Saturday, Jan 20, 2007 at 18:00
Back in the late 80s, I remember being "
well out, north east of Laverton" (WA) doing a bit of prospecting at a place called Duketon, an old mining town, now vanished. I'd been out for about a week by then & it started to rain. I looked at the sky with the all knowing, all seeing, veteran prospectors eye & thought shall I make a run for it or stay. "Nah, I'm finding a bit and it doesn't look too bad, it'll pass".
I stayed - and it didn't stop raining for 3 weeks!! I don't worry too much at times like these as I carry plenty of
food & water and a rifle if food gets real short. But after 3 weeks of rain, everything soaking wet, couldn't get a lot done, ran out stuff to read and on my own, I was going "bush crazy". It finally stopped raining and after letting things dry out for 2 days, I thought I'd have a look at the track 'n see if I could get out. I didn't get far. The track was breaking up underneath me. I knew another way out so I shot over the other side of the ridge. It was not quite as bad but still impassable.
I resigned myself to "staying a few more days" and having roo and baked beans again fer tea! After another week, I heard another truck heading my way. I thought, "Thank Christ fer that, someone to talk to!". He pulled up in
camp in
well spattered, much battered, rolling mud ball could have been a Ford F100 underneath!. I asked him about the track and how bad was it.
He said,"Mate there a F#@%^&&*N' hole back there that's swallowed a 6 wheel drive drilling rig, a
grader and Cat D9 Bulldozer - it's the biggest hole in the ground since Hiroshima and can be seen from the outer reaches of the Solar System". I don't know how he got through or which track he came in on - or was going out on!,,,,,,,,,,,but I thought he was exaggerating a bit at the time,,,,,,
After another 2 days, it had dried out a lot more & I needed fuel, tobacco and a more varied diet, so I headed off to
Laverton about 100 kms away - 20 kms of track and about 80kms of dirt road.
After about 30 minutes sliding on the track I came across "The Hole". It was enormous! It was surrounded by chewed up track 'n bush for about 250 metres on all sides. Everything was flattened, covered in mud, broken branches and rocks.
I thought "Stuff me, this IS Hiroshima". I waded through mud and shizza, jumping from
rock to
rock, to get to "The Hole" and sure enough there was aabout 6 inches of yellow cab top sticking out of this "lake". I was burning with curiosuity, I had to know if "The Hole" was really that deep. I was now down to me jocks and tee shirt. I swam out to middle and sure enough it was the cab roof a
Grader.
Now this "lake" was a track a month ago. It was the track I'd come in on! Now it unrecognisable. It was a duckpond!
I thought, "Stuff me, that guy wasn't telling porkies after all!"
I got back in the cab of my truck and bashed bush for 6 hours, moving tree stumps, laying out broken tree branches to run across etc to get around this lot.
I was finally on my way back to
Laverton, on the main dirt drag, when I came across a fairly new but somewhat makeshift
camp not far off the road, It wasn't there when I went in. I drove in there and there were 6 guys in 2 old Troopies. It all didn't "look right". It looked a bit "light on fer gear" so I asked what they were up to.
The Answer," Waiting for the water to go down so we can the drilling rig out - we're the drilling crew - have you got any smokes?". I said,"What drilling rig? Where?"
The Answer," Did you pass that "Hole" on the track?"
I said, "Yes".
They said,"
Well, it's the drilling rig that's at the bottom of that hole, parked just in front of the
grader, that's just in front of the dozer,,,,,,,,".
I said,"
Well I saw the
grader roof but I didn't see no
drill rig or dozer".
They said," Yeah, we know - the
grader roof is a about one metre taller than the D9 - which is about half metre shorter than the drilling rig,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"
Oh Schitt! All 3 were underwater,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I saw that hole 2 years later - it was @$%%&&*g DEEP!! It was
mine site all of its own!
The odd thing is that from one side, the approach didn't look to bad, quite a shallow approach, but it suddenly dropped off where the
grader and the D9 had been trying to extricate the drilling rig. You could have easily driven a 4by into it and then disappeared underwater in about 2 seconds!
I reckon the D9 should have been easily capable of getting out but must have had mechanical probs. They must have said, "Aagh stuff it, leave it there, we'll fix it tommorow". It just never stopped raining for the next 3 weeks!. But it was funny at the time. These blokes were thunderstruck. They just couldn't beleive what had happened to 'em!!
You can just imagine it - the
drill rig gets bogged, easy fixed, bring up the
grader. the
grader gets bogged, easy fixed, bring up the D9, the D9 breaks down, stuffed all round - we're all "Walking in the rain".
I've seen the aftermath of situations like these where things have been left to dry out before recovering 'em. The mud dries that hard around the vehicle it has to "blown out" with small charges of Powergel!
I've never taken holes in tracks for granted ever since and I always
check 'em out with a BIG stick first.
Bilbo
AnswerID:
216686
Follow Up By: GU-Nissan - Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 at 02:56
Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 at 02:56
Hi Bilbo,
Very entertaining story, reminds me of an episode that happened to me when I was working in WA a couple of years ago. I was supervising a construction crew starting a new site for a telecommunications hut near Collie, breaking new ground in the middle of a wheat farmers property. After meeting with said farmer, and being shown the best path to take through his paddocks to reach the correct spot, the crew drove their tipper (loaded to the hilt with rebar, form-ply, bobcat, whacker, generator, toolboxes etc.. etc.. etc..... ) off the marked track and it promptly bogged itself over axle deep.
Now, at this point I must describe the ground in which this truck was stuck. On the surface it was quite hard even at this time of year (August). However this was deceptive as it was only a crust about 200-250mm thick, below which was a nearly metre-thick layer of waterlogged soil? (which if disturbed or agitated in any way instantly turned into liquid!). Below this was a hard clay/gravel material that was absolutely waterproof, hence the very saturated layer above.
Well, to cut to the important bits, it took us nearly 3 days to extricate said truck from said soup, during which we very nearly lost the farmers oversize tractor as
well. Sometime during this drawn-out process, I got talking to a powerline crew working nearby, and on explaining my situation was told by their foreman about one of their bucket trucks (ie. cherry picker) that ended up in a similar state to our truck. This truck of theirs was a 6-wheel drive Hino, only 3 months old. In order to rescue it a D9 dozer was sent in, which promptly broke through the crust and sank. Another D9 dozer was procured to retrieve the first one, and it promptly sank as
well. After managing to get the second dozer out under its own steam, and in turn managing to use it to extract the first one, the decision was made to leave the Hino where it was until after the ground dried somewhat.
About 3 months later, the Hino was rescued, towed to the depot and assessed as to its condition. Apparently the only part of it worth salvaging was the boom and bucket assembly from it's back, as everything from chassis level down, such as engine, entire driveline and even the cab floor had corroded from sitting in the slop for so long. I then had to ask how they managed to carry out any powerline repairs in the middle of these paddocks with this sort of ground to contend with.
The foreman said "It's very easy actually."
" January!"
Cheers
Ross
FollowupID:
477195
Follow Up By: V8Diesel - Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 at 14:06
Sunday, Jan 21, 2007 at 14:06
Very good story Bilbo. Treacherous ground out there.
There's a couple of St Ive's rigs somewhere in the bottomless mud of
Lake Lefroy near Kambalda too. They use hovercraft mounted rigs these days.
When I was worling on the
Dampier Salt stage 2 construction project, there was a Landcruiser, excavator and dozer stuck.
FollowupID:
477288