diff --git a/.buildkite/_compile.sh b/.buildkite/_compile.sh
index 954a3ec211..e4b738d2fd 100755
--- a/.buildkite/_compile.sh
+++ b/.buildkite/_compile.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ set -eu
 
 DEB_VER=$1
 
+# pinned because there's also a 3.8.x in the repos and we still want to build against 3.6.x
+GDAL_VER=3.6.4+kx-ci371-git20240305.65883e684e
+
 source /etc/lsb-release
 
 apt-get update -y
@@ -10,7 +13,10 @@ apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     file \
     libcurl4-openssl-dev \
     libgeotiff-dev \
-    libgdal-dev
+    "libgdal-dev=${GDAL_VER}" \
+    "libgdal32=${GDAL_VER}" \
+    "gdal-plugins=${GDAL_VER}" \
+    "gdal-data=${GDAL_VER}"
 
 declare -a CMAKE_EXTRA=()