, including ‘accordion style’ (where the panels unfold on frames) and solar-only (i.e. no diesel generator). The solar-only units can result in a carbon positive project site, with unused energy being exported to the grid.
In addition to their sustainability benefits, Solarators are quiet, low maintenance, compact, transportable and 'plug and play' in their set up.
You can't get many more wins than that!
Thank you for taking an interest in McConnell Dowell's skills, capabilities and approach. Additional information is available on our website, including additional project case studies.
Claire Tanner
Pre-Contracts Manager SA & WA
M: +61 (0)418 645 297
claire.tanner@mcdgroup.com LinkedIn