NQEA

NQEA Pty Ltd
Founded1948; 76 years ago (1948)
Headquarters
Cairns
,
Australia
ServicesShip builder
Websitewww.nqea.com.au
HMAS Townsville in 1990
RiverCat Shane Gould in May 2006

NQEA Pty Ltd[1] is an engineering and shipbuilding company based in Cairns, 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.[2]

NQEA has built several ships for the Royal Australian Navy (including the Fremantle-class patrol boats and Leeuwin-class survey ships).[3] 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 after admissions that an internal restructuring may lead to difficulties meeting the contracted obligations.[4]

The company has also built catamaran ferries for the State Transit Authority (now operated by Sydney Ferries), London based Thames Clippers, and operators in French Polynesia and the Netherlands.[5][6]

  1. ^ Aimtek Pty Ltd formerly NQEA Australia Pty Ltd formerly North Queensland Engineers & Agents Pty Ltd Australian Securities & Investments Commission
  2. ^ North Queensland Engineers and Agents Pty Ltd (1948 - c. 1990) Encyclopedia of Australian Science
  3. ^ Saunders, Stephen (2005). Jane's Fighting Ships 2004-2005. Coulsdon: Jane's Information Group. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-7106-2623-1.
  4. ^ Grevatt, Jon (30 June 2009). "NQEA loses block-building deal for Australian destroyers". Jane's Navy International. Jane's information Group.
  5. ^ "River Runner Vessels". NQEA. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Our Fleet" (PDF). Thames Clippers. Retrieved 18 May 2015.