Not only Australia's much touted resources mining boom is waning off, apparently so also is the volume of construction work done in the country.

Latest figures released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the volume of total construction work done in the June quarter dropped 0.2 per cent, which was way below market projections. Bloomberg analysts, for instance, had pinned for a 0.5 per cent growth for the June quarter.

Previously, Australia registered a positive 7.8 per cent rise in the March quarter.

But Craig James, CommSec chief economist, said the data was still in line with the pattern seen in the construction sector.

"We would have expected residential and commercial building to be down, and that's been the case," he told AAP.

"There was only a modest rise in engineering work. But that fits the pattern we've been seeing: overall softness in terms of building work, and a degree of strength in engineering."

Overall, activity in the residential construction dragged the quarterly figures by a 2.4 per cent drop.

"We think residential construction will detract from activity generally over the course of this year, but the non-residential stuff is a bit of a different story," RBC Capital Markets senior economist Su-Lin Ong told BusinessDay.

Construction work done is a key gauge of building work around the country.

The ABS said total building work done in the June quarter represented $18.518 billion, seasonally adjusted, from $18.876 billion in the March quarter.

Engineering work done tallied $30.315 billion in the June quarter, from $30.056 billion in March.

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