Construction workers across Melbourne have stopped traffic and trams in the city as they took lunch on the streets in protest of new COVID-19 restrictions.
Home & Decorating by Rebekah Scanlan 19th May 2021 3:16 PM A tradie who began ripping up the lawn at the wrong house thanks to a very confusing street layout has gone viral after sharing his unfortunate mistake. Dreigan Fisher arrived at an address in Melbourne s Cranbourne West ahead of his boss Tyler Brooks and began work on the backyard. But the hardworking employee had no idea three doors down there was another house on the same street with the exact same number. After uncovering the error, Dreigan shared the mistake on TikTok, describing the blunder as embarrassing . However Mr Brooks, who owns Tylers Landscaping, has blamed the stupid set up of the street, which sees the number 37 of an adjacent street positioned three doors down from the home they were meant to work on.
Business by James MacSmith and Kelly Baker 14th May 2021 6:00 AM
Premium Content Fresh fears of an extended nationwide tradie shortage have emerged in wake of the Federal Budget, with the housing and construction booms showing no sign of slowing and home values expected to continue to rise. Record low interest rates and a series of government incentives has created an incredible spike in demand in housing activity, including for tradespeople. If you re struggling to find the right tradie to work on your home, the bad news is you might be waiting a while. Australia s leading housing body, the Housing Industry Association said there will be an unprecedented volume of building starts in 2021 .
Rise of the tradies: Record numbers sign up as apprentices
25 Apr, 2021 05:00 PM
7 minutes to read
Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation students on a tour in Havelock North. Photo / Paul Taylor
Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation students on a tour in Havelock North. Photo / Paul Taylor
More school leavers are training to become builders, electricians and plumbers: apprenticeships in traditional trades have nearly doubled in the past year.
Data from the Ministry of Education shows the number of new apprentices under the age of 18 jumped from 460 in the six months from August 2019 to 810 for the same period in 2020.
This is supported by Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) data for enrolments in tertiary and vocational study that shows a 17.6 per cent increase from December 2019 to December 2020. The total numbers went from 45,155 in 2019 and 57,035 in 2020.
News by Lauren McMah There is a push for a ban to be considered on popular artificial stone benchtops amid a rising rate of potentially deadly illness among the nation s tradies. Artificial or engineered stone benchtops have seen a rise in popularity in Australian homes as a cheap and attractive alternative to marble or granite. The National Dust Diseases Taskforce says the home renovation trend has coincided with rising rates of silicosis among construction workers - an incurable and potentially deadly lung disease associated with breathing in dangerous silica fibres during the cutting, polishing and grinding of the stone. Many of those who are diagnosed with the disease, including stonemasons, are aged as young as their 20s and 30s.