By Cameron Atfield

Copyright theage

Queensland’s autocratic former premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen famously gauged the strength of the state’s economy by the number of cranes visible on the Brisbane skyline.

That tradition has lived on through construction management company Rider Levett Bucknall’s crane index, released on Thursday, which recorded a 12 per cent rise in the number of cranes in the Queensland skyline in a six-month period.

The number sat at 73 in the third quarter of 2025, with 28 new cranes outpacing the 20 that came down in the first quarter. They were on 42 residential, seven mixed-use, nine health and five civil project sites across the city.

RLB Queensland director Jamie Smith said Sir Joh was on to something, as crane index was a “fairly ready and simple measure” of the construction and property market.