The Fifth Estate

The Fifth Estate Australia's leading business newspaper for the sustainable built environment and the people and issues

Readers’ top picks that made an impact in 2025Queensland is taking an axe to windfarms and looks to more cuts; home batt...
18/12/2025

Readers’ top picks that made an impact in 2025

Queensland is taking an axe to windfarms and looks to more cuts; home batteries’ breakthrough This story was off the charts in terms of hits. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, who won the election at the end of 2024 said he wanted the industry to keep burning coal. The story broke in May this year, when the government downgraded the sustainability of its 2032 Olympic Games, and announced it was rejecting a $1 billion wind farm that was already previously approved....

Queensland is taking an axe to windfarms and looks to more cuts; home batteries’ breakthrough This story was off the charts in terms of hits. Queensland

For our third Emerald Green awards The Fifth Estate has chosen to honour five people who were key to our hugely successf...
18/12/2025

For our third Emerald Green awards The Fifth Estate has chosen to honour five people who were key to our hugely successful seven part events program this year and who cast their influence well beyond to the broader industry.

For our third Emerald Green awards The Fifth Estate has chosen to honour five people who were key to our hugely successful seven part events program this year and who cast their influence well beyond to the broader industry.

The Sydney Plan: back to the futureA new draft plan for Greater Sydney, The Sydney Plan (the plan), has been released fo...
18/12/2025

The Sydney Plan: back to the future

A new draft plan for Greater Sydney, The Sydney Plan (the plan), has been released for comment. Having led the preparation of the current plan, A Metropolis of Three Cities and the previous plan, A Plan for Growing Sydney, I was naturally keen to see the outcome. My initial reflections focus on: understanding the principal element of the three released plans…...

A new draft plan for Greater Sydney, The Sydney Plan (the plan), has been released for comment. Having led the preparation of the current plan, A

Anthony Burke and Ed Lippmann on 40 years of architectureProfessor Anthony Burke interviews Ed Lippmann about the experi...
18/12/2025

Anthony Burke and Ed Lippmann on 40 years of architecture

Professor Anthony Burke interviews Ed Lippmann about the experiences that shaped his architectural vision...

Professor Anthony Burke interviews Ed Lippmann about the experiences that shaped his architectural vision

There’s a reason we’re focused on the built environment/property/real estate – whatever you want to call the buildings w...
18/12/2025

There’s a reason we’re focused on the built environment/property/real estate – whatever you want to call the buildings we live, work, and play in.

There’s a reason we’re focused on the built environment/property/real estate – whatever you want to call the buildings we live, work, and play in.

BMI adds to its recycling assets with the purchase of the failed Rino businessQueensland resource recovery group BMI Gro...
17/12/2025

BMI adds to its recycling assets with the purchase of the failed Rino business

Queensland resource recovery group BMI Group has snapped up the assets of the failed Rino Recycling business, in which the Clean Energy Finance Corporation invested about $70 million and ended up with an exposure of about $100 million of taxpayer funds....

Queensland resource recovery group BMI Group has snapped up the assets of the failed Rino Recycling business, in which the Clean Energy Finance Corporation invested about $70 million and ended up with an exposure of about $100 million of taxpayer funds.

The NCC pushback is the kind of regeneration we don’t wantWe wish the rest of the built environment were as infinitely r...
16/12/2025

The NCC pushback is the kind of regeneration we don’t want

We wish the rest of the built environment were as infinitely regenerating as the moves to cut and curb the National Construction Code seem to be....

We wish the rest of the built environment were as infinitely regenerating as the moves to cut and curb the National Construction Code seem to be.

Building surveyors and certifiers want a national registration and licensing system to ensure that buildings meet consis...
16/12/2025

Building surveyors and certifiers want a national registration and licensing system to ensure that buildings meet consistent professional standards because “we cannot continue relying on a patchwork of state-based rules and assume that quality will somehow rise to the surface”.

Building surveyors and certifiers want a national registration and licensing system to ensure that buildings meet consistent professional standards because “we cannot continue relying on a patchwork of state-based rules and assume that quality will somehow rise to the surface”.

The Queen Salote Wharf upgrade climate proofs a lifeline for Tonga’s futurePROJECT FILES: Consulting engineers Haskoning...
16/12/2025

The Queen Salote Wharf upgrade climate proofs a lifeline for Tonga’s future

PROJECT FILES: Consulting engineers Haskoning in partnership with the government of Tonga, Asian Development Bank , Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific and contractor McConnell Dowell managed a $70 million upgrade for the Kingdom of Tonga completed this year. This is why the project was so important to our Pacific neighbours. The Project Files tell the stories behind the architecture, design…...

PROJECT FILES: Consulting engineers Haskoning in partnership with the government of Tonga, Asian Development Bank , Australian Infrastructure Financing

Industry insiders say we need to take another look at the way the battery subsidy scheme has been criticised. Bigger bat...
16/12/2025

Industry insiders say we need to take another look at the way the battery subsidy scheme has been criticised. Bigger batteries mean more clean energy that can be pumped into the grid when it’s needed.

Industry insiders say we need to take another look at the way the battery subsidy scheme has been criticised. Bigger batteries mean more clean energy that can be pumped into the grid when it’s needed.

First NABERS embodied carbon rating awarded, EVs and chargers get a boost, Diesel trains could become electric hybrids, ...
16/12/2025

First NABERS embodied carbon rating awarded, EVs and chargers get a boost, Diesel trains could become electric hybrids, Highlights of Norman Foster’s 60 year career are now on exhibition in Sydney, jobs and industry.

First NABERS embodied carbon rating awarded, EVs and chargers get a boost, Diesel trains could become electric hybrids, Highlights of Norman Foster’s 60 year career are now on exhibition in Sydney, jobs and industry

Berlin – Monumental in every way with a few nice lessons for AusBerlin is a city where they do things in a monumental wa...
15/12/2025

Berlin – Monumental in every way with a few nice lessons for Aus

Berlin is a city where they do things in a monumental way. This is driven in part by its historic status as a city, in part by Cold War era competition between East and West and in part, it seems, because they just like things to be big and chunky....

Berlin is a city where they do things in a monumental way. This is driven in part by its historic status as a city, in part by Cold War era competition between East and West and in part, it seems, because they just like things to be big and chunky.

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About The Fifth Estate

Australia’s leading business newspaper for the sustainable built environment and the people and issues that surround it.

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