The Gold Coast Desalination Plant Project was initiated by the Gold Coast City Council and was built to provide approximately 125 mega litres of drinking water to the South East Queensland area. Located near Tugun on the border between Queensland and New South Wales the $1bn project was constructed on a six hectare former landfill site. Preparatory works for the large scale desalination plant started in June 2006.

The Desalination Plant Project includes, amongst other things, two vertical shafts that were subsequently connected by a tunneling system. The soil in the construction area was sand of different densities overlying sandstone. The groundwater table was located close to the surface. The best method to construct the two shafts was determined to be the diaphragm wall method constructed with a combination of grab and cutter. To execute the construction of the diaphragm wall a joint venture was made up between Bauer Foundations Australia and Piling Contractors.