Gold Coast manufacturing is ready to scale

For decades, the Gold Coast has been known for tourism, lifestyle, and population growth. But another story is emerging, manufacturing is helping diversify the economy, create highly skilled jobs, and position the region for long-term growth. 

At a recent BDO Manufacturing Strategy Roundtable on the Gold Coast, industry leaders, government representatives, and economic development organisations came together to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the sector, and what is needed to support its next phase of growth. 

Manufacturing on the Gold Coast 

Manufacturing on the Gold Coast is no longer an emerging sector, but a major economic contributor, generating $4.4 billion in economic output, supporting more than 23,000 jobs, and representing around 15 per cent of Queensland's manufacturing activity. More importantly, the businesses driving this growth are operating in advanced manufacturing fields including defence, aerospace, biotechnology, marine, robotics, and modular construction.

The opportunity facing the region is not whether manufacturing can succeed here, but how we help it scale. The Gold Coast State of the City Report, underpinned by economic research and analysis from BDO's Economic Advisory team, identifies manufacturing as an essential driver of economic diversification, investment attraction, and skilled employment growth across the region. 

Growth barriers for the manufacturing sector 

While the businesses around the table represented different industries and business models, the challenges raised were remarkably consistent. 

Workforce shortages remain the most significant constraint on growth. Manufacturers are competing for skilled labour in an increasingly tight market, while questions remain about training pathways, and how the industry can better connect with future talent. Participants noted that demand for technical and trade-based roles continues to outpace supply, making it more difficult for businesses to expand operations, adopt new technologies, and bring additional capacity, especially when larger enterprises struggle to capture meaningful support and workforce uplift for involvement in training, grants, and academies to support the industry. Against that backdrop, there was strong support for greater collaboration between education providers, industry, and government, including discussion around a future advanced manufacturing centre of excellence for the Gold Coast.

Infrastructure was another recurring theme. Transport connectivity, industrial land availability, planning approvals, and power capacity were all highlighted as factors that will influence how successfully the region supports future investment and expansion. These concerns reflect broader pressures across South East Queensland, where recent planning forecasts indicate there may be only eight to nine years of serviced industrial land supply remaining, despite long-term demand for thousands of additional hectares of industrial land. For manufacturers considering future investment, access to suitable industrial land, and supporting infrastructure is increasingly becoming a strategic issue rather than simply an operational one.

Funding and innovation also formed part of the discussion. Many growing manufacturers recognise the opportunities available through grants, R&D incentives, and advanced manufacturing programs but often lack the time or internal resources to navigate an increasingly complex landscape. Participants noted that while support programs exist, smaller and mid-sized manufacturers can face challenges in identifying, accessing, and securing available funding while managing day-to-day business demands. 

Taken together, these challenges point to a broader reality. The Gold Coast is not short of manufacturing capability, innovation, or ambition. Rather, the barriers to future growth centre on the conditions required for businesses to scale, including access to skilled workers, industrial land, infrastructure, and investment support. The opportunity is already here. The challenge now is ensuring the broader ecosystem can keep pace with the sector's growth aspirations. 

Why manufacturing matters for the Gold Coast 

The importance of manufacturing extends well beyond individual businesses. 

For the Gold Coast, a stronger manufacturing sector means a more diverse and resilient economy, skilled employment opportunities for future generations, supporting sovereign capability, driving export growth, and encouraging innovation across multiple industries. 

Perhaps most importantly, it changes perceptions of what the Gold Coast economy can be. 

Many residents would be surprised to learn manufacturing isn’t just traditional machining and that world-leading businesses in space technology, advanced cooling systems, modular construction, defence capability, and biotechnology are already operating successfully from the region drawing on future-proof skills such as technology, robotics, and coding. Helping tell these stories effectively is critical if the Gold Coast is to attract the talent, investment, and attention required for the next phase of growth.

Turning conversations into action 

One of the strongest themes from the roundtable was the desire for practical outcomes. Industry wants collaboration, but collaboration that leads somewhere. 

This means bringing together manufacturers, government, educators, and investors around solutions addressing workforce shortages, infrastructure constraints, innovation funding, and future growth opportunities. It means ensuring the discussion continues beyond individual forums and translates into measurable outcomes for the sector.

At BDO, our role is to help make those connections happen. Through our work with manufacturers across Australia, we regularly see the impact that strategic collaboration, international expansion, R&D incentives, grant funding, tax and structuring advice, succession planning, capital raising, and transaction readiness can have on long-term growth. Equally important, we help connect businesses with the people, organisations, and opportunities that can accelerate growth. 

As the Gold Coast continues to evolve as a centre for advanced manufacturing capability, we believe there is a significant opportunity to bring industry, government, and investment communities together to help unlock the sector's next phase of growth. 

The momentum is already here. The next challenge, and opportunity, is turning that momentum into scale. 

To learn more about BDO’s work with manufacturers or upcoming industry events, contact our manufacturing team.