10 major projects you helped build with your industry super savings

Your super is there to deliver you a comfortable retirement free from financial stress, and full of bucket list items to tick off.

But long before you get there, your super is already working hard to improve your life.

Industry super funds – of which 50 per cent of Australian workers are members – are major investors in Australian infrastructure.

You’ll find super money in roads, hospitals, pipelines, railway stations and court complexes.

It’s all part of a strategy to maximise returns while creating Australian jobs and improving the lives of the people whose money they invest.

Here are 10 projects benefiting from investment from your super.

Brisbane Airport

Australia’s third-busiest airport – and the largest in terms of land size – benefits from having no curfew. With a new parallel runway due in 2020, as well as a terminal expansion and new aeronautical facilities and carparks it’s set to increase its employee numbers from 20,500 now to 50,000 by 2029.

Victorian Desalination Plant

Any Victorian who’s lived in the state since 2007 will remember shower timers, car washing bans and parched lawns. The Victorian Desalination Plant is a $3.5 billion insurance policy against drought. The plant, built between 2009 and 2012, is capable of producing 178 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water each day, for delivery to Melbourne and Geelong.

New Royal Adelaide Hospital

Architecturally stunning, but more importantly, technologically outstanding, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital is due to start accepting patients next year. The $2.3 billion facility includes single patient rooms with ensuites, 40 technical suites, including operating theatres, of 65 square metres and units specialising in burns, trauma, spinal injuries and craniofacial among others.

Perth’s District Court building

This state-of-the-art facility houses Western Australia’s District Court as well as court support groups. It includes the state’s first permanent high security court facility, amongst 24 court rooms and 29 cells.

Westlink M7

Comprising 40 km of motorway, with 17 interchanges, 38 under and overpasses, and 40km of bike and pedestrian paths linking the M2, M4 and M5 in Sydney, the M7 welcomed its first cars in 2005 after two years of construction, eight months ahead of schedule.

Eastlink

Melbourne’s $2.5 billion Eastlink project connected the Eastern, Monash, Frankston and Peninsula Link freeways, bypassing 45 sets of traffic lights on its 39km length.

Launceston Airport

Tasmania’s second-busiest airport was in need of an upgrade as yearly passenger figures topped 1.1 million in 2008. Superannuation investment allowed a $20 million doubling of the airport’s floorspace, with yearly passenger numbers now exceeding 1.2 million.

Northern Territory airports

With more Australians, and international visitors, discovering the treasure that is our Northern Territory, the Territory’s main airports – Darwin and Alice Springs – were ripe for upgrading. Darwin Airport, which serves 13 domestic and five international routes, will see a doubling of its departure gates and enhanced international traveller facilities as part of its upgrade.

Dampier to Bunbury national gas pipeline

Regarded as Western Australia’s most vital piece of infrastructure, the 1539 km long pipe delivers natural gas from the state’s Pilbara region to businesses and homes in Perth. As the state’s energy needs increased, so has the capacity of the pipeline with continual expansions and capacity extensions.

Southern Cross Railway Station

Once Melbourne’s most neglected and outdated railway station, Southern Cross is now one of its most dramatic, with its iconic and award-winning `wave roof’. It was installed as part of an upgrade that included a new concourse and entrance and completed in time for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

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