Civil engineer salary in Australia
Civil engineer pay can differ by discipline, professional responsibility, project type, location and whether the employer is a consultancy, contractor or asset owner.
50,761 people reported under the ATO occupation “Civil engineer” for 2023-24. The published median salary or wage income was $120,000.
What this page measures
The observed median uses ATO occupation 233211, Civil engineer. State, full-time and trend comparisons come from the broader Civil engineering professional group, which also contains geotechnical, structural, transport and quantity surveying classifications.
The ATO count includes everyone who reported this classification. Its public table does not publish the exact non-zero-income population used to calculate the median.
Related titles and specialisations
- Geotechnical engineer
- Structural engineer
- Transport engineer
- Quantity surveyor
A modelled pay guide
- Lower guide
- $82,000
- Modelled low
- $98,300
- ATO median
- $120,000
- Modelled high
- $146,500
Only the median is a published statistic for this occupation. The lower and upper markers are a guide created by applying earnings-distribution ratios for professionals as a whole to that median. The upper guide is $181,900. These are not observed percentiles for this occupation.
Why individual salaries vary
- Experience and professional accreditation
- Design, delivery, commercial or leadership responsibility
- Infrastructure sector and project scale
- Location, site requirements and employer type
What full-time work pays
The tax-return median above can include part-year and part-time workers with non-zero salary or wage income. The ABS full-time benchmark is published for the broader occupation group “Civil engineering professional”. It covers full-time, non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate and puts them at $2,217 a week, or about $115,300 a year (May 2025), over roughly 44 hours. 7% of workers in the published “Civil engineering professional” occupation group work part-time.
Modelled civil engineer pay by state
These guides apply each published state-to-national ratio for the Civil engineering professional group to the observed national median above. They are not observed state medians for the specific civil engineer occupation.
| State | State-adjusted guide | vs national |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $121,200 | +1% |
| Victoria | $113,200 | −6% |
| Queensland | $123,400 | +3% |
| Western Australia | $137,200 | +14% |
| South Australia | $105,700 | −12% |
| Tasmania | $106,500 | −11% |
| Australian Capital Territory | $114,300 | −5% |
| Northern Territory | $105,600 | −12% |
How the broader pay measure has moved
Average salary income for the “Civil engineering professional” occupation group went from $90,528 in 2010-11 to $129,994 in 2023-24 - 2.8% a year over 13 years. That is an average rather than a median, and it moves with hours worked and who is in the occupation as well as with pay.
Other occupation guides
Explore other salary guides built from the same ATO and ABS sources.
Turn the benchmark into a decision
Estimate take-home pay from the observed median, or compare a live job advertisement with the broader occupation evidence before applying.
To search another title or change the state, return to the Australian Salary Search.
Sources: ATO Table 15, ATO Table 14B, ABS Employee Earnings and Hours and Jobs and Skills Australia occupation data. Data retrieved 17 August 2026. Page reviewed . Full method on the methodology page.
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