“The completion of three major LNG projects on Curtis Island and in the Surat Basin, and the substantial retreat in coal and coal related works, will drive a 45% decline in major project work done,” BIS Shrapnel said in its construction outlook report for the Queensland Major Contractors Association.

“In terms of the construction workforce, mining and heavy industry alone is anticipated to shed over 8000 full-time workers”

In the sixth annual report in this series, BIS assumed that the Shell and PetroChina-owned Arrow Energy LNG plans would not proceed, but Arrow’s CSG upstream fields would be used to expand one of the other three Curtis Island-based LNG projects by 2016-17.

“This is a significant departure from the previous 2013 Report,” BIS said.

“However, ongoing development of CSG fields over the operational life of LNG facilities (at least two decades) will require continual investment in related field infrastructure, including roads, pipelines, gas facilities, and water.

“Again, while not major projects in their own right, in aggregate, they will lift the volume of sector activity compared to pre-CSG times.”

QMCA president Tony Hackett used the report, released yesterday during a Brisbane-based industry breakfast, to call for state and federal government assistance during times when private sector investment troughs.

"We're not trying to paint doom and gloom,” he reportedly told AAP.

“The over-arching picture is that we were at a historic peak and it is starting to return to 2009 levels.”

BIS is expecting an upswing in major project work from the 2016-17 year, but with a caveat that this included a more favourable outlook on upstream work for the state’s LNG projects and for the vast Galilee Basin thermal coal projects.