Landscape tender pricing in Melbourne

What we price

Five services, all priced per tender and all against your own rates: quantity takeoff, priced bill of quantities, tender submission, scope and contract review and variation pricing. Take one or take the lot. If you only want the measured quantities and intend to price them yourself, that is a common request and the fee drops accordingly. The services pages set out what each one covers and how the fixed fee works.

What is different about pricing a Melbourne package

Melbourne is our home city, so the builders, the platforms and the tender formats are familiar ground. State work comes through Buying for Victoria, and most private commercial work arrives through EstimateOne or straight from the builder.

Much of Melbourne's growth corridor sits on the basalt plains, and reactive clay changes what an earthworks and subgrade line is worth. Where the geotechnical report is missing or the drawings do not say what is under the topsoil, that goes on the clarifications list rather than into a rate. Rock and unexpected ground conditions are the single most common source of a variation argument on a landscape package, and the cheapest place to deal with them is the tender.

The planting windows are the other thing that moves a price. Autumn and spring establishment is straightforward; a summer handover date means an irrigation and establishment allowance that a spring one does not, and a program that ignores that is a program that hands you a maintenance problem you priced nothing for.

Where do landscape tenders in Melbourne come from?

Landscape tenders in Melbourne come through four channels. Victorian Government work, including Parks Victoria, is advertised on the Buying for Victoria portal. Council work is advertised by each metropolitan council, on its own website or through e-tendering portals such as the MAV TenderLink portal, VendorPanel and eProcure, and a good share of it goes to suppliers already on a council panel.

Private commercial work, the bulk of what a landscape subcontractor prices, reaches you as a package from a head contractor, mostly through EstimateOne or by direct invitation. The guide to finding landscape tenders in Victoria covers each channel and how to set up alerts on it.

Which parts of Melbourne carry the most landscape work?

Melbourne's designated growth areas sit in the outer west, north and south-east, across the Wyndham, Melton, Hume, Whittlesea, Mitchell, Casey and Cardinia council areas. New estates there bring open space, streetscapes, wetlands and reserves, delivered by developers and then handed to council, which means council landscape standards and a maintenance or establishment period built into the package.

The inner and middle suburbs produce a different kind of package: multi-residential common areas, podiums and rooftops, schools and campus grounds, and streetscape upgrades on live streets. The measured quantities are smaller, but access, staging, crane or hoist time, lightweight growing media and the interface with waterproofing move the price more than the planting does.

How do Melbourne's soils change a landscape price?

Melbourne's ground splits roughly east and west. The western and northern plains are basalt country, with heavy reactive clay and basalt floaters that turn a routine excavation into a rock line, while much of the south-east and the bayside sits on sand, which is easy to dig but shifts cost into soil amendment and water retention.

Neither shows on a landscape plan. The geotechnical report, where one is issued, is the document that tells you which one a site sits on, and where it is missing, the assumption about ground conditions belongs on the clarifications list rather than buried in an excavation rate.

Frequently asked questions

Do you work with Melbourne builders directly?

We work for the landscape subcontractor, not the builder. You stay the tenderer and you lodge in your own name. We do not build, and we never bid work in our own name.

Where are landscape tenders in Melbourne advertised?

State work, including Parks Victoria, is on the Buying for Victoria portal. Councils advertise on their own websites and portals such as TenderLink, VendorPanel and eProcure. Private commercial packages come from head contractors, mostly through EstimateOne or by direct invitation.

Can you price work outside Melbourne?

Yes. We are based in Melbourne and work Australia-wide, because the work is done from the drawings rather than from the site.

Which Melbourne platforms do you work across?

Most private commercial work reaches us through EstimateOne or straight from the builder, and state work through the Victorian portal. The platform does not change the takeoff; it changes the format the submission has to come back in, and we match whatever was issued.