Winning Tenders in the Defence Estate Works Program

What Is it?

The Defence Estate Works Program (EWP) is a program of construction projects to support the Defence Estate across Australia. The program delivers minor construction projects for Defence and provides an excellent opportunity for many construction contractors and trade contractors to win Australian Defence Contracts.

The program is run by the Directorate of Estate Works Program Office (DEWPO) and works on a national basis in accordance with a published procurement plan.

There are hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Defence Force tenders to be won.

What type of projects?

Typical projects are construction work and include:

• Refurbishment works
• Accommodation construction or repair
• Air Conditioning upgrades
• Civil works and Civil Construction
• Asbestos remediation
• Demolition works
• Plumbing
• Mechanical Services upgrades
• Security Works

This shows that Defence offers many opportunities for a wide range of products or services.

Project values

Many projects are valued at under $1 million. This makes them highly suitable to many small business contractors, especially those looking to break into the lucrative Defence Construction market.

Often these projects are single-trade based, making them suitable to many businesses who would typically only have subcontracting opportunities on Defence projects or normal respond to requests for quotations.

For larger contractors, many projects have construction budgets between $1 and $4 million. Again, this is an excellent market to work in, as the sub $4m threshold means that some government requirements, such as Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner (OFSC) accreditation are not required.

Stepping up another level, there are also projects that are valued at over $4m and, indeed, over $10m.

Why would I be interested?

Many businesses have benefited from winning Australian Defence Force tenders. As a Government Contract, you get the certainty of working with a mature client and a client who has ongoing financial capacity.

There is a large pipeline of work, so once you understand the requirements to win and deliver these projects, you have the ability to support and grow your business.

What is the pipeline?

The pipeline is large and extensive. There are hundreds of tender opportunities to be released in the coming months. These tenders will be in every state and territory.

How do I win Defence Construction Tenders?

The tender documents for Estate Works Program tenders can be daunting. They address lots of Government procurement policy and ask questions that you may not have seen in previous tenders and proposals.

There are many ways that you can approach your tender response for these tender submissions, and your bid strategy may need to be different for each submission.

To respond to these requests for proposals you need to have a solid tender writing plan or tender writer to help you with the tender process.

One way to dramatically increase your chance of winning one of these Defence construction tenders is to engage with Bidsmith. Bidsmith staff are former Defence Construction Tender evaluators and used to be the client for projects like these. This background in Defence procurement is a major advantage to help you win government contracts like these.

Bidsmith understands the key things needed to help you bid for and win Defence tenders, especially these construction tenders.

We have helped countless contractors secure billions of dollars’ worth of Defence construction contracts, including many of these Estate Works Program contracts.

Find out more about how we can help you win Defence tenders here.

More Information

The Department of Defence publishes information about upcoming opportunities here.

There is a constant flow of open tender opportunities and you can browse and search for them here.

Act now!

Our team is on standby to help you understand this lucrative market and win more work for your business.

We work in every state and territory.

Contact Us today for a confidential discussion about how we can help you.