NQEA Pty Ltd is an engineering and shipbuilding company based in

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

, Australia. The company was founded in 1948 as an engineering supply company named North Queensland Engineers & Agents, then expanded in 1966 into shipbuilding and was renamed. NQEA has built several ships for the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

(including the ''Fremantle''-class patrol boats and ''Leeuwin''-class survey ships). The company was contracted to build modules to form the hulls of the ''Hobart''-class air warfare destroyer project in May 2009, but lost the contract a month later to

BAE Systems Australia BAE Systems Australia, a subsidiary of BAE Systems, is one of the largest defence contractors in Australia. It was formed by the merger of British Aerospace Australia and GEC-Marconi Systems and expanded by the acquisitions of Armor Holdings ...

after admissions that an internal

restructuring Restructuring or Reframing is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. ...

may lead to difficulties meeting the contracted obligations. The company has also built catamaran ferries for the

State Transit Authority The State Transit Authority of New South Wales, also referred to as State Transit, was an agency of the Government of New South Wales operating bus services in Sydney. Superseding the Urban Transit Authority in 1989, it was also responsible for ...

(now operated by

Sydney Ferries Sydney Ferries is the public transport ferry network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales. Services operate on Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour and the connecting Parramatta River. The network is controlled by the New South Wales Government ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

based

Thames Clippers Uber Boat by Thames Clippers is a set of river bus services on the River Thames in London, England. The company operates both commuter services between eastern and Central London and tourist services under licence from London River Services. ...

, and operators in French Polynesia and the Netherlands.

Ships built

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Queensland Engineering companies of Australia Shipbuilding companies of Australia Shipyards of Australia 1948 establishments in Australia