St Barbera's Day is a celebration we have in Kalgoorlie in honour of, surprisingly,
St Barbera. She is the patron saint of mining so fits in pretty well here.
Each year there is a street parade involving floats and mining equipment from most of
the mines in the area. The first year it was held (1999), we put in a 16H grader from the
pit and a Jumbo from the underground operation. The next year we put in a bogger from
underground and two CAT 777 haul trucks (100 tonnes). We joked about putting some of the
big gear in but we all doubted whether it would fit down the main street.
We soon found out....
This photo was taken as we brought the CAT 793 haul truck along the bypass road. These
trucks carry 240 tonnes of rock and weigh around 150 tonnes empty. In all, we brought
four pieces of equipment into town and had 3 police cars, 3 escort vehicles, and yours truly
in the ute keeping an eye on things. The guys from Westrac were also around to help out if
needed. The equipment consisted of the CAT 793, a CAT 994 loader,
a CAT 777 Haul truck and the jumbo.
We had wondered how we were going to be able to bring the larger gear (the 793 and 994) into town
and let other traffic pass us. In the end, it was easier just to close the entire road for
the duration of the trip, which was only about 20 minutes. I don't think anyone minded as
it's not every day you see one of these things coming along the highway.
Traffic Island? What Traffic Island?
The only really tricky bit of the operation was turning the truck and loader into Hannan street.
Somebody had put a traffic island in the wrong spot (nothing compared to the round-about but
that's another story). In the end we straddled the traffic island and managed to get around
without any damage to the road - believe me, had we hit the island, the truck wasn't going to care :-)
This was the other challenge for the trip. The is the CAT 994 loader that we took down.
This machine was actually more risky than the truck as it was about 20 cm higher (means alot when
you have to go under powerlines - some of which Western Power were good enough to turn off
for us), and instead of 6 wheels, only has 4. This meant that the pressure of each wheel
was considerably greater than those of the CAT 793 haul truck. But what a sight....