"For the last five months all my work's been out of Queensland. It's starting to come down south-east towards Melbourne," he said.

Strong outlook at risk

On one level, the construction industry appears strong. Figures compiled by corporate watchdog ASIC show over the 12 months to January, 1433 construction-related companies went into external administration - the lowest number in at least 3½ years. While construction administrations have held steady in NSW - which accounted for more than a third of the national total - they have been trending lower in Victoria.

But the benign picture may not last. Earlier this month, insolvency and accounting firm SV Partners said nearly 2000 smaller construction businesses - 3 per cent of the country's total - were at risk of failure over the next 12 months as the focus of activity turned from residential to commercial work.

Nathan Wrobel is the managing director of insurance brokerage Acquire Trade Credit, which sells subcontractors cover on monies owed them by contractors. While the insurance industry scrutinises builders' financial situations on the lookout for likely collapses, there were no red flags before Project Group's collapse, Mr Wrobel said.

"There was no sign," Mr Wrobel told The Australian Financial Review. "The insurers weren't aware of this one."

No warning signs


That could have been because the insurers didn't have a large exposure to the company, or that nothing in the company's finances or meetings with management had raised concerns. Nor had there been any red flags from subcontractor creditors that their invoices had gone unpaid, Mr Wrobel said.

An industry source, however, said that tradespeople were saying as long as six months ago that they were struggling to receive payments from Project Group.

Mr Berry said he was aware Project Group had 800 subcontractors on its books - although not all of them may be active - and said invoices coming in at the end of the month, along with retention payments held by the contractor, could push the collapsed company's debts up to about $50 million.

Administrator Matthew Jess said he expected the number of outstanding creditors would exceed the figures disclosed in the company's records, but could not say by how much.

"It always skyrockets," Mr Berry said.